How NOT to Break a Bicycle Chain

The latest video out of Bernie's Garage was just posted and in it Bernie and I attempt to upgrade the chainring, chain, and seat post on my SE Bikes Monster Quad. We used the Park Tools Chainbreaker CT 3.3 and let me tell you, this is a solid tool that goes well in your bicycle tool kit. The parts are well made and it's easy to line up the link to push the pin out to "break" the chain. Bernie tried to break the chain without loosening the back wheel and that was a mistake. If you ever need to break a chain on your bike, loosen the back wheel first and that in turn releases the tension in the chain. It makes pushing that pin out much easier. Once we did that, we were golden.

We found out the hard way that the Shadow Conspiracy Half Link V2 chain DOES NOT FIT on bikes with larger gears like the #monsterquad. The stock teeth in the front is 39t and the back cassette is 20t. With this stock setup this particular chain is too short. I needed like 5 more links to make it work. I contacted Shadow Conspiracy and they told me there is currently no solution to the problem so I can't order any extra links. They do realize that this doesn't fit the big BMX bikes with higher gears than a 20" BMX bike and he said they are thinking about coming out with a longer chain. Until then I'm kinda stuck. A viewer on my YouTube Channel said the Odyssey half link chain will fit so I will need to check that out.

We were still able to upgrade the chainring to one from the Knight Bike Company and the seatpost from Black Ops. Go check the Knight Bike Co website out for some quality BMX parts for your ride!

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