Facing a puzzling rise in chain suck on new 1x setups

I've seen more clients coming in with this issue lately. It struck me (after the third one this week) that maybe the narrow-wide chainrings aren't meshing well with certain chains. Curious if others have found a reliable combo.

3 comments

3 Comments

cameron_sullivan711mo ago

Could it be my lack of bike mechanic skills causing this?

gonzalez.anthony1mo ago

Totally feel you on the bike mechanic skills thing. I messed up my rear derailleur limits so bad once that it threw the chain into the spokes, and it was 100% my fault for not double checking the simple stuff. Like what @jordan_bell75 said, it's wild how often the problem is just a basic setup step done wrong. That stuff is way easier to get wrong than people admit, especially if you're learning as you go. I bet your issue is something small and annoying like that, not some huge mechanical failure.

jordan_bell751mo ago

Funny you should mention chain suck, because I just dealt with a nasty case on my own bike last month. It was a new chainring and chain, but the shop had installed the ring backwards by mistake. Took me ages to figure out why it was eating chains. Makes you wonder how many issues are just simple setup errors. I've seen more than one bike where the chain line was just plain wrong from the start.