Chains: what are they made of?

Your chain is made up of a simple string of components, flexible enough to wrap itself around your sprockets but strong enough to pull your back wheel around when you stamp hard on the pedals.

Each link is made up of a small selection of components – two sets of 8-shaped plates, a rivet that allows each set of plates to rotate relative to its neighbour and a doughnutshaped roller encircling the middle section of the rivet. Each link of the chain sits in turn in the valley between two of the teeth on your chainring, and so gets pulled forwards as the chainring rotates. The chain meshes in turn with the teeth on your sprocket, each link sitting in a valley and pulling against the back face of a sprocket tooth to drag your wheel forward. The mating surface between tooth and chain link is very small, under high pressures and often dirty – a classic recipe for wear. But careful design means that…

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Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques (Digital) - 1 Issue, Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques 3rd Edition

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