Bike Chain

[choowy54]

Hi
I am looking to buy some bike chain in bulke. I am with Rotary and with our local bike shop we are reparing old bikes for those who can not afford them. Therse are not top quality bikes so looking for cheap bulke bike chain. I am still learning about bike repare so not sure of a standard size, that info be helpful as well.

Thanks for your help.

[redsonic]

Hi
I am looking to buy some bike chain in bulke. I am with Rotary and with our local bike shop we are reparing old bikes for those who can not afford them. Therse are not top quality bikes so looking for cheap bulke bike chain. I am still learning about bike repare so not sure of a standard size, that info be helpful as well.

Thanks for your help.

You can buy chain in bulk (by the metre) from people who supply recumbents. "Recumbent and Specialised Cycling" is where I got mine. PM me if you can't find them.

[Duck!]

Note that different gear systems use different width chains to suit both sprocket thickness and spacing in the gear cluster. Single-speed chain is quite wide, at 1/8" (3.2mm) internally, and nudging 9mm externally. Multi-gear chains get progressively narrower dependent on the number of gears in the rear cluster. 5- through to 8-sp. are 3/32" (2.4mm) internally, and 7.1mm externally. 9-sp. keeps the inner width at 2.4mm, but narrows to 6.4mm outside so it won't foul on the closer-spaced sprockets. 10-sp. shaves it down further to 5.9/2.2mm. I can't recall the details for 11 & 12-sp, but they continue the pattern of getting thinner.

[am50em]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_chain see Width subsection.

[antigee]

might be worth seeing if a local bike shop will support with heavily discounted or just passing on at wholesale in exchange for a "project supported by" on Rotary website

I (sort of) maintain a fleet of bikes used (abused) by rowing coaches and have looked around for cheap spares and ended up with 2 reliable sources (I'm Melbourne based)

cyclingdeal $11 6/7/8 speed chains https://www.cyclingdeal.com.au/buy/kmc- ... -for-s/Z92

bicyclepartswarehouse (part of Abbotsford cycles I believe)

https://www.bicyclepartswarehouse.com.a ... erby=price

my suspicion would be bulk of donated bikes will be 7/8 speed chains with maybe a few 9 speeds and single speeds....in general chain length shouldn't be an issue and 114 links should be OK ... new chains usually come with the link (or a pin) to connect

.....might not be relevant as might have covered my question would be "why are you replacing chains?" I suspect bikes donated fall into 2 camps...ridden a few times then left in garage or ridden a lot but low value to the owner and not interested in hassle of selling....first camp I would say rusty chains can be recovered either just by lubricating or soaking overnight in white vinegar from local supermarket and then lubricating. Again not sure if aware but can buy a tool (a chain checker) that tells you if a chain is worn ("stretched") and needs replacing but can be hard to do if chain rusty but lubricate a bit to free links and should be OK to do.....another issue you may or may not be aware of is that sometimes fitting a new chain on a bike that has been run with a worn chain can be a problem in that the chain will have worn the cassette (and sometimes the chainrings) and a new chain won't run that well and a new cassette is needed as well (possibly worth collecting decent looking cassettes off bikes that are too far gone for worthwhile repair?)