1. Open the chain box and remove the master link and clip.
2. Walk to the edge of your property.
3. Give it a good hard chuck towards the highest grass you can see.
You can check my post in the Introduce Yourself forum " Blood, sweat, fun, now the tears. Help!" to read the whole story on how I came up with the above instructions. Short story is the master link failed on my motor chain around mile 70 and ruined my rear wheel. And yes the clip was on the correct side and direction. Sprocket, chain tensioner, chain tension, line up all were perfect. The master link just failed. Suspect that the clip just popped off (probably was weak from putting it on and taking it off during build) and then it was matter of time. I inspected all the bolts once a day but never looked specifically at the master link. Don't think this would have made a difference cause once the clip goes while you are riding disaster is surely soon to follow.
One thing I am curious about is why such severe damage was done to the spokes of the rear wheel? (See pics below) Have read in the forum that losing a chain seems to be a normal part of riding and no big deal, (As long as it doesn't take a piece of your anatomy with it when it goes!) just fix the chain and go but that is not what happened to me. I was just taking off and was only going about 5 miles an hour when it locked up the rear wheel and seriously bent the spokes and the rim. The chain jammed between the bolt on sprocket and the spokes.
Well just wanted to post this for the benefit of other noobies in hopes it might save them a major hassle and some expense. I could be wrong (more often than not) but a master link will not be part of my bike ever again. I went to the motorcycle shop and bought the "Mini chain press tool" in the picture below for $17 and in 15 minutes I had a chain that does not have a master link. Easy, peasy, chinesy.
Should have done it on the first build. You don't have to cut the chain either. Before I started the build I bought a bicycle chain tool form Wallyworld but it was to small for the kit chain. (The one on the right in the pic below) Heard you can break the tabs out of the middle and make it work but all you really need is the little pin knockerouter that came with it. A pair of vise grips and a hammer and this little pin and you can knock the pin out of the chain in a few seconds. Don't knock it all the way out if you can help it as it will make it a lot easier to press back together. Going to upgrade to the #41 chain in the future too.
OK. Feel better now and I'm on my way down to the bike shop to get a new wheel and pay them to remount the cassette and the tube and tire. $ouch$. May get to putt before sundown if I am lucky. Not looking forward to remounting the sprocket on the wheel. Also just got my new mirror and double pull brake lever in the mail yesterday so get to mount those today. Well one of the reasons I bought the bike and kit was to get some exercise. Between walking a mile back to work on Thursday after the chain disaster and all the work on the build, and the small amount of pedaling I have done I had to take in my belt a notch yesterday. Noobies if you are considering a build and you don't enjoy building/repairing/tinkering on the bike at least half as much as riding it then the kit is probably not for you. You know I grew up on a motorcycle in the 70s and it was no different. Ride em 3 hours and work on em an hour.
Still having fun in Boulder. To be continued.
"And now for something completely different"
