Chain length?

In article
<[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Hello,

How do you tell how long the chain should be? The chain on
my mother-in-law's bike looks like it is too long because
the rear derailer pulley rides on the the low gear. I took
a couple of links out and then it was too short, it
wouldn't shift to all the gears. How do you tell if it has
the right derailer?

If any of the drive train is not the same spec as the
original, it may be impossible to get it to work. Changing
the cogs, chainrings or derailleur may give you a
combination in which it's impossible to make all gears work.

However, you might look into getting a mountain bike
derailleur, such as a Deore. They have a very long cage,
which will allow you to use a chain long enough to handle
the big/big combination, and still take up all the slack in
the small/small combination.

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Chris Hansen said:

How do you tell how long the chain should be? The chain on
my mother-in-law's bike looks like it is too long because
the rear derailer pulley rides on the the low gear. I took
a couple of links out and then it was too short, it
wouldn't shift to all the gears. How do you tell if it has
the right derailer?

See: sheldonbrown.comderailerOpen ↗
adjustment.html#chain

But the problem may be a "B-Tension" screw misadjustment on
the rear derailleur.

See: sheldonbrown.comgloss ba n.htmlOpen ↗

Art Harris