Does BMX Care About Chain Alignment?!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2021
- Chain alignment on a BMX bike...does it matter?!
Chain alignment isn't a commonly talked about subject within the world of BMX. While it is very important in some areas like racing, freestyle BMX riders don't seem to pay too much attention to it. In this video I ask the question of whether or not BMX as a whole and as an industry cares about chain alignment.
Do you? Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you for choosing to spend your time watching one of my videos!
If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend and let me know in the comments below. If you’re new, please consider to like and subscribe!
Consider Subscribing - bit.ly/Brant_Moore
If this helped you in some way, consider supporting the channel with my Join button for a membership or through one of the links below!
Save 25% on CBD products and help the channel by using code "BMX" at www.sagestreettrading.com/aces/brant_moore/
/ @brant_moore
Patreon - / brantmoore
@Brant_Moore Clothing - teespring.com/stores/brant-moore
Cashapp - $brantmoore1
Sponsors - Park Tool, Alienation BMX, Brimstone Bicycles, Ride Concepts, Stacked BMX Shop, Aces Joint Repair
Audio Only Podcasts/BMX News - anchor.fm/brant-moore
BMX News - bit.ly/bmx-news
BMX For Beginners - bit.ly/bmx-for-beginners
BMX Geometry Basics - bit.ly/bmxgeometrybasics
BMX Tips & Tricks - bit.ly/bmxtips
BMX Brake Guide - bit.ly/bmx-brake-guide
BMX Geometry Explained - bit.ly/bmxgeometry
Talking BMX - bit.ly/talkingbmx
BMX Jams & Events - bit.ly/bmxevents
BMX Games - bit.ly/bmxgames
Rider Spotlight - bit.ly/bmx-spotlight
Lip Lords - bit.ly/liplordsplaylist
Podcast Episodes - bit.ly/bmxpodcast
Trails Series - bit.ly/bmxtrails
New Skatepark Series - bit.ly/spohnranch
If you're local and need bike parts, shop at Brimstone Bicycles in Canal Fulton Ohio. If you're not local, check out Stackedbmxshop.com for what you need!!
My Equipment - www.amazon.com/shop/brant_moore
Instagram - / brant_moore
#bmx - บันเทิง
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 69 | คู่เอก "กุหลาบดำ vs นาบิล"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PNM6U8e_HMo/mqdefault.jpg)
I have been riding BMX since 1980.....yeah, I am old!
I worked in a shop for many years, a BMX shop called Twin City BMX in fact, and I can tell you that the BMX industry does not care about chain alignment or any other accurate size for that matter.
Yes, some companies are better than others and generally the more money you spend the more dialed and accurate things are.
But the rest of the cycling industry has things pretty dialed. On my mountain bikes I can swap out cranks, chainrings and so on and get good alignment......with one thing in mind......you know what's compatible with what. This is where the rest of the industry is tougher, there are no real standards so you have to know what part works for your particular frame and component group. And that can be a pain, especially these days with such a supply chain issue and parts shortage.
For BMX, I recently went to put 990 style brakes on my bike (Odyssey Springfield) and they didn't fit without a bunch of tweaks. The brake posts were welded closer to the outside of the seat stay and not closer to the inside. So this meant the brake pads wouldn't touch the rims before the brake was maxed out. So I had to find brake pads with longer bolts so I could put spacers in to make the pads hit the rim sooner. Then I noticed the brake arms almost hit the seat tube,.so I had to mess with things even more to get it to work. In the end, the leverage isn't right and so to get the brakes to work I have to squeeze harder than I would like.
I have had Springfield's on other bikes and they were so easy to set up and flawless.
And just like here, I recently put on new cranks and yes, the drive side spacer was too wide so I didn't use it and the teeth on my sprocket are really close to the frame.
I once got a frame with a 27.2 seat tube and I had to bore out the inside of the seat tube to actually get a true 27.2 seat post in it. This was a higher end frame too.
There is a reason BMX stuff is so cheap compared to the rest of the bicycle industry. You can get a frame for $420 and most people consider that expensive! It's not......that is really damn cheap! Any high end mountain bike or road bike frame starts at over $1k and the norm is more like $2 - $3k.
A complete top of the line BMX bike, which is made in China, costs $800 or so. Any other top of the line bike and you easily hit $5k or higher.
So I don't expect all that much precision from the BMX industry to be honest. Not at the prices they sell stuff for and not from stuff made overseas.
Put your hat back on bro dafuq
Really awesome , and very informative post my man. Thank you! Being away from BMX for around 40 years , while I raced the bikes with motors.....things have really changed on these bikes. Bottom brackets , headsets , 400 different sizes of seat posts.....gets frustrating trying to put one together!
It should matter on any bike you ride. Who wants to their bike to sound and feel like 💩?
Great video dude. I installed profile cranks with their bottom bracket set up. I cared before about my alignment
and figured out after my chain ring started to wear really fast as it was not a problem before. I checked the alignment and yes it was off. I included both cone spacers and realized before I saw your video but it reassured me that that cone spacer created the offset and does not need to be included. one should care as if your putting it together just do it right the first time. I trusted profile had it all worked out and just installed it. got burned and found out after two hard rides and the hard way including the noise that my chainring received damage . thanks keep it up and keep it aligned.
dialed bikes feel like a dream
Yes I do , I always make sure my chain is lined up with my driver , as long as I can remember building my own bikes since like 92-93 , and I have always done my best to actually line em up . Great video Brant man
Its cool to hear how many people do actually care about chain alignment in bmx!
The keychain was such an awesome chain. It sucks they quit making it
Thank you for addressing this! It's amazing how little information there actually is available on this type of stuff. I started researching chainline and hub widths because I'd like to do a custom build someday with a disc brake rear hub, and holy shit is it difficult to find information. In the end I decided I would need to use a 135mm dirt jumper hub to do what I wanted, but that got even more confusing because some dirt jumpers use bmx style cranks / sprockets, and some use mtb style.
Yes it matters! Many reasons come to mind from how the bike feels to premature wear on your driver, chain, bearings, etc. Well you know. That why you just put out another great segment. Thanks again brother!
Thank you man!
Loose chains are the trend. Alignment doesn’t matter as much when everything is loose, or at least that’s how it feels.
Trend yes, but a loose chain that's off track is more likely to come off doing crankflips
This video literally had me get up from the couch and go look at my bike. Fortunately been riding/building my bike since early 2000's and I must do this subconsciously or get lucky
Honestly this helped me. I have a haro and the spacers made my sprocket off center amd ot broke 2 of my chains. I just took put my spacers on the drive side so my sproket is on the bottombracket. And its so muck smoother thank you so much. I knpw this is an old video but ur videos always help. Also chain alignment is so nessary
I love the update and still have the courage to finish your idea/lesson. I wanted to use both spacers for aesthetic purposes but the engineer inside me couldn't let me. I'm obsessive compulsive when it comes to evenness that being said you can feel the difference with a misaligned wheel/crank.
I have a nate Williams cinema sprocket with an 1/8 offset. Worked well on my setup, eastern shovelhead.
Super easy and fast
Great vid. Thx
It's a balancing act between trying to get the chain alignment correct, while also ensuring that the crank arms are the same distance away from the frame on both side. Like this video, I found that on my frame the sprocket has to be nearly pressed against the frame to be aligned with the driver. However, if I do this, it means I can no longer use the larger cone spacer that comes with my BB kit on the non-drive side, because if I do, then the non-drive crank arm will be significantly further away from the frame than the drive-side crank arm.
To me that's unacceptable. I need the crank arm spacing away from the frame to be exactly the same on both sides or it will throw off my balance for manuals etc. So I am currently just living with the poor chain alignment. I think the correct conclusion is the industry just doesn't care that much. I wish they did. As long as the chain doesn't skip though, I suppose its not that hard or expensive to replace a worn driver or sprocket once and awhile, but I still...
You can use spacers between your crank and sprocket to move the drive side further away. That's what I did
Very insightful! Will check mine with the FreeCoaster VS Cassette
That will be interesting to see the differences in where the teeth on the driver are located
I just added a new sprocket, cranks, and wheels on my bike and I redid everything. No cone spacer on the drive side and used the smaller cone spacer on the non-drive side. Added 1mm small spacer plus the sprocket adapter on the drive side and one 3mm spacer to the non-drive side between the crank arm and the cone spacer. Both arms are about 3/8ths of an inch from the chain stays and the chain alignment is straight. Pedals smoother and I don’t have to worry about putting undo wear on the sprocket or driver. After spending $425 on wheels, the last thing I want to have to do is spend another $80 on a driver for my freecoaster because the chain alignment messed it up.
Well aren't those spacers for keeping dust and debris getting into the bb bearings? I had an odyssey bb before that required it and it had a lip on it with a smaller spacer that had to go behind the outer spacer. I had on my 2016 haro downtown with hutch three piece crank and haro sprocket.
4:16 having the dust spacer behind the chain ring as you can see puts the chain alignment out and put sideload on the chain can cause it to snap easy 🙌🚲💨
Absolutely care! I imported the last 23tooth sprocket on the planet (that I could find) as well as a Freenight hub. So I don’t wanna wear them out. You were talking about offset alignment- rear wheel alignment also very important. I’m having trouble with my rear staying straight and have been looking for simple wheel slammers or something to help. Might do the Alfredo Mancuso ghetto version of small bit of metal between the axle and dropouts
Alienation is working on something that will help you there. Check their site!
@@Brant_Moore thanks I’ll check it out
Odyssey no longer includes both sides cone spacers, only non drive side, same factory as Sunday, so removing the drive side and replacing with a small regular spacer does the trick, I think it was intended this way, Im riding an OG wave frame and is exactly the same BB width, so same trick works, nice video man!
It's the chain snapping on me due to this very issue. Thanks for the video.
I know profile lists the spacer set as drive and non drive side, I've always only used one on the non drive side with an "off brand" thinner one on the drive side, and depending on the style of the chai stays I'll run the smaller on on the NDS so my ares are closer and equal distance from my CS and I do take chain alignment into consideration.
good food for thought and our own analysis at home. speaking of chains, how often do you need to adjust for chain stretch? It seems I do it pretty often, but Idk the norm. Could it be because I'm over 220lb?
I do mind my chain alignment, more so that i have the supreme chain on my bike. As i've noticed that supreme chain eats up sprocket and driver teeth faster than any other chain (full links are still the safest ones if you also mind that.)
I was a few mm off one time due to the cone nut unscrewing from the repeated removal and adjustment of the chain tension. For how long, i do not know.
But i have noticed a significant wear on the outside teeth of my fang socket drive.
I have just repacked and tightened my hubs cone nut yesterday and i can already feel the difference. My chain and sprocket doesn't make cracking and snapping sound anymore.
Might i also add that having a socket drive helps in reducing the uneven wear of my sprocket. I can just rotate the sprocket to where there is no significant wear on the stress area where it usually does, particularly 45° up my forward crank arm.
The sad thing is, socket drive seems to going out of style.
Brant it’s crazy I literally just went through this , I literally bought new cranks and and three new sprockets because I was afraid i was putting pressure on my mew bad revolution from the chain being misaligned first I thought my spindle was bent so got the new cranks, then I got three different sprockets all three different thickness and still had the issue
I was also told I wasn’t suppose to run a cone spacer on the sprocket side. I finally got it all dialed in and didn’t need to buy any of it lol but was a good learning lesson.
I forgot to mention I finally got my alignment right with my mew fit 24 mm blunt cranks and using a cone spacer on the non drive side and a smaller cone spacer on the drive with one spacer on the crank side of the sprocket, but I do feel like bad chain alignment would put unnecessary wear on the freecoaster drive system if a freecoaster hub
Nice video
Bro thanks so much this helped Alot!! My bike chain kept skipping and i thought it was the teeth on my sprocket nope turns out my chain was not aligned and i had too many spacers :( so i removed the cone spacer and left the thin fat spacer in like you and now my bmx bike is rideable :)!!
Just got my boy a Haro Midway the other day from DansComp. He broke two chains in half an hour because of chain alignment. Took the spacers out and it runs like butter. 👌🏻
I’ve read on vitalbmx about bsd alvx frames and I quote: “The BB shell is wider than most frames Ive had (Kink Whip, Verde Radia, Premium Josh Harrington Sig., United RN3) so dialing in the chain alignment was hard.” I took out KINDA. To me there is no kinda. It’s either hard or not. There is no in between. I have not put this frame together yet. This October I will. Good information as always bro. I don’t think they care to much. Though they should. Like torque specs.
Yeah I was about to get a new hub.. I thought I was putting to much pressure on my cassete bearings and constricting movement from tightening the bolts … turns out it was my chain alignment.. after taking spacers out on drive side and straightening chain.. it’s butter now , smooth as can be … chain alignment is a big deal .. anyways thanks for this .. because your right , not much info on the pros and cons of this ..
I own a qtp network frame . I wanna run 28y sprocket but its touching the chainstay. Is there any solution fof this other than switching to 25t
Adding more spacers between the sprocket and the bottom bracket
I have the same with SE Gaudium frame. I care so I need to make the same You did.
is one crank arm now closer to the frame than the other, if so then this could effect balance on manuals and so on?
I’m sure that’d have some kinda effect but it’d probably be just like having pegs on only one side or a brake lever in how fast you get used to it
I know if my chain on any of my bikes isn’t aligned right and there making a crunch noise or popping that would so piss me off to no end 😬
And I am looking at an odyssey keychain hollow pin , super sweet
What’s up if your chain has a loss spot and a tight spot I got the new kink whip and I Carnt tell weather it’s a bent sprocket of to many spacers
Loosen the bolt that connects your crank to sprocket and balance the chain slack top and bottom... then retighten the bolt.
I do personally care, I've ridden a bike before with bad chain alignment and it was noticeable for sure imo. Once I had a chance to build my dream build I was able to dial it in properly and I really just like both knowing that it won't wear out too quick and just how quiet and smooth it is now.. I recommend to everyone take the little bit of extra time to dial in everything you can on your bike!
You actually inspired me with this video. To upgrade with confidence. To change My drivetrain. And I have 2 mm or probably 1mm clearance sprocket to frame. And I did it it's my dream bike. Try American muscle. Hey mickey you might like IT. Peace out. Lol
That spacer theory is next level shit Brant. You might be onto something.
The random things ya stumble upon working on bikes. Haha
Yeah I've always been focused on chain alignment. I think it's important.
i almost pay attention to my chain alignment and may plate alignment to avoid touch to the frame CS and Tire. it's doesn't matter if your chain not perfectly stright just dont do so far, to prevent safety and nice rollin between plate and chain in the cs area.
Can a 30t sprocket work on a Sunday Soundwave v3?
Yes
If you put the dust cover behind the chain ring it pushes the chain alignment out so use spaces instead I’ve always said this to people in the past before 🙌👍🚲💨
Well, they make chain tensioners which align your chain as well. I won't ride a bike without them. That shit needs to be what I call tight enough and straight.
You're god-damned right!!!!
After watching this I checked my chain and it wasn’t aligned. No wonder it didn’t feel smooth before. So I removed a spacer on the drive side which brought the 28T really close to the frame but cranks are luckily still even on both sides. pedals like butter now. I think I would generally struggle w aligning the chain on 28T sprockets with most bmx frames.
It's crazy how many things there are that can make a bike feel like crap without us even realizing it!
Glad to hear you were able to make yours feel better man! Luckily its a pretty simple process, just takes a little time to dial it in
@@Brant_Moore thanks for another insightful video! Learnt so much from ya😆
I pay alot of attention to chain alignment personally. I don't want any part to wear out prematurely and I hate unwanted noises. Some crank arms need the branded spacers some don't. As example. I went Frome stolen cranks to snafu cranks and needed the branded spacers with the snafu cranks.
I'll have to send you a pic on insta or something, but my bike is almost the same thing that I put together back in 03. The cone spacer on my drive side of my old Profile cranks is WAY shorter than that one. In fact, the one on my non drive side is about the size of the one you had on your drive side.
I care about chain alignment on all my bikes, including my bmx.
I'm designing my ultimate bike. And from what I have learnt is I'm going all race parts and testing If I can break em. Light strong... hopefully.
But not 44 16... 33 12 imo is best or 28 9 if possible and I have been considering width and bottom brackets alignment. Depends on frame sizing, spindle size, hub width, and spacers. I want perfect. So this is helpful. I wanna know your dream build. Even Euro bb vs mid pressed
Ahh man tight spots are a pain, my issue seems to be the driver🙄 old hub super old so federal motion freecoaster soon
My TOtal Hangover H4 can't take more than 23t sprocket or it'll hit the frame...
I try to keep it as aligned as possible to increase sprocket and driver longevity.
Read the instructions. It's in there.
My buddy’s and I bring this topic up every time we get a chain not about the sprocket and driver being miss aligned, but how we like to ride slammed with 28t and with our back ends our chains are either to tight to where it cause damage or so loose it slaps the frame just pedaling but I refuse to not ride slammed and I also want 28:9 g/r ….all well one day
Why does it have to be slammed ?
I like slammed with 28t. also had the same problem as you so what I did not saying this will work for you but I've tested this on a few different frames now and its worked perfectly. So I switched from using the odyssey Keychain wich is my favorite to the shadow Supreme chain and I've had a slammed wheel on a few different frames now hopefully it works for you. Also I run female axel bolts on the back wheel making getting the chain off easily without messing up teeth.
As long as it doesn’t bind it’s fine
Can you make a video about the location of brakes seat stay brakes, chain stay brakes,does it matter where you put your brakes? Is 1 good for the street/park and other is good for trails? Thank you👍🏻🤘🏻
Dude I think brakes on the chainstay work better. What's your opinion I would like to know
I wouldn’t break it down to type of riding because good brakes are good brakes.
It’s somewhat accepted that chainstay brakes give you more braking power
@@Brant_Moore Keychain represent. Hopefully they bring that chain back. What do you prefer your wheel at the center of your dropouts or slammed
Man I really hope they do. My only thing about axle location in the drop out is that its not so far back that it's unsafe. I don't really have a preference other than that
I care a lot!
Um.... I think you're supposed to be able to transfer those BB cones from left to right so it gives you some adjustability, and yes I care about my chain alignment.
I don't think it super really matters .I mean how much side to side flex does a chain on 1x11gear road or mountain bike get
And how often do they replace them? Usually pretty regularly. I know some people who are swapping chains every 3-6 months in their MTBs. They also tend to snap of they get to much torque going uphills and such.
Chain alignment in my opinion is very important.
I think this is too subjective depending on the parts you have and I personally don't pay attention to it too much unless it's super far off
Was this much of an issue until the recent interest in massive tires?
Idk how much tires affect it since the alignment relies on the sprocket and driver
@@Brant_Moore I could be mistaken, but I think that the OP was referring to the fact that wider tires have caused frames to be designed with a wider tire clearance. Therefore, if someone installs a 28T sprocket, the "sensitive" distance between the sprocket and frame inevitably becomes an issue. For example, if all frames were designed for a 'maximum' width of 2.25" tires, this probably would not be be a problem when using a 28T sprocket. However, most frames are able to accommodate 2.4" tires.
That’s a good point that I didn’t think about.
Things like investment cast yokes for chainstays seem to be accounting for sprocket and tire clearance at the same time but there is this gray area of time where it could be a part of the issue.
Maybe ease of chain alignment was sacrificed for tire clearance and the new tech is coming out as a result so that the best of all worlds can be achieved. Hard to say for sure, but once it all works together on most frames I guess it won’t be an issue anymore
@@Brant_Moore yeah before the frames were not being re-tweaked for the larger tire trend the spacing options for alignment were less finicky. When the frame didn’t swoop out to accommodate the possibility of a massive tire alignment was probably easier.
Hopefully it gets better as the tech improves. I’m not super worried about it since it works the way I showed in the video but it would be super annoying if I couldn’t get proper chain alignment at all
Doesn’t the drive side cone spacer also act as a dust cap?
Using only the small spacers seems like it would leave the drive side bearing exposed to the elements, even if it is sealed. Here in Vegas, dust is definitely an issue and it gets into everything…
Then there’s the question of having your crank arms evenly spaced along the chain stay. With the cone spacer on the non-drive side, it would be pushed much farther away from the frame than the drive side crank arm 🤔🤔🤔
You’re making an argument to my point that bmx doesn’t care about chain alignment. If it did this wouldn’t be a conversation because NDS cone spacers wouldn’t cause bad chain alignment. Odyssey doesn’t even include a NDS spacer in their BB kis
Kits*
@@Brant_Moore I agree 💯. I’ve been out in the garage looking at chain alignment on all six of my bikes since watching this video. I was always more worried about the crank arms clearing the chain stays evenly and not looking at the chain path.
The three (24, 26, 29) bikes with freewheels look dead on even with the cones. The smaller (22, 20) with cassettes are definitely off, with the chains going inside to out. I’ll try removing the drive side cones and adjusting with the smaller spacers to bring the sprockets more in line with the cogs.
Love your content bro and always learn something new. Cheers 🍻
I will now (pay attention) lol
Ive alway been anal about chain alignment. I literally just run the top hat washer and nothing else on the disc side. Have done for the past twenty years.
Can I bring my bmx bike
We BMX.
Of course we don't care about chain alignment 😅.
Shoot yeah - I care! Also care that the crank arms have equal distance out from the chain-stays.
I also have an old thin cone spacer for the drive side. It covers the bearing and is super thin. Looks cleaner that way.
It definitely would look a lot cleaner that way. Seems like all of the super skinny cone spacers I've had/seen are 19mm. Is yours 22mm?
Maybe you only need 1 but it takes 2 bud.
Keep the spare to replace after you wreck the first one. Align your chain, the bike will pedal easier.
Get a hair cut
So u look better
I'm.not gay or hitting on you just saying get hair cut So it doesn't look like you have a toupee mess on your head