Know your bike chain

Getting to know your bike by learning about the bike chain and its components will help you with your ability to maintain your chain and deal with the chain if something goes wrong. 

The bike chain is known as a roller chain. The roller is the only part of the chain that connects with other components of the bike. Let’s follow the continuous loop on its journey so we know where it goes and what it connects to. Make sure you follow it on your bike.

At the front :

• The chain runs through the front derailleur
• The roller of the chain connects to the chain teeth of the chain rings.  There will be 1 or 2 or 3  chainrings at the front depending on the number of gears the bike has. How many do you have? As a set these chain rings can also be called a crankset.

At the back:

• The chain connects to the chain teeth of  the sprockets.Roller chain connecting to chain teeth of the sprocket.
• Multiple sprockets (the pyramid shaped stack of sprockets) make up the rear cassette. The number of sprockets will depend on the number of speeds or gears on your bike. Generally there are single, 6, 7,8,9, 10 speed bikes. Count your sprockets. When there are multiple sprockets each sprocket may be called a cog and collectively a cogset. Confusing I know but the terminology is interchanged depending on the author, so it is important you recognise that they are talking about the same thing.
• Travels through the two jockey wheels of the rear derailleur. (You may also see/hear them called the guide and idler pulley of the rear derailleur.) It travels in a shape of a Z. The chain travels around the front of the top jockey wheel (or guide pulley) and around the back of the bottom jockey wheel (or idler pulley).

Please take note and remember the z shape and the path of the bike chain. If your chain does break this area can look very different and you can be left scratching your head trying to work out where the chain goes to enable you to fix your chain.