Chain Suck… Sucks!
Chain Suck… Sucks!
I have a Ventana El Padrino an within weeks of building her up I started getting chain suck. I checked it out, run through the gears, it had no issues and shifted perfectly on the bike stand. Back out on the trail I got the chain suck again.
Most of my chain suck happened while I was exiting corners while under torque in the middle chain ring. Back in the garage I inspected all the teeth and noticed that the chain wasn’t seating properly on one tooth of the middle chain ring. The tooth wasn’t bent, but it was ever so slightly cupped.
I replaced the middle chain ring with a spare I had laying around and it worked fine for awhile, but it too started getting chain suck. After inspection I found it too had one tooth ever so slightly cupped. I compared the two middle chain rings and the cupped tooth and noticed that the worn tooth was in the same location on both chain rings.
I left the chain sucking middle ring on and went for another ride so I could figure out where my crank arm’s position was when the chain suck started. On every occasion the chain suck started while my right crank was in the 4 o’clock position while under torque.
Two days latter I had a brand new middle chainring installed (same manufacture as the previous two chain rings). Within a three weeks I started getting chain suck again. I compared all three chain rings and they all had the same slightly cupped tooth, same location and it always happened under torque in the 4 o’clock position.
So I switched to a stronger middle chain ring that could take the torque and stress I was putting it under. Since then the chain suck stopped completely and I haven’t had any issues with it what so ever.