Every Cyclist Should Own This Cheap Tool

I thought you were waxing your chains now?
That one looks filthy

Grinding paste mentioned!

i only replace it when it snaps 😂

If more people subscribe can you fix the camera focus?

Great info. 👏👏

While this tool does help, there is an important thing to know:

Chain wear is not the same as chain stretch. When the chain stretches - it will ruin your sprockets, this tool will help you diagnose this and you can prevent it. All good.

Chain wear though....you can't see it with this tool. And the problem is that the rollers within the links are going to start wearing out regardless of the chain stretch. This is why you should change your chain regardless of the chain stretch.

Only Ollie can take the joy out of 'jumping, skipping and play'

Aww, poo. A chain wear tool? That's one more thing for me to worry about (😁). Fortunately, my grotty old bike is not the kind of glamorous recreational thing that appears on proper cycling channels such as GCN. It's a 55 lb steel-framed monstrosity from Halfords, now laden with panniers and racks for carrying groceries. It also tows a homemade trailer which can haul 150 lbs of gubbins, dooh-dahs, wotsits and stuff.

I'm not proud of it. It's a tool. The bike cost me £130, brand new, over 15 years ago. [A direct replacement would cost precisely the same - £130 - which is probably less that most peeps reading this spent on their carbon-fibre and titanium water bottle mount...]

I ride 70 miles a week, every week, in West Yorkshire in the gloomy north of England, where every wind is a headwind and the hills only go up, never down [joke]. The bike's done well over 50,000 miles. I'm skint, so the poor thing gets treated appallingly. I keep a chain on until it start missing gears. Then, rather than swap the chain, I just switch to a different gear and keep pedalling. I currently have access to three gears from a total of eighteen, so it may be getting close to the time when I consider thinking about buying some new bits...

Yes, I'm a bad, bad, BAAAAD girl. Um... is waxing a chain anything like waxing your legs?🤔

I have the CC2 from Park Tools. It works fine on my older bike, but the pins will not fit into my Campy 13-speed chain. What would you recommend for us riders on the bleeding edge?

I would like to know which bike lube. You recommend for those of us that don't wax

Is there any different procedure for a flat-top 12-speed chain? (a local shop told me this, and I've never heard that).

"Disassembled"? Oh dear! I think you mean dismantled ;-)

What is going on with that chain, you were trying to hide the maker with dirt?

I don't know how do you use mathematical expression of percentages but in my opinion if you use percentage there is 💯 % of one whole unit. That means if you want to say half of sth (1/2 of whole piece) it is 50 % not point five (0.5). And the same is about 3/4 of one piece it is mathematically 75 % in percentage (not 0.75% as you say). Because you and the tool speeks about extension by one chain segment not percents. But anyway. Thank you for the correct way how to measure the chain! I think a lot of riders keep one of those tool but not everybody knows how to use ut in right way 👍

Chain gauge tool is essential, and I can't overstress the importance of maintaining a clean drive train. I've been using a wax-based chain lubricant for over 25 years, and just like Mr Miyagi said in The Karate Kid: "Wax on, wax off!" Your chain, chainrings, and cassette should never feel greasy or leave black marks when you touch them. Wax rules, but only if kept clean!😁

This was excellent. I love that you described exactly why the CC-4 is preferable. I worked with the mechanic who invented this type of chain checker in conjunction with Shimano, back at the Bike Gallery in Portland, OR. The other options at the time were not nearly precise enough. We used the prototypes in the shop and immediately got much better outcomes for our high-mileage riders, all-weather commuters, and big-hammer racers. It's one of many tools invented by the only genuine mechanical genius I fixed bikes with in a 20-year career. Park copied many of them. But if it leads to riders having better experiences riding their bikes (and supports always-beleaguered mechanics), that's what matters. Thanks Ollie!

I've missed the point when my SRAM Eagle 12 speed chain went from almost no wear to, suddenly, 0.8% wear (as measured by digital calipers and by the total chain length). I'm glad to report that with the new chain there is no skipping. I think the recommendations for 0.5% on 11 and 12 speed drivetrains are somewhat conservative.

I bought one years ago when I had a chain that wasn't shifting well. (It was a Everest with Al side plates)
It turned out that the chain wasn't longer than original, but it had a lot of side wear.
There are two things to watch out for.

I think most important is what chain do you use. Connex SX, KMC sl gold, Shimano Dura ace

SRAM AXS chains should be replaced at .8% wear. The manufacturer’s technical guide specifically indicates: “Flattop chains last longer than 10/11 speed road chains. Replacing a Flattop chain too early may prematurely wear the chainring and cassette.”

As a side note, they are very durable, I wipe the chain with microfiber cloth, top up Silica SS drip-on wax once a week (=every 300-500km depending on dry vs wet conditions) and get easily 16K km out of a Force 12s flattop chain.

You have the dislike button disabled, I thought I should let you know... No, you do not need that tool... You guys are smart, you can do better than this. I really enjoy your videos, please try harder to keep them interesting...

Is it possible to check SRAM 12sp chain with CC-4?

2 x grinding pastes! GCN bingo!

Thanks for the vid ollie, I didnt know that about different speed groupsets having different wear tolerances 👍

25,873 km on my waxed KMC chain for my trainer bike. It's only just getting to show any measurable weak. Start clean, use Silca super secret, and your drivetrain will last longer than you will.

4k and minimal wear, meanwhile I go through ( cheap ) chains every 800km or so ( sunrace chains, on mtb with a Tongshen tsdzb2b so lots more torque going through that chain then I normally would put through it ).

Now those chains are dirt cheap, so I don't really mind that much ( as long as I do as advertised in the video and change them before my cassette wears out, since then my wallet hurts more ).

Pinion drive and Gates belt stops all the gears from slipping and clacking and getting filthy and out of adjustment. Forever.

The CC-4 chain checker is not cheap. You can buy two or three chains for the price of the tool. Anything more than a 9 or 8 spd cassette is a money pit. Stick to 5 or 6 spd and save money. Better still go single speed.
The CC-4 is better because it takes up the slack in worn rollers that do not contribute to chain "stretch". The other chain checkers do not allow for this and they indicate more than the real wear. You could be tossing a chain that is still good.

So I checked my chain and just before a trip abroad got a new one which I changed at the beginning of that trip. Unfortunately the cassette was already heavily worn out and the new chain didn’t work properly. This ended up with expensive cassette replacement and lost riding time while abroad. So it is important you understand cassette wear also.

My chain checker is my bike mechanic

Store inside a baggie/ziplock bag, and be sure it does not touch other metal tools as it will cause galvanic corrosion

Except if your an intelligent cyclist and you ride Campagnolo, the you learn to use a vernier caliper

We WANT the GCN channel back👀😊😊😊😊😊😊😊🙏🙏🙏🙏

While this video is good and informative, I'd like to point out your nasty dirty chain in this demo, as well as "high tolerance" misleading the purpose of a CNC machined tool. It's highly precise with low tolerances, meaning it will be more accurate.

Sorry, I don't usually do this, but this irked me a bit too much this morning.

Keep it up, rest is good 🙂

Alls u need is a normal ruler.A new chain will line up on 1 of the rivets at exactly the 12 inch mark.If that rivet starts to completely clear the 12 inch mark u need a new one. Been doing this for 30 years and never had a problem. Try it!

My favourite chain tool is a ruler. No need for extra tools.

Great timing! My chain checker just came in the mail. I was hoping for a GCN video with tips :-)

FAKE, Its Fake, you can tell because, any bike bought at walmart wont even last until the chain is worn out

Bravo.......I'm old school.....chain check......front big sprocket .......lift chain......1/8 inch......new cahin.........cheers

I bought a Trek Singletrack 930 brand new in 1996. Put tons of miles on it, on and off trail. FFWD to 2008 and I'm using it as my commuter to my job at a bicycle shop. The mechanic put that chain wear checker on and it went completely flat against the chain. The cassette and chainrings have worn with the chain as well. I have no issues withe gears skipping, even under power climbing a hill in near top gear.
Not saying this Park tool doesn't work - just saying that when everything has worn together in over 10k miles of riding, it somehow still works together. If the chain goes, though, pretty sure I'll have to replace everything, lol.
Best bike I've ever owned.

Agreed but you could have done this video in 2 minutes

Great video!

Buy a Chinese digital caliper. 10 pounds and far more accurate.

chain doesnt become longer. its the rollers that become looser because of wear and tear.

If your cassette or crankset have worn to some level, you will also find you can´t fit your new chain on them. That is what my bike mechanics told me after I failed to replace the chain by myself. Now I just take his suggestion: Keep riding until your cassette or crankset can not grab your chain tight and correctly, then replace all of them. Every day I ride 30km to work and it takes me at least 6000km to do such replacement (I don´t wax the chain because wax can not hold the wet winter weather in north Germany). Such tool is totally useless and just waste of your money. Don´t be victim of bike industry.

The Park Tool CC-4 is a great tool. I'll disagree that the tool needs to be inserted at an inner link and not at an outer link. The CC-4 I have has a diagram right on the tool that shows inserting it between outer links. But it's a moot point. It doesn't matter if the tool is inserted between inner links or outer links. The tool pushes the rollers tight to the same side of the pins at all three places it's designed for. All the links have the same spacing (outer links don't wear out, the wear is inside the rollers and mostly where the pins contact the inner links) so the wear will be the same no matter where on the chain you place the tool, EXCEPT...if the tool bridges the chain's master link, then if the master link has worn differently than all the other links in the chain, it'll affect the chain stretch measurement. The other Park Tool in the video is not recommended because it pushes the rollers in opposite directions, which can result in showing the chain has more wear that it actually has, plus that tool only spans a few links. The CC-4 spans a lot more, reflecting the cumulative effect of many links, not just a few.

The picture on top of the CC-4 is wrong as in the picture, the tool is placed on the outer link :/

"high" tolerance? This is backwards. Do you want a tool with 10% or 1% tolerance? "low" tolerance is what you want.

Which is your favourite tool? Tell us in the comments 👇