How to choose new chainset for KTM MTB?

[halfer]

Update: I tried another whip from Halford, and the short fixed chain shattered within the first 30 seconds. Don't buy BikeHut is the moral of that story - I should have known!

I persisted with the broken device, with a clever (if risky) strategy. Using picture wire, I fashioned a device to pull the remains of the whip and the removal tool handles together, by twisting a clothes peg in the wire (if you try this ludicrous approach, please use safety goggles and gloves, as I did). The wire shattered quite peacefully, in the event, with the cassette firmly still locked.

I have today taken the wheel to a bike shop, who found that a vice and a lever were necessary to shift it!

Interestingly, the (Shimano) cassette lock is marked with 40Nm as a suitable tightening torque. The LBS said this was excessive, and that a few clicks of the locking teeth with a good spanner is more than enough - he equated this to 15-20Nm.

 

[kinega]

Update: I tried another whip from Halford, and the short fixed chain shattered within the first 30 seconds. Don't buy BikeHut is the moral of that story - I should have known!

I persisted with the broken device, with a clever (if risky) strategy. Using picture wire, I fashioned a device to pull the remains of the whip and the removal tool handles together, by twisting a clothes peg in the wire (if you try this ludicrous approach, please use safety goggles and gloves, as I did). The wire shattered quite peacefully, in the event, with the cassette firmly still locked.

I have today taken the wheel to a bike shop, who found that a vice and a lever were necessary to shift it!

Interestingly, the (Shimano) cassette lock is marked with 40Nm as a suitable tightening torque. The LBS said this was excessive, and that a few clicks of the locking teeth with a good spanner is more than enough - he equated this to 15-20Nm.

what a nightmare, at least I am prepared for when I need to do this!

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

We use one of these. Much better than the old school chain whips. This one sits on the smallest ring and never slips!

 

[halfer]

I might get one of those Martin, I've seen them before but didn't realise what they were. Much better idea!

That said, I am not sure it would not have helped in this case. When I took my wheel in, the mechanic used a good quality whip which did not slip, and he simply could not apply the necessary pressure by hand (and he is much beefier than me!). A vice removes the elasticity from the equation, I imagine.

I still think my wire idea, in the absence of a vice, would work. Ideally I'd use sections of chain link (the ordinary kind rather than the bike kind) with some sort of long bolt/nut to pull them together. This persistent force should be able to overcome the power of the locking mechanism.