New chain tool arrived
I had pretty much forgotten about my chain tool trouble until recently when the bicycle crash forced me to empty out all the junk I had been carrying around in my now broken panniers. One of the items poured out from these bags was the barely-usable chain tool which I had been carrying since I replaced the chain, just in case it turned out that I had screwed something up (which, it turns out, I did: I ended up having to push a pin back in while on the road). I held the broken chunk of cheap metal in my hand and, after staring at it for a moment, mentally wrote off Topeak and the inherent hassle. Sure, their customer service response was friendly, but, it would seem, ultimately unhelpful. I set the broken tool aside and resolved to buy a new one in a few months when I start caring about chain wear again. As it turns out, my resolution was premature. I returned home this evening to a package at my doorstep from Todson, makers of Topeak brand bicycle accessories, containing a new Chainbot chain tool.
This new tool is the same thing as the old tool, of course, so I’m a little bit wary. I’m still not sure of the exact mechanics of the first one’s failure, but I’ll provide my hypotheses after this handy picture:
The tool is designed to work with two different chain widths: 3/32?, used on most multi-speed bicycles, and 1/8?, used on single speeds. The smaller chains fit in the fins at the top of the picture and are pushed down against that thick metal part as the pin is extracted. Wider chains fit on the lower pair of fins and are pushed against the upper fins. As I note in the letter to Topeak, I used the pair of fins closest to the thick metal part. There’s a problem with this design that’s shared by most chain tools: as the pin is pushed (up in this picture), this pair of links will twist down and press against the tops of the fins which, in my case, caused one of them to snap off. It’s either that or I did such a bad job of chain removal that I twisted the tool apart. Either way, the tool shouldn’t be so freaking delicate, but I don’t think that the weakness of my old tool was the result of a manufacturing defect so much as a weak design, so I’ll have to be a little more careful with the new one. I guess those thin pieces can’t get too much stronger without making the tool too heavy.
Regardless of whether this tool is a piece of junk or I just manhandled it to death, this whole replacement experience, though slow, came out as well as I could expect. Thanks, Topeak.