Originally Posted by
daveizdum
I'm glad you said this, because when I first read the topic of this post, I thought maybe everyone else lived in a weird alternate universe where chains break. I've been riding and abusing bikes since I was six years old and I've never broken a chain. What does a rider have to do to a chain to cause it to break? Is it bad maintenance, bad riding technique, or just bad luck?
In 25 years and 150,000 miles I've never had a chain break on any of my bikes and that includes 6,7,8,9 and 10-speed chains by Sedis, Shimano, SRAM and Wippermann. However, I have helped a couple of other riders who did have chains break so it's not unheard of, just uncommon.
Beside the infrequent manufacturing defect, poor installation, either in improperly installing the special pin or trying to reuse a regular pin, is the most common cause as is machanical damage from a road hazzard getting into the chain.
A multi-tool's chain tool is adequate to remove a pin from a damaged link and, I agree on the use of a master link for repair.