Originally Posted by chinnt
I do it a little differently. To tension the chain, I stick my hand between the seat tube and the wheel with my palm facing the wheel. then you can expand your hand to push the wheel back in the dropouts with one hand and tighten the nuts with the other...to me this has always been easier than to pull on the back of the wheel....having your hand sandwiched there also allows you to adjust and center the wheel easier
Ok, I'm a little late but I want to add to this... if you feel the chain is hard to get right and usually just a bit too tight then tighten the driveside 1/2 turn with the wrench
before starting on the non-drive side. If it is just a bit too loose, then start by turning the non-driveside 1/2 turn with the wrench. The time to use the wrench for that 1/2 turn is right after thumb-tightening.
This experience comes from wanting to run lots of different gears on a well-loved and old trackbike that has grooves in the dropouts (from use). If you have a new frame, and don't change gears much, it should be pretty easy to get just right.