Mountain Biking - chain suck

so when I ride my chain wraps itself around the front chain ring and gets me all screwed up. I thought all I needed was a new chain but my buddy says I might as well get a new cassette, chain ring and chain. I would rather not seeing as how that would be expensive, any ideas about how to fix this problem?

Yes... learn to shift properly. Chain suck is caused when you cross-chain and then shift down or up shift and there's lacks of chain slack. Need to try and keep the chain from getting slack so make sure when you finish climbing a hill and am going downhill you shift into the middle or big chainring. Or plan your uphill climbs in advance.

Chain suck can occur also because of bike design. Had an old Gary Fisher that was notorious for chain suck. My new Specialize Stump. FSR doesn't have that problem.

There is also a device call a "third eye chain watch" that might help if you can find onethat fits your bike.

if your chain is DIRTY, I mean real DIRTY it cant get off the teeth and will hang up as well. I see that a lot when folks ride in the rain or right after it rains on sandy trails

Don't mash hard on the pedals during shifting. Especially uphill. Puts too much stress on it.

Clean the rings and chain with some degreaser. It doesn't have to be the fancy degreaser from a bike shop, that $3/gallon stuff from Home Depot will do just fine. Inspect the chainring for bent teeth. If any are bent, you can file them down or try to bend them back into place. Even the slightest bend can cause chainsuck.

Yep chains do suck.

so whats the best thing that I can do now besides use some degreaser?

so whats the best thing that I can do now besides use some degreaser?

You can try scraping off any gunk on the chainring with a screwdriver, q-tip, toothbrush or something.

Yep chains do suck.


But I can't see the little mouths..........*squinting eyes*