BMX - BMX chain questions

I'm helping a neighbor kid clean and rebuild his several-year-old Haro Backtrail. This project began with "please help me fix my brakes", and it snowballed from there.

I'd like to break the chain and remove it from the bike. I can clean it better off the bike, and the kid wants to spray-paint the bike black. Some questions: Are all BMX chains a standard size? Is there some equivalent to the Sram Powerlink for BMX chains? Is there a standard way to open and close them?

There does appear to be a special link on the chain. It is not a removable link. I'm guessing it is a vestige of the original assembly.

Fun project. I'm more facile with mountain bikes. I've never torn apart a BMX bike before, and I've already learned a thing or two. The kid is having fun too. He was quite excited when I tore down his headset and showed him his bearings (which were much in need of attention).

There might be a master link somewhere on the chain. If there is, just take a screwdriver or something to pop it off. If not, you'll need a chain break. They're pretty self-explanatory.

That's very nice of you to do that... a lot of kids these days miss-out in that kind of mentoring.


If it's an old school BMX chain-link, it would be similar to a motorcycle removable link. One side will have something like a circlip that clips over two pins. You need some pliers to "flick" it off to one side. You can do this by getting one jaw of the plier to grab both tips of the "open-end" of the circlip and get the other plier jaw to rest on the pin head. Then you squeeze and the circlip will slide sideways and come off both pins at the same time.


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t24/Rollopics/ChainCirclipLink.jpg




There is another link that I have come across, and it's like a SRAM Powerlink, but it has both pins permanently connected to one side plate, and the opposite plate hooks onto the opposite end of the pins WITHOUT a circlip. They hook on by bending the link side-ways. If it's one of those I have no advice for you... they're easy enough to install, but just about near impossible to remove.

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There is another link that I have come across, and it's like a SRAM Powerlink, but it has both pins permanently connected to one side plate, and the opposite plate hooks onto the opposite end of the pins WITHOUT a circlip. They hook on by bending the link side-ways. If it's one of those I have no advice for you... they're easy enough to install, but just about near impossible to remove.

Bingo! And I got it off too. I had found that link, but wasn't sure what to do with it. You gave me just enough of a clue. And thankfully I had purchased a Park master-link pliers last fall after getting frustrated with a SRAM Powerlink. I squeezed with the pliers just enough to get the one pin lined up, and then snapped the plate sideways with a screwdriver blade.

Ha! Well done... I must try that next time!