Originally Posted by hhnngg1

Easy. Step on a scale and jump while stomping. Watch that needle go to between 2x-3x your body weight for a fraction of a second.

Hopefully I had a defective KMC link - I can assure everyone here that I did all the 'routine' stuff including the exact protocol listed by Psimet. I looked up the ways to do it on the web, and then searched again to make sure I was doing it right when it wouldn't go on. If it were so easy, I'm absolutely sure it would have gone on - everything I was doing was 'by the book' and exactly what you guys are describing.

And I'm also being truthful when I said my prior KMC experience was just as bad - the LBS, and an experienced one at that, took 15 minutes to mount the link, and this guy said it would take him less than 3 minutes at first. Used 3 sets of pliers to get it on, including requiring bending it a bit to widen it. Fortunately my current link didn't require this kind of work, but struck me as awfully bad luck to have 2 duds.