In an attempt to clean my chain, I removed it with a chain breaker (bad idea?) and sort of hosed up the link. (Meaning I slightly bent it and it looked like a piece of metal broke off from the rivot.) So, a few questions: 1) Is there a better way to do this? 2) The chain is coated with some kind of thick grease that's now extremely dirty. I can't seem to get it off, so it's currently soaking in degreaser. Is there a better way to do this? The grease that's on the chain is like rubber cement and a dirt magnet. (This is how it came from the shop.) 3) Since that link is pretty messed up, would there be any harm in just removing it altogether?

Thanks a bunch!

Justin

Go to the LBS and get a master link for the chain. Then remove the damaged
portion of the chain, carefully, and use the master link to reattach the chain
together. Unless you were unusually inept the damaged link will be 1" long and the master link restores half of this. Doubtful your bike will notice the
difference. SRAM, KMC and a few others make master links. Get the SRAM
variety for simplicity. It will work with any chain as long as both chain and
link are matched (8spd, 9spd etc). Avoid the type with one side of the link
being a plate with two pins sticking out and the other just the plate. Get the
type in which the two parts of the link are symmetric and look just alike.
www.parktool.com and scroll down to "Repair Help" on the left and then to
tool instructions and look for "CT-n" for use of chaintools. Steve

SRAM master links are easy to remove with no tools, if you know how. Its best to practice with a clean chain, off the bike.

Chains get dirty if you use a sticky lube. Really dirty ones need to be removed and soaked in solvent. If you use a better quality lube, you can usually clean the chain with some soapy water or citrus degreaser.

What kind of chain do you have? If you clean off a section and look closely at the outer side plates, there are some heiroglyphics that tell. If it's an SRAM, it already has a master link. But it's probably a Shimano hyperglide.

You difinitely want to replace the mangled link. If it was just the outer link, remove and replace with the master link. If there is more damage, you will need to replace a short section... at least an inch (inner and outer link pair). Bottom line is you don't want to shorten the chain. Since you're an admitted noob, I recommend taking it to the shop, asking about a master link. My guess is that when all is said and done, it would be as cheap to replace it with a new, master link equipped SRAM. Get the shop to cut the chain to length and show you how to keep from munging it in the future.

For future reference, I'd recommend just getting one of those on-the-bike chain cleaners, a bottle of Simple Green or citrus degreassr, and some chain lube. The whole cleaning and rinsing process takes maybe 15 minutes at the most. Dry and let it sit overnight to dry between the links, and re-lube.

It doesn't do as good a job as removing the chain, but it's so much faster and easier you will do the maintenance more often, net result being longer chain life.