I just picked up my brand new fixie wheel w/ monster gears (55/19) and bought a 1/8" chain. To my dismay, the chain was about 8 links too short! The shop told me that was the only size chain they had, but was willing to splice a chain foe me. Is this safe? Could I do it with a tool? Thanks in advance, HR.

I would assume it is safe, I have been doing it for years. Just check the link after you are done putting the pin back in. If it goes in hard, there is probably some damage. Look for deformation around where the pin went through, if the link has any signs of damage, toss it and try again.

if the shop is using two brand new chains of the same make/model I don't see what the harm would be.. I won't go around splicing together any two chains though..

splice a chain? What's that?

same make and model chain only if you must.

I vote against it. but i have seen a bunch of people do it at the co-op and then bust out monster skids and not die.

theres nothing wrong w/ it as long as its done correctly

What do you think 'bent riders do?

I have a brakeless fixie with a 1/8" chain made from the scraps of about 8 other chains of several different brands. So far no problems. I look over the links frequently, and it all looks good. As long as the pins are installed correctly and you don't have some crazy wacky chainline or f'ed up ring/cog teeth, it'll hold.

let the shop do it for you

On an unpeened chain, it's not problem. If the chain is peened, use a masterlink. Shearing the peen can make it unstable. https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=25

The KMC 3/32 chain I run is unpeened, and I suspect the one you have isn't as well, otherwise the shop hopefully wouldn't have recommended adding links.

Please avoid saying 'fixie' and especially 'fixie wheel' like the plague it will cause any spliced chain, no matter how good of job was done, to fail in a catastrophic manor.

Really though just have the shop splice it and you will be wishing you had shorter gear in no time.

There should be no problem with splicing chains, as long as they are roughly the same quality and size. You don't want to have some 3/32 links on a 1/8 chain, obviously. Just make sure you do everything right and smoothly. If you mess up, just buy a new chain.

i rode my bmx and i was to cheap to by the shadow interlock so i scrounged chain pieces from every one who ran micro gearing in no time i had my chain and didntpay a dollar held up just ducky!

I see nothing wrong with 2 new chains being affixed in a permanent fashion, in a proper manner.

what is "peened"?

I recently shortened a 1/8 KMC chain by using a small link remover tool to slide the pin out, and then just pushed the pin back in with the same tool (no masterlink). That's okay right?

Peened refers to "mushrooming" the end of the pin, so it acts more like a rivet. When you push the chain pin out using a chain removing tool it sheers of this edge (see the link I posted above). You can actually see a small sliver of metal. Pushing the pin back in won't reseat it as well and the link can fail. Not all chains are peened. There is a special connecting rivet you can use for Shimano chains.

If you're using a fairly low cost 1/8 KMC, you're probably fine. According to KMC's site, the higher end chains are peened to help resist side to side motion. I can't seem to find information on whether individual chains are peened or not. If so, they'll have peening marks on them and the pin will look like a little mushroom head rather than the end of cylinder.

edit: Looking at KMC's site https://www.kmcchain.com/index.php?ln=en&fn=find, find your chain. When you go to the individual chain information, you'll see a few icons along the bottom for many chain types. One is a circle with two lines. On mouse-over it says "High Pin Power". This probably refers to a peened chain pin.