Understanding

i went riding for a bit today, got into a half-assed skid, and threw my chain.

i took it home, tensioned it up like you guys said, and it's actually really good.

although, i'm sure the added security of the chain tensioner to lock down the wheel is fine for people who commute to work on their bike (like me)

resipsa

It probably shouldn't be. The tensioners are there just to get things aligned / positioned properly. It's the nuts that hold the axle (and thereby the tensioners) in place. That's why you want the tensioners to go on the insides of the chainstays: so the nuts can clamp down on the track ends. There probably wouldn't be *that* much force being put on the tensioners, were you to use them like you're describing, as most of the energy is being put into rotation of the wheel, but when it comes down to it, they're just little screws, and I would be wary of pulling too hard on them, lest the threads or the screws themselves give out.

Amen! Know how to do it without as well. Otherwise, you couldn't properly do it for, say, your friend's bike or should they break or somehow get lost.

dutret

but with a nutted axle both the tracknut and locknut keep the wheel from slipping. Think about the forces involved.... See why a small bolt on a tensioner can keep a wheel from slipping better than a large nut on the axle.

resipsa

I agree that a small bolt on an MKS style tensioner would keep the wheel from slipping better than would a nut on the end, but only to a point. That same small bolt is probably also much more likely to break in some fashion than is the nut or the axle, especially as it's going to be under as much tension as is the chain that it's tensioning. That's why I said using the nuts is necessary. It seems that it would not fail gracefully.