Chain rattle: is it damaged?
 

Hi folks,

My friend borrowed my fg and decided that my chain was too loose for his taste. He pulled the wheel as far back in the dropouts as he could and cinched it down. He did this at the loosest part of the chainwheel's warp, meaning the tight part ended up really tight. It was slightly noisy but nothing crazy. A few days later I noticed that when I tap the chain it makes a little rattle noise as if something has changed. The chain looks like it's in decent shape but I have not checked for stretch. Do you guys think I have a damaged chain?

Did you put a little slack back in your chain?

Put slack back into it and see how that is, when I first got my bike I messed around with it and though if I made it really tight it may be mre comfortable, but it made noise with my fixed gear, so I just added more slack and the noise went away. Add slack back into the chain and that should fix it?

Sorry, was away for a bit, I slackened the chain and its still making noises. I suspect that's not good.

I suspect you should do some more reading about chains. Your knowledge base sounds very small.

Add lubrication. If it rattles when you tap it that means the rollers are moving freely, not a bad thing, usually just a sign of being under-lubed. You can't really damage a chain the way you described. Worst case scenario is you reduced the life by increasing the wear on the pins due to more aggressive friction during rotation, this causes the grit in the chain to wear into the pins faster but it will reduce the lifespan by single percentage points and will not cause excess noise.

What do 12 links measure out to? 12 1/16" is worn, 12 1/8" is time to replace.

I imagined a stretching of the pin holes in certain spots. But you are right, my knowledge base is small. Shouldn't have been a thread, I suppose.

You live, you learn.
You ride, you learn.
You post, you learn.

At least it wasn't another "best" seat or "best" tire thread.