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LL Chain Wear Tool
20685 CARMEN LP SUITE 150
20685 Carmen Loop
Suite 150
Bend OR 97702
United States
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Chain wear has become a little more complicated ever since 1x drivetrains have gained popularity. These drivetrains are designed to cross chain, something most of us were taught to avoid when we started riding bikes as a serious endeavor. Add to that the variables that flat top chains have brought into the market with their larger rollers and things got pretty messy. Problem is, everyone is ignoring these small but significant issues.
What are the issues with measuring chain wear? Well there's a couple of them, the biggest is the diameter difference of SRAM's flat top chains found on most of their modern drivetrains. The rollers on these chains are .010" (.254mm). Now that doesn't sound like a lot but when you do the math to convert that to a percentage of wear over 5 links that's a .2% difference. When we're replacing chains between .5-.7% of wear that .2% can easily be the difference between replacing just a chain and and entire drivetrain. But wait, there's MORE! Most chain wear tools currently on the market are laser cut metal. This is a pretty cool process that's great for making sheet metal parts, problem is the accuracy of this process isn't great at +/-.010" (.254mm). If you add the error of the tool itself to the roller variable it's possible to double the error of the tool.
The Abbey Chain Wear Plate is our latest application of precision to cycling tools. We set out to not only build a tool that handled the variance of roller diameter when measuring chain wear but also measure lateral wear, something nobody's bothered to do, until now. Linear wear or stretch as it's commonly called is measured by locating both sides of the roller in a V shaped notch which allows us to locate the center of the roller accurately regardless of it's size. Then you line up the pin on with one of 5 holes on the opposite end. This also prevents roller wear from influencing the measurement. It's as simple as that.
To measure lateral wear, the chain will need to be off the bike. Then simply pinch the chain against the boss and hold it vertical and see how far it sags. Anything below a 6 isn’t shifting well and a new chain will improve shifting quality.
The other big thing we tackled with this tool is the accuracy of the tool itself. Most chain wear tools on the market are cut with a laser, which is a nice process that we use for parts like our Fit Kit and Stu Stick. However it's not all that accurate with the repeatability of these machines can be around +/-.010. That just isn't good enough for tools of this nature to be frank. We instead made the decision to CNC our tool from a billet to give it the durability and accuracy this tool deserves. Since we actually make these in house we also had complete control over the process and are able to hold tolerances as tight as .0002"(.005mm). Admittedly, that might be a bit overkill for the application but it's not really that difficult to do, if you actually care.
The LL Chain Wear Tool is patent pending.
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Overall rating: 4.9298244 / 5 from 57 reviews.
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"I bought it as a gift for a friend. He is riding a lot on his road bike and gravel bike, but I have not heard back from him about his use of the tool. I have one of your derailleur hangar alignment tools, love it, and have great respect for your work to design and build high quality tools."
"Right weight, not light but just right, beautiful green surface anodization making it a luxury tool, excellent drilling and marking to indicate chain ware. Thank you Abbey for another excellent piece!"
"Great tool. Only used it a few times so far. I’m a little concerned about wear in the “saddle” that holds the chain roller; maybe consider a stainless steel insert instead of the machined aluminum."
"Just received my LL Chain Wear Tool. Fabulous tool! I had no idea what my chain wear was apart from the fact that it was below the 0,5% replacement wear as confirmed by a standard measuring tool. With your tool I measured between 0% and 0,25% wear, after 9000 Km on my bike. So I know that chain will last me a long time! (I wax my chain by immersion every 200km). I will recommend your tool to my local bike shop!"
"It is very easy to use. I bought it for the lateral wear measurement but I have not use that yet since it requires taking the chain off the bike. I will check it the next time I wax the chain."
"Easy to use and provides confidence in the measurement."
"Bought a LL Chain Wear Tool for myself when they were first available. It is awesome, the best chain checker I have ever used in over fifty years of riding. I just bought two more LL Chain Wear Tools for my kids who both commute to work on bikes. Highly recommend all Abbey Bike Tools. Great quality craftsmanship and awesome people."
"Great tool now that I wax my chain (Silca). I find with my 1x drivetrain it is not the chain length indicating wear but the lateral movement - which this tool tests for nicely!"
"This is great but it could use one more hole, to hang it on. A centered hole, so it hangs vertically."
"This was a recent purchase so I’ve only used the chain wear checker a few times but it does a great job and it’s quick and easy to use."
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