[CR] Chain jumping problem

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 03:34:18 -0800
From: "John D Proch" <johnprochss@yahoo.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Chain jumping problem


Hello Fellow Vintage Cyclists,

First of all I want to greet all of you a happy new year and hope your 2010 is filled with great health and prosperity. May the second decade of the new millennium be more blessed than the first. I hope that for our family indeed that those blessing will be more realized in 2010.

I have a question that may sound foolish at first to most of you, but it has me baffled. When riding with much pressure on the pedals, the chain "jumps", and what I mean by jumps, is that it crosses the top of the freewheel gears. The freewheel is a Campagnolo Ergal with excellent teeth and the chain is a new Everest slotted lightweight chain. The chain has some super duty chain lube, but I know it can't be that super duty and slick that it causes the chain to jump across teeth without biting into the freewheel spline. Again, I am not knowledgeable when it comes to this minor of a problem to most of you. Is it that the Campagnolo Super Record rear derailleur may have a weak spring causing the extra slack in the chain and tension of the chain to not stay taut creating the chain jump across the teeth? The chain will stay much tighter engaged in the teeth with a lower or larger rear gear on the freewheel than the fewer teeth with the higher gears (In other words, it is worse about jumping in the smaller gear on the freewheel.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I also want to extend my thanks to every one of you for your vast amounts of knowledge and the many ways you have helped me. Thanks to the Classic Rendezvous staff and the kindness that you all have helped my friends and I with some of the baffling problems we have encountered.

Best Regards to you and your families,
John Proch
La Grange, Texas