BMX chain Archives – BMX UNION

How To Break A BMX Chain With A Chain Breaker

May 14, 2020

Want to learn how to break a BMX chain with a chain breaker? Here’s how it’s done!

When it comes to working on a BMX bike, it’s all pretty straightforward and easy, but one thing in particular that an be a bit of a struggle, especially just starting out, is breaking a BMX chain and reconnecting it. The crew at Lux BMX just uploaded this new How To video showing you how to break a BMX chain with a chain breaker, and how to put it back together on a standard BMX chain. Most BMX chains work this exactly way, but you will want to use the Shadow Conspiracy Chain Breaker for their Interlock chain. Otherwise pretty much all other chains you can use a standard style chain breaker like the one in the video, or the Park Tools CT 3.3 breaker for example. Hit play to see how it’s done, with some great tips an examples. If you’re near Australia, hit up the Lux BMX website to see what they have available for chain breakers at the moment!

“Evan Jaques is one of the founders of and owners of LUXBMX and has worked in the bike industry for the past 20 years. Riding BMX his whole life, Evan learned from a young age how to work on his bike and turned this childhood hobby into a life long obsession, career, and lifestyle.
In this episode of Quick Fix with Evan, he shows you how to break both a regular and half link style chain.” – Lux BMX

After watching this video, do you have any tips or tricks that were missed in this video? Let us know what you got in the comments down below! Not sure about one of the steps? Let us know what you’re wondering down in the comments below as well. We would be glad to help you get sorted out!

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How To Tighten A BMX Chain

May 5, 2020

Want to learn how to tighten a BMX chain?

When it comes to working on a BMX bike, it’s a pretty easy and straightforward process, but there are some tricks and techniques that make things easier and faster so you can spend less time fixing and more time riding. Lux BMX put together this quick video showing you how to tighten a BMX chain properly. In this video, Evan Jaques shows you a trick that not only gets your chain tight, be helps to center your wheel in the stays making things real dialed. It’s always a huge pain when you go to tighten your wheel, then the chain ends up with a bunch of slack, so doing it the right way will help prevent that from happening.

This trick applies to BMX bikes without chain tensioners. If you have chain tensioners, they take a lot of the work out of holding the wheel in place while you tighten because your axle is being held tightly in place with those screws. Either way, this quick video has some really solid advice, especially for those of you new to working on a BMX bike!

“Evan Jaques is one of the founders of and owners of LUXBMX and has worked in the bike industry for the past 20 years. Riding BMX his whole life, Evan learned from a young age how to work on his bike and turned this childhood hobby into a life long obsession, career and lifestyle.
In this first episode of Quick Fix with Evan, he shows you how to tighten a chain in less than a minute.
Following a few simple steps that you can do at home.” – Lux BMX

Shout out to Lux BMX down in Australia for putting this together! If you need more advice, check out this other how to video that will help as well — How To Center Your Back Wheel When Tightening It Down!

Cinema BMX – Sync Chain

July 23, 2019

Is it time for a new BMX chain? Here’s a look at the new Sync Chain from Cinema BMX. This half-link style BMX chain features curved side plates to reduce the risk of links catching on grins, forged pins for increased strength, a Debossed Cinema logo on each link and a Teflon coating to keep the friction and wear down. The chain comes with a pre-installed connector pin to help make getting this chain on your bike easier. Since this is a half link chain, it will allow you to dial your back end in and can be used with 8-tooth drivers if you happen to go that small. It also comes with 85 links, so you’ll have extra for backup.

You can pick the Sync Chain up for $25.99 in Black, Polished, Gold and Raw colors through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Cinema BMX worldwide now, or direct from the Cinema Webstore now!

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How To Install a BMX Chain

January 17, 2018

Want to learn how to install a BMX chain? Brant Moore’s latest tech tip teaches you how to install a BMX chain…

Anyone that has rode BMX for a while knows that it’s almost inevitable that you will at some point need to either fix your chain, or replace a worn out one. Now, you can take your bike to a shop and have a trained mechanic put your chain on your bike, which is never a bad idea. But, there’s a chance that at some point you might need to fix a broken chain mid session and running to a shop isn’t ideal. In this video from Brant Moore, he teaches you how to install a BMX chain on your bike using the Odyssey BMX Key Chain that he installed on his bike. This video is a great example with a lot of advice on how to fit the chain, using a chain breaker and how to break a chain and put it together. This is definitely one of those maintenance things that takes a bit of practice. Starting out it’s hard, but eventually it gets a lot easier as you have fixed or installed a few chains. Hit play, take it all in and then give it a shot if you need it.

“Putting on a new chain is actually a pretty complex task for someone who has never done it.
In this video I dive into all of the different ways you can install a bike chain as well as talk about my favorite chain, the Odyssey BMX Key Chain.” – Brant Moore

How To Install A BMX Chain with Colony

March 21, 2017

Is it time for you to replace your BMX chain or you just need to get it back together after breaking it? The guys at Colony just dropped this video showing you how to install a BMX chain. The video is for those of you installing a new chain, but the same steps can be applied to fixing a broken chain, which just requires you to add replacement links for what was broken. Hit play for all the steps in getting this job done so you can get back to riding your bike!

How To Break and Assemble A BMX Chain

February 17, 2017

The one thing most people hate doing on their bike…

There are two kinds of people in this world… Those who love working on their bike, and those that absolutely hate it with a firey passion. Unfortunately when it comes to riding BMX, you either have to learn how to fix things when they inevitably break (you can’t possibly expect a bike to hold up to all that crazy riding you do, right?) down over time. One of the most common repairs, beside Fixing a Flat Tire is fixing a chain when it breaks or removing an old chain and installing a new chain. Let’s face it, BMX chains can be a pain in the ass. It’s something that requires a bit of practice and patience because things can quickly go wrong with it. Luckily for you, the guys at Unleaded BMX over in France put together this video showing you how to probably assemble and break a chain with a chain breaker. This sub-titles are in French, but luckily the process is universal for all languages. Hit play and take it all in!

“Let’s start this serie with an How to assemble/disassemble a BMX chain, on a “We were tired of riders not reading the instructions” background.”

History of The Shadow Conspiracy’s Half-Link Chain

December 26, 2016

Do you know the history of the Half-Link BMX Chain? The first half-link chain was the Interlock chain from The Shadow Conspiracy thanks to Byron Anderson and Ronnie Bonner. Here’s a video where Ronnie sits down to talk about how the half-link came to be, the challenges it had to get past and more. If you’re a product nerd, you’re going to be into this one for sure!

“The Shadow Conspiracy broke new ground when they released the first half link chain back in 2004, but it was no easy feat. From countless trips to Asia to meet with factory owners, to having to physically re-tool the pre-existing machines in order for them to produce these weird new half link style chains… it was a long road for Shadow. They truly innovated a product that changed the face of chains forever, even for bicycling inductors outside of BMX! This is the story of how the Shadow Half Link Chain came to be, told be the none other than the company’s founder/owner, Ron Bonner.” – Ride BMX

Animal Bikes – Hoder Gold Chain Promo

December 16, 2016

Animal Bikes dropped this new promo video featuring Mike Hoder and his limited edition Gold signature chain! Hit play to get a look at the chain, along with some cruising from Mike out in California.

“LIMITED EDITION Mike Hoder Signature Gold 710 Chain by KMC
This Limited Edition Gold 710 KMC chain was a direct request from Mike Hoder himself. The chain is designed with a heavy duty structure to stand up to the toughest street abuse. The design eliminates stretch and chain drop. The mushroomed riveting provides extra strength. Comes with the half-link.”