Dealing with chain stretch

[Thomas777]

My wife's Rohloff bike ,a Dutch frame, has sliding rear dropouts. We are currently on tour  and the chain could use a bit of tightening. But the sliding dropouts are as far back as they will go and if I slide them all the way forward it is not quite enough to remove a link.
So ,John Saxby, who we are staying with for a few nights, mentioned "someone" might have a solution.
Looking forward to hearing from you!!!!
Thanks

[Danneaux]

Hmm. This sounds like the ideal case for a half-link. Failing that (they are certainly scarce at my location west-southwest of you in Oregon), perhaps the chain has not stretched/worn "enough" to make the jump to a full link removal.

If this is the case, then I see two options:
1) Ride more with the existing chain, as it appears not yet "ready" to tighten up with a link removal...
/or/
2) Replace with a fresh chain now.

There may be a third option which is unlikely but may still be a factor. A couple years ago, I ran into a similar dilemma on a friend's bike with sliding Rohloff OEM dropouts.

'Turns out the lower mount for his Topeak rear rack was catching on his hub quick release, preventing the sliding dropouts from achieving full travel to properly adjust the chain tension -- though it appeared at first they could slide to their limits each way. Something similar may be happening here, as these dropouts would usually have enough travel to fully tension a slack chain.

All best wishes on the rest of your tour; I'm sure you could not find better hosts than John and Marcia.

All The best,

Dan.
[Edited to clean up the inevitable typos that come from using the phone in full sunlight while roadside]

[mickeg]

[I wrote teh following before Dan posted his comments.  But I saw no need to hit the delete key.]

I think you are looking for a half link.  It is not clear to me if this is the right thickness for your chain or not.  Thus, I do not know if it will work.  But if this particular one does not, there probably are others that will.
http://kmcchain.us/connector/z51-ol/

But, an eight speed chain is cheap enough, I would just get a new one if it was me.   

[rualexander]

In what sense could the chain 'use a bit of tightening'?
Is it jumping off the sprocket, or does it just look a bit slack?
If the latter, don't worry about it and continue riding as normal, chain slack is not a problem.

[jags]

SLIDE IT FORWARD TAKE A LINK OFF THEN SLIDE IT BACK.

[Thomas777]

Thanks for the replies! In response to the las2 posts. The chain seems a bit slack but is not jumping off the rear cog or the chain ring. As to removing a link ,as I mentioned that would not work as I slide the dropouts forward but there is still not enough to remove a full link.
Sounds like the half link may be the way to go.

[jags]

HOPE U GET IT SORTED DON'T THINK ITS ANY MAJOR ISSUE THOUGH

JAGS.

[John Saxby]

Thanks very much for your advice, guys. Valuable for the future, for sure. (Am replying on tom's behalf, he's getting ready for sleep & his ride onwards towards Montréal tomorrow.)  We checked the amount of chain stretch, and it's still less than .50, so all OK there.  Also checked the amount of slack in the chain, using Thorn's guidelines, and Kathy's chain is well within Thorn's recommended limits.  Pretty sure that they'll be OK to get to Montreal, and then to NYC.

Cheers,  John

[jags]

your a good man John 
just on bikes there quiet a lot of the group i cycle with  and there bike are in bits,  filty dirty rusty chains gears slipping chain cover in muck and honest to god they never seem to have a problem.  i guess when something eventually breaks the whole bike will fall apart.
anto.

[Andre Jute]

I'd replace that chain with a new eight-speed chain. It's not that I think they'll have a problem riding to Montreal or New York, because a Rohloff is intended be run with a pretty slack chain, but that I normally replace chains at about 0.50 "stretch", so that the cheapest part of the entire transmission can't wear its betters. I take the view that it is better to add an hour in civilization to a journey in order to start with a vehicle in peak working order than to add many tiresome hours in the bush by suffering a failure far from assistance.

[Thomas777]

A bit of an update..The chain in question now has approximately 3500 miles on it.