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review
£11.99
VERDICT:
The simplest and most effective chainwhip i've ever used
Weight:
519g
Contact:
At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.
What the road.cc scores meanGood scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.
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Every now and then someone sends in a thing that's just brilliant and you wonder why you've never had one before, and you can't imagine ever being without it again - the B'Twin chain whip is one of those products.
It's not a chainwhip, in that there's no chain. instead you get a double-sided tool with two holes, and on each set there's a set of three pegs that locate into your small sprocket. It works with 11, 12, 13 and 14 tooth sprockets so there's not any I've ever fitted that it wouldn't deal with. once the pegs are engaged you stick your chain tool through the middle and undo the lockring. because there's no chain it works equally well with any type of cassette from 11-speed all the way down.
Honestly, it's brilliant. I've never had much trouble taking off cassettes with chain whips but they do require a little bit of finesse. This B'Twin tool you just slap on and go. The only thing you need to know is how many teeth your little sprocket has. The handle is plenty long enough to get plenty of leverage even for the wheel with the alloy freehub that you have to do up *really* tight to stop the cassette eating its way through it.
And it's only twelve quid.
My only niggle, and this is really picking hairs, is that it's a pity the 11 – the most common one you'll use – isn't on the hole furthest from the handle to maximise leverage. But I can't really mark it down for that because I've not struggled getting any cassette off. I can't really mark it down for anything.
Verdict
The simplest and most effective chainwhip i've ever used
road.cc test report
Make and model: B'Twin Chain Whip
Size tested: Black
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
stopping the cassette turning while removing it, for easy removal of the cassette lockring. Used with a cassette remover wrench.
Rate the product for quality of construction:
10/10
Rate the product for durability:
10/10
Rate the product for value:
10/10
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
The best chain whip i've used
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
It's great
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
nothing
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
About the tester
Age: 42 Height: 189cm Weight: 91kg
I usually ride: whatever I'm testing... My best bike is: Kinesis Tripster ATR
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, commuting, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
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Add new comment
36 comments
Had mine just under 2 years. In that time it's been used (by me) to remove 8 cassettes, by passing friends twice (they now own their own tools). Still working, showing no signs of deterioration and most importantly, no knuckles grated off.
Interested to hear if anyone has any long term reviews of this & if it's lasted OK.
As a casual home mechanic don't want to spend a fortune but also don't want to fall victim to "Buy cheap buy twice".
Use this one in the workshop.... brilliant tool...better than the Park Tool one we have..... as for comments "siezed" crudded up cassettes...... have removed them with this tool and a 450mm breaker bar (yes we have one for this purpose and also for BB's which are tight too)
Great tool and much better than hooking chain onto sprockets...
Is it possible to buy this product in the U.S.A. or to have it shipped to the U.S.A.? www.decathlon.co.uk says they do not ship to the U.S.A.
Anything which works better than a crappy chain whip will be welcome; I only made mine less annoying by attaching some excess brake cable to the end of the chain tail so that I can tension the damned tail to slip off less often
!
I think I'll try this before I try that Pedro's Chain vise; currently £50.99 at Chain Reaction, ouch!
What stops the pegs slipping off the cog in use?
Gravity
A liberal dose of anti-cack-handedness cream.
It's a perfectly reasonable question.
Shimano lockrings are 40Nm. That's A LOT in anyone's book, particularly on a short lever.
If the lockring has been in place for years, corroded with British salt, chain lube and christ knows what else, you may need a lot more than 40Nm to remove it - also assuming the monkey who installed it didn't use a 1/2" drive cheat bar.
So what does the Pedro's Chain Whip give you for an extra £40? a cast-iron ***guarantee*** that it's not coming off that cog, no matter what amount of welly you put into it. There's a reason the Park lockring tool is a 1" drive, and they state you MUST secure it in place using the skewer.
If you are the only person working on your bike, and you keep the lockring / cogset free of corrosive kack / break it apart every few months or so if you are riding lots in the winter, sure the B'twin one will do you.
If you have need to cope with stupid-tight / corroded stuff and don't want to risk an injury or stripped/broken bits, then maybe the Pedro's is the way to go.
Anything designed by Lennard Zinn gets my vote.
Well if you put the tool in place the cassette remover goes through the hole, then you clamp it in place with the QR?
It's a two hander.
the pegs have notches and are less peg, more bobbin if that means anything?
got mine today, very nice.
not used yet, it would be a bit sad to just try it for the hell of it!
it has a heft to it that the crimson bolt a.k.a. rainn wilson would approve of!
made in slovakia and i'm sure if it was a park tools item would be in excess of £40?
a bargin for £9-99!
Thanks markymark! I also would be interested to know how easy it is to remove a lock ring that has been tightened to correct torque - either side of 40 Nm. I use a -big- torque wrench to get that much torque.
If you ride a MTB then 11t is going to be the most commonly found small sprocket.
It's not going to be any use for track sprockets, it's not long enough to give enough leverage for a start before you even get onto the subject of sprocket size, apart from that it's quite clever.
A single speed chain is about a fiver and steel strap of the right length is about the same if you need to make one so I have no complaints about the price of this bit of kit.
or a road bike with shimano sora, tiagra, 105, ultegra or dura ace, or a road bike with sram apex, rival, force or red. possibly not a campag bike. but then, they're not as common
so not up to much if you ride fixed/single speed then...
Only for the niche market of people with a 11-14T cog by the sound of it - probably accounts for the eye-wateringly premium price demanded for it.
Gold. Irony gold.
Ah, my favourite kind of irony: the one where someone misunderstands sarcasm as irony. The most ironic of ironies.
Actually arguably more verbal irony than sarcasm as my intention was not to directly inflict pain but rather just take the piss... but we're still only talking about a chainless chain-whip in the end.
Ah, my favourite kind of irony: the one where someone misunderstands sarcasm as irony. The most ironic of ironies.
Ah, my favourite kind of irony: the one where someone misunderstands sarcasm as irony. The most ironic of ironies.
Ah, my favourite kind of irony: the one where someone misunderstands sarcasm as irony. The most ironic of ironies.
Sounds like alchemy to me.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words...you could have saved yourself a few by just putting a picture of the above mentioned chain whip engaged in Cassette undoing...
@ronin : there's a picture on the decathlon website http://www.decathlon.co.uk/chain-whip-id_8309913.html
@ZachE1: thanks for the link, I bought one from there.
The tool is larger that I expected, so a lot more leverage and hopefully a lot less swearing than my loose chain whips.
Dave, I'd agree it's less faff than a chain whip. That's a given.
However I'd have to disagree that it can't be improved. The Pedro's Vise Whip is the gold standard for making 100% sure that stuff don't fly apart under high torque; I'd be interested to hear how much downforce you have to remember to apply to prevent it skipping off - particularly with 10- or 11-speed cogsets where you only have 4.5mm mm of pin engagement.
Also, what's the diameter of the hole? Looks like it wouldn't fit a lockring tool flush with the ring itself - so would a deep-section tool be best to use?
Must confess I've not used this one, and it's only £11 not £50. Which is much more sensible for someone changing their cogset every year or so.
This looks like a great addition to the toolbox. Thanks for the heads-up.
Now I just have to wait for Decathlon to come to Switzerland. And 2015 is the year!
I would disagree and say that the most commonly used would be the 12 and 13 not the 11.
Cool Whip.
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