How often have you grudgingly complained that your chain chainring has come off? It becomes particularly annoying when the chain also gets jammed and can only be freed with brute force or tools. The chain guide on the MTB saves you all the trouble and protects not only the individual components of your bike, but also your nerves. The good feeling of safety also lets you "give chain" even more carefree - in the truest sense of the word! Especially for racers, the chain guide is essential, although in times of 1x11 drives, which have an increased chain tension and special sprocket teeth, it is sometimes no longer so urgently needed.
What to look for when buying a chain guide and bash guard?
Bashguards and chain guides for any mountain bike
For easy mounting of chain guides, several standards have been established, but unfortunately they are not compatible with each other. Nevertheless, older frames without a designated mounting option do not have to do without a guide. In this case, we also offer a wide range of chain guides and bashguards. They can be attached to the seat tube with a clamp, for example, or the guide can be clamped under the outer bottom bracket shells of the BB bottom bracket. Another design is offered by the company Absolut with their chain guide. They run the chain through a small tube. This is attached to the chainstay, so the chain is around the chainring a few more mm and is tighter. This type of chain guide is also intended for drives with multiple chainrings. A nice and inexpensive solution are also special adapters that can be used to upgrade to the ISCG standard. In case your chain guide no longer runs like clockwork after many hard rides, we offer a wide range of spare parts in our shop.
ISCG 03 (ISCG old) and ISCG 05
The ISCG mount is a widely used standard to attach the bashguard or chain guide. Here, the component is mounted to the tube in which the bottom bracket is bolted. The difference in the two ISCG standards is the bolt circle. The bolt circle is 73mm for the ISCG 05 and 59.24mm for the ISCG 03 (old). Simplified you can measure the distance of the lower two holes. This distance is 47.79mm for ISCG 3 (old) and 55.92mm for ISCG 5.
The most important questions in a nutshell:
- How is the chain guide attached?
- What is the standard of the bottom bracket?
The mountain bike chain guides are suitable for use on the 4X bike as well as on the enduro or downhill bike. According to the different areas of application, we offer you different designs in our shop. Although chain jumps have become rarer since the innovative technologies such as Shimano's Shadow Plus or Sram's Type2, you should still not do without a high quality chain guide in rough terrain.
