I bought an Abbey Tools chain checker recently. I had problems with chain skipping and dropped chains but my chain showed almost no signs of wear when checked with the Pedro's three-pronged checker. However, the Abbey Tools checker measures horizontal (i.e., lateral) chain wear and not just wear in the direction that the chain normally moves (vertical, for lack of a better term. For reasons someone smarter than me can explain, the thinner 12-speed chains with proper care (waxing) can show almost no vertical wear yet can have developed significant "wobble" laterally. I could be all wrong, but it seems to be relevant to dropping chains. YMMV.
As drivetrains have pushed further into 12- and now 13-speed territory, the margin for error has all but vanished. Chain width has narrowed, sprocket spacing is tighter than ever, and yet we still expect clean, crisp shifts under load.
The lateral deflection of a chain isn’t just a passive characteristic anymore... it’s a key player in how well a drivetrain performs, especially across wide-range cassettes or during cross-chaining scenarios.
Checking chain deflection feels like one of those subtle service checks that could make a huge difference but rarely gets prioritized. It’s the kind of detail that separates a “good tune-up” from a precision one. And yeah... if you're going to check it, the Abby Chain Tool is a beautiful way to do it. Definitely a little piece of workshop art.
I bought an Abbey Tools chain checker recently. I had problems with chain skipping and dropped chains but my chain showed almost no signs of wear when checked with the Pedro's three-pronged checker. However, the Abbey Tools checker measures horizontal (i.e., lateral) chain wear and not just wear in the direction that the chain normally moves (vertical, for lack of a better term. For reasons someone smarter than me can explain, the thinner 12-speed chains with proper care (waxing) can show almost no vertical wear yet can have developed significant "wobble" laterally. I could be all wrong, but it seems to be relevant to dropping chains. YMMV.
John i think you nailed it.
As drivetrains have pushed further into 12- and now 13-speed territory, the margin for error has all but vanished. Chain width has narrowed, sprocket spacing is tighter than ever, and yet we still expect clean, crisp shifts under load.
The lateral deflection of a chain isn’t just a passive characteristic anymore... it’s a key player in how well a drivetrain performs, especially across wide-range cassettes or during cross-chaining scenarios.
Checking chain deflection feels like one of those subtle service checks that could make a huge difference but rarely gets prioritized. It’s the kind of detail that separates a “good tune-up” from a precision one. And yeah... if you're going to check it, the Abby Chain Tool is a beautiful way to do it. Definitely a little piece of workshop art.