Bicycle chain

[headmaster]

My daughters bicycle chain has come off. My wife tried to repair it by 'wiggling' the derailleur mechanism. it now appears to have a couple of kinks/loops in it! can anyone help please?

[Catso]

You have to take it off again, remove the loops and replace

[RATTER15]

Yes take the chain off again and try and get the loops out, not always an easy thing to do, also there is unlikely to be a link where it can be separated easily without a special tool.

[spaced]

once you have taken all the loops out, undo the rear nut on the rear wheel. Move the wheel closer to the front, to give you more slack, put the chain back on front gears and back, pull the wheel as hard as you can towards the back, allowing you to get the chain taught, whilst someone does the nut back up. hey presto. This is how I have always done it. If all esle fails, take it to Halfords

[RATTER15]

Spaced, its a derailleur geared bike, so that wont apply, the slack on the chain is taken up be the derailleur.

[Catso]

It is very unlikely you'll need to separate the chain, unless you did this putting it back on.

Once you get a bit of slack, you should find the loops are opposite ways around, and removing one will remove the other, so to speak.

As ratter15 said, above, with derailleur gears, you won't need to dismantle anything, you'll get anough leeway to get the chain off the rear sprockets coutesy the derailleur.

[headmaster]

Thank you for your help

[Dave.B]

Also worth remembering: if the chain comes off again, to get it back on, you don't need to get your fingers covered in oil, or even stop and get off the bike.
Just shift up with the front derailleur and pedal slowly. The chain will just run right back onto the chainset, probably the middle ring.

Oil your chain EVERY time you ride the bike, even if it's just WD-40. It does the world of good.