Deda ElementiDog Leash - Black Solid Clip

Last year, I ordered up a Bob Jackson Olympus steel frameset and outfitted it with Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed equipment. Everything has been working fine until recently when I rode over a - shall we say - 'undeveloped' section of land to get to a bike lane. I wasn't really paying close attention & went into this 5 meter wide section in the big ring, coasted unexpectedly into a dip of about 1/2 a meter deep a bit roughly, and when I went to power up the other side of this depression, the chain shifted unexpectedly off the large chainring, past the small chainring and onto the bottombracket shell. The result: a little road-rash and some scrapes on my left knee/shin - a result of my careening over the front-left bars. No real damage, but it did highlight a need (beyond paying closer attention to such brief offroad excursions). I remember when manufacturers first went to the narrow 9-speed drivetrains back in the 1990's... they had this nifty little gizmo called a Dog Fang that just sat below the front derailleur and kept the chain from slinking all the way down to the bottombracket shell in the advent of a bad downshift... this was never a problem back in the Good Old Days(tm) of 6-speed Regina Del Oro freewheels and Sedisport chains, but that is the way of the world today. To figure out the correct size, I used a small tape measure to find the circumference of the seat tube, divided that number by pi to find the diameter... this worked like a charm. Next, don't bother looking for instructions on how to mount a Dog Fang with your package... there are no instructions... neither are they on the Deda website that I could find (instead the link to download instructions on their Dog Fang page takes you to a generic instruction sheet for handlebar installation...). As I remember it, with the bike shifted into 1st gear, you mount them with the 'fang' facing forward and turn it inward so that it is about 1mm from the sideplates of your chain and about 1-2mm above the chainring teeth. That way, should the chain try to sneak off in between the small chainring and the frame, the Dog Fang will coax it back onto the small ring. It's literally impossible for the chain to come completely off the way it did in the lead up to my review. Anyway, it's a great product... simple, effective, lightweight (for all you carbon-fiber ensconced weight-weenies out there) and easy to install.

I looked at the various chain catchers that connect to the FD attachment bolt. They all look a bit fussy and I'm just not crazy about the idea of attaching something meant to take impacts to the FD. Plus they cost at least twice as much. This thing is stupid simple, lightweight, does the job well, and stays out of the way.

If you ride with a triple crank or a compact double with a really wide range, chances are you have dropped you chain off the smaller sprocket at some point, usually just when you really needed to shift onto that smaller chainring. This Dog Fang is a very simple, very effective device that prevents that from happening. It closes up the open space between the seat tube and the inner chainring, forcing the chain to land on the smaller chainring rather than on top of the bottom bracket shell.It's not pretty but it is very well made, durable, and extremely simple to install. I would have prefered a metric socket head screw but the slot head works fine. It is cheap insurance for no missed shifts and for protection from the damage a chain dropped on the top of the bottom bracket shell can cause.

My 10 speed SRAM Rival kit shifts just fine when on the bike stand, but out in the real world, it really likes to drop the chain when I need it most (i.e. transitioning to uphill!). This little bad boy takes care of that problem. I was struggling to get the screw engaged in the threads while on the bike though. Maybe my bike's paint is too thick?

Either my chain has been especially cooperative for a while, or this thing really works. Effective or not, I haven't needed to claw my chain out from the inside of my chainring on the side of the road on the way to work since I installed this thing.

does the job well- easy to install.no directions, but online pix indicate which way the "fang" goes

Super cheap, easy to mount, uncomplicated. I put one of these on my steel all road bike. It works good without a lot of fuss. I've done a 50 mile gravel road race and never dropped a chain.

Not 100% aluminumBut an awesome invention.I'm buying 2