Park Tool CC-2 Chain Wear Indicator [Rider Review]

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The amount of life left in your chain shouldn't be left a mystery, that's why Park Tool make tools like the CC-2 Chain Checker. This tool makes it easy to check your chain and lets you know exactly when you should be changing it out for a freshie. Our friend Sara recently got one and loves it. Check it out!

Overview

Everyone should know how much life is left in their chain. A worn-out chain doesn’t go down without a fight. It’ll take your entire cassette with it and even your chainring. Your drivetrain has large aluminum pieces that keep weight down but wears easily. Regardless if you have Golden Sram XX1 or Shimano HYPERGLIDE+, these guys don’t stand a chance against the merciless assault of a stretched piece of metal.

The Park Tool CC-2 knows when chains get nasty, at around 0.5% (stretch) for 1X systems and 0.75% for systems with cogs in the front. The percentage means how much of 12 inches the chain stretches when pushed outwards, which is a good indication as the bushings the pins are inserted into will wear and with some play, the chain appears to stretch.

It measures this quite simply by inserting the front pin in between the narrow plates, and the back pin between wider plates. The black gauge is then pushed forward into the percent markings.

You stop pushing when there’s any resistance. The marking that is shown between the metal bar displays how much the chain is worn. Quite easy, huh?

As for quality, the whole tool is made of metal. Of course, blue, to match the Park Tool logo, and it’s the kind of blue you wish your Smurf was (presuming you own one). If you need to open the tool up for some reason, you can even do that. Although there’s nothing that has so far worn down for me.

Going back to the procedure of “pushing till there’s no resistance” as the handbook states, I could see how that would be messed up. If someone were to push a little harder, the pins could bend back and that would give an inaccurate reading. You do have to be a little careful with this tool, but since your paying for it, you probably will be.

Final Thoughts

The Park Tool CC-2 does exactly what its supposed to do - it allows you to effortlessly check the life of your chain. If you take care of it, this one should be the last one you'll need.