Tell me you haven’t had this happen; you’ve been powering along in the race, flying downhill in the big ring and headed to a rise on the course. You dump that front derailleur to move from the big ring to the small ring for the climb when… 

Nothing. The chain has dropped and your chain is resting inside the crankset on the bottom bracket. Suddenly you’re going nowhere. Check that—you’re over on the side of the road, lifting the chain back onto the chainrings by hand, suffering the indignity of not only the stoppage, but having chain grease all over your fingers. 

Think this has happened to only you? Think again. Lucky for us, one of those early victims—former triathlete and reigning Olympic time trial gold medalist Kristin Armstrong—developed, with her husband Joe Savola, a tiny product called the K-Edge Chain Catcher to eliminate front-ring chain drop. 

During fast shifts from the big ring to the small ring, jostling can carry the chain past the front derailleur’s inner guide, off the ring and onto the bottom bracket. A poorly-timed chain drop, at best, dumps your race momentum. At worst it can cause an accident, especially if it occurs under heavy pedaling load or while out of saddle. 

Tri bikes tend to complicate the process, too. The short stays make for steeper chain angles, and the large discrepancy in chainring sizes between the big and small rings further increases the opportunity for chain drop. 

The K-Edge Chain Catcher is a simple solution. Mounted on the front derailleur braze-on mount (a clamp-on version is available as well), the Chain Catcher is a CNC-d aluminum guide that rests alongside the inner edge of the small chainring. The guide safely prevents the chain links from unloading from the rings.  

It’s one of those “why didn’t I think of that” products. Armstrong and Savola didn’t want to leave anything to chance at the Beijing Olympics, where Armstrong was a favorite, but not a shoe-in.  

Photo by Jay Prasuhn

“Having experienced firsthand the damage a dropped chain can do in race, Kristin and I were determined not have any such mishaps in Beijing,” Savola said. “And because of the aerodynamic shape of Kristin’s Olympic Cervelo P3, the standard chain watchers available in the market wouldn’t work. That’s when we came up with the idea of attaching our chain catcher to the front derailleur braze-on mount.” 

The couple approached friend Eric Jensen of AceCo Precision Manufacturing, and asked him to design and build their design concept. “The result blew us away,” Savola said. “Not only was our chain catcher functional, it was a piece of art—sculpted and lightweight. Needless to say, the K-Edge Chain Catcher did its job; Kristin was able to shift to the small ring under power with complete confidence and, of course, she came away with the gold medal.”  

Following the Olympics, the K-Edge scooped up a bit of attention from other pro road squads. “The Garmin-Slipstream pro team emailed us with an order for 45 to be delivered in time for the 2009 Paris-Roubaix—that was really the launch of the K-Edge venture,” Savola said. “On May first, 2009, we introduced the K-Edge Chain Catcher to the public and the business has exceeded our wildest expectations ever since.” (The product now has global distribution and a number of ProTour road teams, including Garmin-Transitions, Columbia-HTC, BMC and Sky.)

And the tri segment has noticed too. “We’ve recently added some top professional triathletes to our list of athletes using the K-Edge. Tereza Macel (TeamTBB), Donna Phelan (TeamTBB), Heather Jackson (Trek-KSwiss), Becky Lavelle, and Brian Lavelle are all using the Catcher to make sure a derailed chain doesn’t ruin their day,” Savola said. 

It’s a small, 10-gram tool with lots of peace of mind, for just $40. “Cross-chained, under power, on rough roads, a K-Edge may just save your day,” Savola said. 

While the company offers color-anodized Chain Catchers on its website, the Boise, Idaho-based company is now offering a Ironman-branded Chain Catcher, available exclusively at the Ironman Bike Store at upcoming Ironman events.