Text and Photos by Matthew Mallory
In my mind there is nothing worse than dropping your chain, there is nothing more annoying, especially if you have to break out the tools to fix it. I also hate the sound of the chain rattling around on the bike. All of my rides have chainguides on them, even my xc bike just to keep them quite and to avoid the dreaded jumping around of the chain.
For several years now MRP, Mountain Racing Products, has been pumping out top quality chain retention systems. They have been the choice of downhill racers and freeriders for a long time.
With the recent trend of trying to lighten bikes as much as possible chainguides have had to follow suit, some have worked and some haven't. To get a true bang for your buck a chainguide must be light, durable and reliable.
Last year MRP released the G2, a simple, lightweight guide at competitive pricing. Utilizing a minimal back plate, plastic upper guide and a small pully on the bottom this baby is one of the lightest guides on the market. There is also a small bashguard mounted on the bottom to help save you from the occasional rub. For the real weight weenies out there you could remove the bashguard and save a few more ounces.
I have been running the G2 on my dh bike for over a year now and can highly recommend it. The installation was simple, sometimes it is a real pain in the butt to mount and space them but I nailed it first try. Over the course of probably 100 days of riding I have not had my chain come off once. The G2 has performed its duties flawlessly. There has been the odd smacking of logs and roots as well as a couple of short, 50/50 landings and nothing has happened to the guide.
My normal luck with chainguides usually involves tuning with rocks on trail, spacing issues, digging the chain out from between the back plate and ring, and straightening out bent rollers. I have had none of these issues with the G2 and am stoked to be mounting another one on my new Flatline and my Slayer SS.
When a chainguide is working right, one never thinks about it, when it goes wrong they are a nightmare, the G2 you can mount on your bike and forget about it. That's the sign of a great component. Also for 2009 there is a G2 Lite that will fit a small ring as the G2 is designed for a 36 to 40 tooth front ring and you can also get it in pimp white.
For more info go to www.mrpbike.com.
