Tools
Half the tools sold as chain tools only do half the job.
Breaking — pressing a pin out to separate the chain. Every tool here does it.
Riveting — peening a hollow pin over so a joining link holds permanently. Not every tool here does it, and one listing describes only breaking.
A clip link needs pliers and nothing else. A rivet link needs the second action, and on anything with real power a rivet link is the only acceptable join.
The pitch range. Published ranges here run 35–525 and 35–630. Common motorcycle chains are 420 to 530, comfortably inside both — it is the ends that separate them.
The pin sizes. Three pins at 2.2, 2.9 and 3.8 mm is the standard answer. A single-pin tool at 3.8 mm covers drive chains and not fine ones.
The link type. One tool in this catalogue states it suits hollow-rivet chain links — the only one to name the joining link it was made for. That is the job people get wrong: flare too little and the plate walks off, too much and the link binds.
A 13-piece case is about 22 cm long. One tool here is a single 12 cm body that publishes its slot width and its pin diameter.
A chain fails away from the garage. The tool that is with you is the one that matters, and they are genuinely two different products.
The pressing pin. It takes the whole load and it snaps. One tool here makes it replaceable and puts a spare in the box.
Pitch 35–525 · hollow-rivet chain links · pins 2.2 / 2.9 / 3.8 mm
A chain breaking and riveting tool for chain pitches 35 to 525, published specifically as suitable for hollow-rivet chain links, supplied with three separating pins.
Best for: Fitting a hollow-rivet joining link properly, which is the job the tool is named for.
≈ £26 / €28
13 pieces · pitch 35–630 · pins 2.2 / 2.9 / 3.8 mm · hardened tool steel
A 13-piece chain breaking and riveting tool in hardened tool steel, published for chain pitches from 35 to 630 — including cam chains — with three separating pins.
Best for: A workshop that sees cam chains as well as drive chains.
≈ £14 / €18
420–530 · 30 mm slot · 3.8 mm punch pin · ~120 mm long · hardened carbon steel
A compact chain breaker and riveter for 420, 428, 520, 525, 528 and 530 chains, with a 30 mm slot, a 3.8 mm punch pin and a body roughly 120 mm long.
Best for: Carrying on a trip, where a chain that breaks has to be joined at the roadside.
≈ £8 / €9
13 pieces · pins 2.2 / 2.9 / 3.8 mm · hardened steel · case 12.2 × 7.6 × 21.6 cm
A 13-piece chain breaker and riveter set in hardened steel with three pins of 2.2, 2.9 and 3.8 mm, three anvils and two press plates, in a blow-moulded carry case.
Best for: A home garage servicing motorcycle and bicycle chains from the same box.
≈ $21 / £14 / €19
High-carbon steel · 25–60, 415H, 428H, 520, 530 · replaceable pin · spare pin free
A chain breaker in high-carbon steel for 25 to 60 series chains plus 415H, 428H, 520 and 530, with a heat-treated replaceable pressing pin and a spare pin included.
Best for: Breaking chain to length, where the tool is used often enough that pins wear out.
≈ £20 / €15
Yes. Breaking presses a pin out to separate the chain. Riveting peens a new pin over so a rivet link holds. A clip link needs only pliers; a rivet link needs the second action, and not every tool does it.
Common motorcycle drive chains run 420 to 530, which sits inside every range published here. The ends matter: a heavy 630 chain at the top, and a fine cam chain at the bottom.
Chain pins differ in diameter with pitch. 2.2, 2.9 and 3.8 mm covers the common range. The pin has to match the chain: too large and it will not enter, too small and it deforms rather than presses.
For : Fitting a hollow-rivet joining link properly, which is the job the tool is named for.
Main strength : The only tool here that names the LINK TYPE it suits — hollow-rivet links
Main limitation : No material published, where four tools here name theirs
For : A workshop that sees cam chains as well as drive chains.
Main strength : The widest pitch range published here — 35 to 630 covers everything from a cam chain to a heavy drive chain
Main limitation : The contents are not itemised beyond the piece count
For : Carrying on a trip, where a chain that breaks has to be joined at the roadside.
Main strength : Publishes slot width, pin diameter and overall length — three dimensions nothing else here gives together
Main limitation : One pin size only, where three tools here supply three
For : A home garage servicing motorcycle and bicycle chains from the same box.
Main strength : The contents are itemised piece by piece, which is the only way to compare a kit against another
Main limitation : No chain pitch range published, and that is the fitment statement
For : Breaking chain to length, where the tool is used often enough that pins wear out.
Main strength : The pressing pin is replaceable AND a spare comes in the box — the pin is the part that breaks
Main limitation : Riveting is not stated — this reads as a breaker rather than a breaker-riveter
The models here come from the catalogue of this site. Specifications are those published by the manufacturer and on the Amazon product page; prices are what Keepa reported on the date below, and both move. The ranking uses declared specifications, the balance of stated strengths and limitations, and price. No product on this site has been physically tested, and nothing here claims otherwise.
Last checked on
Nothing written into the text below is a current price. Where an amount appears in a sentence, it is the reading taken on the day that sentence was written; what a shop is asking at this moment loads beside the product itself, and that is the figure to go by.
Helmets and riding gear are discounted over and over through the year — hardest of all in the weeks when nobody is riding, which is months away from when most of it is bought — and a struck-through figure on its own says nothing whatever about what the same model was charged at four weeks ago. UniverTrack holds a week-by-week history for every retailer, which means a reduction is judged against a price somebody actually paid rather than one dreamed up for the sale — and it tells you when the moment to buy has genuinely come.
