Scooter Chain Inspection

 In the summer, I worked on a small electric scooter for a bit. I found that the chain that was originally with the chain drive had suffered from the elements and I promptly ordered a new chain from the McMaster Carr website. I had a bit of an issue with the chain I ordered however, the chain I got was 3 links too long. As a result, I had to reduce the number of links in the chain through a convoluted method that involved a grinder and an arbor press. It's incredibly hard to fit a 0.2cm roller pin into a master link by eye. But a few minutes of dropping the pin on the ground and searching for it again and again finally paid off. And I got to ride around Cambridge at 8x my walking speed. However, the grinding caused the chain to rust at a much accelerated rate. I realized a few days ago that the chain was fit to break. After some torque stress, I got the chain to break. I learned a few things about identifying an improper part. Some of the things I could have done before it got bad include, lubricating the chain more, anodizing the chain again where I worked on it, or perhaps using better tools which wouldn't mark the chain up so much (ie not a grinder).