Bionicon C-Guide

There’s been plenty of effort made in the last few years to help keep your bike’s chain in place and to reduce chain slap; traditional DH-inspired roller-guides have always worked but the weight, complexity and inherent drag are bitter pills to swallow on a trail or all-mountain rig that needs to go against gravity as much as with it. In addition, most roller guides will only work with one (or maybe two) chainrings, and they won’t fit to frames with press-fit bottom brackets and no ISCG tabs.

The advent of clutch-style rear derailleurs has helped chain retention a lot, and SRAM’s alternating narrow-wide chainring tooth profiles (as used on XX1) also hold some promise, but possibly the cleverest solution we’ve seen is Bionicon’s diminutive C-Guide v.02. Its sub-20g weight barely even tips the scales, it’s available in a range of anodised colours and it can be fitted to any bike with a traditional chainstay (sorry Turner or Orange riders). The $80 price tag seems a bit steep for a few tiny bits of alloy and plastic, but it certainly provides value for money in the performance department.

The C-Guide simply zip-ties to the underside of the chainstay; if your rear derailleur cable is routed under the chainstay the hollow mounting bracket will clip over that, too. We found it worked best when positioned as close to the chainrings as possible, approximately in line with the rim. Because the guide splits into two halves you can fit it without needing to remove the chain, and you can reposition it slightly if you find it’s rubbing on the rear tyre or otherwise getting in the way. It’s important to remember that the C-Guide will effectively shorten the chain, so make sure that you’ve still got enough chain length to allow full suspension compression in your two biggest cogs or you may break something. We’d also recommend an extra zip tie around the centre of the mounting barrel for added security.

We ran our C-Guide on a 3x10 drivetrain and it worked flawlessly. It’s almost totally silent, with just the tiniest bit of noise at either extreme of the cassette. Shifting performance wasn’t affected in any way and there was no noticeable increase in friction. Combined with the clutch style derailleur on the test bike, the C-Guide totally eliminated any chain slap and we didn’t ever drop the chain even on quite rocky DH tracks.

We also tried combining it with a top-mounted guide on a single chainring equipped bike that lacked ISCG tabs. This duo kept the chain on through some solid DH-style runs and together they offer a good solution for bikes that lack dedicated chain guide mounts.

Wear on the guide tunnel was fairly minimal, and you can flip the tunnel top-bottom and front-back to extend its lifespan; when it’s finally worn out, replacements are available for around $30.

The C-Guide may seem expensive for the materials involved, but in regards to performance it is probably the best chain management option on the market for trail and all-mountain bikes. The zip ties mightn’t be as neat as some form of direct mount system, but it allows for quick and easy mounting to a wide range of frames, and once installed correctly it goes about doing its job silently and efficiently.

RideWerx (03) 9015 9600 / www.ridewerx.com.au