Chainring & Chainring Bolts Question

Here's a question for those who know....

I just recently put a new single speed 42T chainring on my winter bike and used the chainring bolts that were on the old chainring to install it.

Well, I was riding home the other night and during the ride I swore I heard what sounded like something falling off of my bike, by the time I got home, I noticed some give when I was pedaling, I thought nothing of it til I got my bike down last night to prepare for this mornings ride.

Well, turns out all of my chainring bolts were loose and one was missing, hence the give when pedaling.

My question is, the OG chainring bolts I used had washer type things on the back of them, which i kept on. (I flipped the bike to fixie last weekend and can't overlook the correlation between the increased torque of riding fixie and all of the chainring bolts suddenly all coming lose and one being tossed) Would this problem be solved using single speed chainring bolts and losing the washers?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated, I'm new to doing my own bike maintenance and repair, so every hiccup like this requires a google deep dive and fumbling through trying to figure out what went wrong!

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on November 19, 2011 at 7:29am

I am not a fan of loctite on chain ring bolts; I have more issues where the bolts not coming out when it is time to change a chain ring than I do with them coming loose.

I actually grease the threads on them in hopes I will be able to get them off at a later date.