Freshly inserted pin on a new Shimano chain causes a stiff joint I just tried to replace my chain for the first time - Shimano, 9-speed, labeled as CN-GH53. After I inserted the special pin, the joint is somewhat more stiff compared to the other ones. On the insertion side, it seems to protrude from the plate about as much as the regular pins (so almost not at all), and on the other side, where the guiding part of the pin was, it's protruding by about 0.5 mm. Is this normal, and will it get better once lube penetrates the link, or did I mess something up? I did notice that before I pushed it in enough to be aligned with the regular pins on the one side, the joint couldn't move at all and it got better once I got it further, but I don't want to push it in too far by accident.

It happened to me several times and the most reliable way to fix it was to actually push the pin back a bit, i.e. use the breaker tool from the opposite side engaging the chain link on the other bits of the breaker tool, see the picture:

![enter image description here](

**Red** is the chain breaking tool
**Black** are the chain parts
**Blue** is the pin you are driving in

First you drive the pin (usually from the outside towards the frame) just to see it flush like the other pins on the frame side (middle figure). Since the whole link was resting against the massive part of the breaking tool, it gets somewhat compressed (towards the frame).
You then reposition the chain breaker tool so the chain link rests on the tiny leaves of the breaker tool (see the right-most figure) and drive the pin further relieving the link.

I've found a youtube video titled Bike Assembly and Repair - Chain Breaker Tool that shows the whole process as I've described it above.