Chainguides have been an integral part of downhill bikes for as long as there’s been downhill racing and although they took a while to become a ‘fit and forget’ product, they have always remained a nuisance to fit, but that is changing and leading the charge is e*thirteen’s LG1 design…

 Words & Photos: Olly Forster

Who says you can’t have rad looking components that perform out of the box? The LG1+ guide is exactly that and remains one of the easiest chainguides to install.

E*thirteen have had a pretty meteoric rise to the number one position in the chainguide business, and mostly due to their innovative stance on product design and use of alternative materials. The LG1+ embodies the brands design ethos and experience from years of cutting edge design and manufacturing, and wrapping it all up into one hell of chainguide.

The first thing you notice with LG1+ is how light it is, and at 180g with bolts and spacers, this is light and 40g lighter than the SRS+ system. Obviously downhill bikes are getting increasingly lighter, but with the advent of the 1×10 drivetrain and it’s subsequent popularity for aggressive trail riding, having a good chainguide that also helps shave a few grams off that ‘go anywhere’ bike of yours is only going to be an advantage. The LG1+ isn’t just light, it also has the looks to match!

Check the chain line! No spacers on the BB, one fat and one thin on the back plate and bosh! Ready to hit the trails!

Installation.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever fitted a chainguide as quickly and as effortlessly as I did the LG1+,  in fact, I know I haven’t. In the box the guide is fully assembled and after a quick read through the provided instructions and my bike ready in the stand, it took me only twenty minutes to get the guide on, aligned and ready to ride – bloody marvelous! This might not be the case for everyone, but I can guarantee this guide will be a lot easier to fit than anything you’ve experience to date.

The top ‘captive’ hardware sits within a channel on the back plate and can’t fall out when your fiddling about- genius! It’s also worth noting that the back plate is a work of CNC’d art packed with innovation that both increase adjustability and reduce weight!

The ‘taco’ bashguard is also fully adjustable to further increase the guides ability to fit perfectly to any bike. The taco itself is also a marvel of injection moulding – just look at how excess material has been removed to save weight and the structural pattern used to increase strength for taking impacts. I can’t stress enough how well designed this is!

Okay – the original LG1 was awesome, but anyone who ran one knew they were a pain in the ass to get dialed, sure they were worth the stress, but with the new LG1+ you don’t get any of the stress and all of the advantages posed by this great design. In the picture below you can clearly see how one bolt releases the outer cage to swing out of the way allowing for easy chain removal and also aiding in the initial set up and spacing of the guide.

The lower guide has what e*thirteen call a ‘stealth idler’ and is basically a super quiet jocky wheel. Like the top cage, the lower guide is a piece of cake to remove for installation purposes – undo the bolt and off it pops. The lower guide sits in groves that easily match up when aligned. This is great if it takes you a while to get the right spacer combo for your bike as you’ll need to pop this off to remove the cranks and back plate.

The top guide has clear marking and set groves for specific chain ring sizes – pretty neat!

The Guide Ring is as sexy as chainrings get – CNC’d to perfection and as light as feather (coming in at 50g for a 36) while maintaining superb strength and durability. The Guide Ring was also designed with a step for the chain to sit on and perfect for single ring and chainguide duties.

The e*thirteen set up – LG1+ and Guide Ring work together perfectly and look pretty rad together too.

Conclusion.

The LG1+ chainguide is claimed by e*thirteen to be the most reliable, most adjustable, strongest and lightest chainguide on the market. That’s a strong slogan to put onto your product and in such a competitive market, is one that would need some serious back up. Having run the LG1+ for a while now and on a variety of trails and on two bikes, I have found it faultless in every way and most definitely what I like to call, ‘a fit and forget’ product.

The LG1+ is very light for a guide complete with taco and as far as I can see, your not going to loose your chain either, so it ticks the reliable box too. If you’ve read the review above you know this thing is very adjustable too, so that just leaves strength and so far it’s had a few scrapes and bangs and so far so good, but only time and throwing myself into the line of danger will perhaps indicate where the LG1+ might fail.

Overall I have been more than impressed with the LG1+ and I’m sure it will be hard to find another guide that meets or even exceeds this on any one of the guides key features. It really does seem that the LG1+ is pretty much perfect and if your looking for a new guide, I’d more than recommend it. At £130 it isn’t the cheapest guide available, but considering what this guide offers, I really believe this is excellent value for money. The LG1+ is available in white and black and in two sizes to accommodate ring sizes from 32-36T (tested) and 36-40T in both the ‘old’ and ’05’ ISCG patterns. The Guide Ring is also on the money at £35 for 32-35T and £40 for 36-40T and is available in ‘PG Green’, ‘Delta Gold’, ‘Rocket Red’, ‘Drink Grape’, ‘Jet Black’, ‘Silver Bullet’ and ‘Blue Steel’.

If you want to know more, hit the logo below or alternatively head over to Silverfish-UK  for more… Happy trails, Olly.

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