Right around April Fool’s Day 2020, a strange product hit the scene called the Ochain (OH-chain). It was an aftermarket “spider” that allowed for limited rearward rotation of the chainring relative to the crank. This was to combat pedal-kickback, which is the occasional tendency for a bike’s rear suspension motion to tug rearward on the chain, and thus the pedals. Pedal kickback is a tricky thing to pin down, because it doesn’t happen for every rider or on every bike. If you’re traveling fast enough, or if the impact is shallow enough, the motion may not be extreme enough for kickback to occur. And some suspension designs are more susceptible than others.
