Chain jammed between chainrings...how to get it out?

[Jolt]

I was riding home from the grocery store with a pretty good load on the rack, and when I shifted (or tried to) from the middle to the smallest chainring as I started to climb the steep hill on the way home, the pedals suddenly stopped turning and I found that a couple of links of the chain had gotten jammed between the two chainrings instead of shifting cleanly onto the small ring. I could NOT get them out, so had to walk, pushing the bike, the last 3/4 mile home which was quite embarrassing to say the least. Does anyone have suggestions for how to get the chain un-jammed (it's in there tight!), or should I just take it to the shop?

[maillotpois]

If you can't work it out by hand, then remove the outer chain ring. You won't even have to take it off (over the crank). If you remove the bolts the chain should come loose.

[Mr. Bloom]

Jolt, this is exactly what happened to me three times on the Hilly Hundred.

I had to "pull hard" to get things unstuck. The cause was careless shifting on my part...

What I found, was that my chain rings had become bent and the small ring had to be replaced.

[spokewench]

This can happen pretty often on a mountain bike especially in the mud. You may not want to do this now since you took the bike home already. But when you are out on the bike and don't want to try to walk it all the way home, you have a choice. Take your foot and push on the chain to yank it out from between the chain rings. your leg is way stronger than your arms and it usually will come out. THere is the danger of the chain breaking, bending, but most of the time, you can get away with it without any permanent damage and get it home without having to walk out.

spoke