Is Chain Monkey Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Frappell wanted £75,000 for a quarter of the business, and Touker Suleyman funded it in full despite his own career sitting in retail and manufacturing rather than motorcycling specifically. A protected mechanical design with a defined buyer base was enough to make the numbers work for him regardless.

Owners who service their own bikes are a small but devoted crowd, the kind who happily pay for something that fixes a nagging job properly, even though the overall pool of buyers is nowhere near the size of a typical high street product.

Frappell built out the business well beyond the original tool into chain lubricants and cleaning products, consolidating everything under a new name, Tru-Tension, which now spans UK, European and US markets.

Consumables like lubricant and cleaner bring customers back again and again in a way a single tool bought once for years never could, giving the wider brand a sturdier revenue base than the original Chain Monkey alone would have provided.

Search specifically for Chain Monkey and you might conclude the company vanished, since there is no standalone storefront under that name any more. Search Tru-Tension instead and the original tool, still described as the first of its kind, sits right there in the current catalogue.

Independent testing coverage in motorcycle and cycling trade press over the years has also given the brand credibility beyond its own marketing, useful in a category where riders tend to distrust anything new until they see it compared head to head with what they already use. The tool remains available through Amazon and specialist motorcycle retailers.