how long does a chain last?

ARob

just got my bike serviced at my LBS. had done 1200 miles since new and this was the first service. they changed the chain and rear gears becasue this was 'due', but the old ones aren't noticably different when i got it back. it cost me £80 which is hard at this time of year so wondering if this was money well spent.

is a chain/ gear change just a routine or do they usually wear out after so many miles? what are the signs of a worn chain for next time and how often should they be changed?

feel

WELL - as a complete beginner i'm afraid i haven't a clue, sorry :oops:

some one more experienced will be along in a minute, if not post it on the Know how board

ademort

What type of chain and gears did you have, even with the cheapest group you should certainly get more than 1200 miles from the chain, as for the gears they should be good for much longer. I have a tiagra group on my work bike, have ridden 12000Km plus and still have the same chain and gears.What type of bike do you have and who are your LBS

Smokin Joe

I assume you mean the chain and sprockets. 1200 miles for a chain is sensible, but unless you have been unlucky the sprockets should last for three chains. The industry advice is too change the chain and sprockets together, but that is way over-cautious (and profitable for them).

redddraggon

Looks like they saw you coming.....

£80 just for the parts? or parts and labour? What groupset do you have?

dennisn

Did you keep them lubed? If not, it's possible to wear them out. Key word "possible".
However if it's a bike used on roads, not dirt trails, and you have at least kept it
clean I can't see how chain & cassette would "wear" out in that short of time.
I've seen people ride budget bikes for years with no lubing and little cleaning and
somehow it survives.

Dennis Noward

ademort

If you want to know more about bicycle maintainance then check out www.sheldonbrown.com, this website has everything for the cycling enthusiast. Next time you need a new chain you can check it out for yourself without the need to go to your lbs and face an unexpected hefty bill for parts and labour.Its your money.

Alex_Simmons/RST

A quality chain and rear cluster will last a long time if they are kept clean and lubed (not over lubed). Too much lube (or the wrong type) just attracts dirt and grime.

I had a campag chain and cluster last 20,000km but 8-10,000km is more typical for me.

Pay particular attention when riding on wet days / wet roads / dirt etc - dry, clean and lube immediately afterwards. Same applies if you sweat a lot or ride in humid conditions. It only takes a bit of sweat to do some really nasty things to a chain.

If conditions are good, then every 200km or weekly, whichever comes first.

Get a bag of rags from a cleaning supplies store - I did that and A$20 worth has lasted for years!

Chains and clusters can be trashed inside a few hundred km of use if not treated right.

keith57

My Dura Ace chain was showing signs of wear after around 3000 or so miles - bought the bike in May 2007. I was on a bike maintenance course and we measured the wear with a little Park Tools thing - it wasn't fully worn, but on it's way. The gauge has 2 settings if it fails the 1st one its partly worn, if it fails the other one its knakered. It's much cheaper to change the chain early rather than let everything wear out and have to change the chain rings and cassette as well.

All the parts - new chain, chain breaking tool, wear guage, etc, cost me around £50, fitted it myself. Course cost £50 so I can now do all of my own routine maintenance!

redddraggon

Keith57 wrote:

My Dura Ace chain was showing signs of wear after around 3000 or so miles - bought the bike in May 2007. I was on a bike maintenance course and we measured the wear with a little Park Tools thing - it wasn't fully worn, but on it's way. The gauge has 2 settings if it fails the 1st one its partly worn, if it fails the other one its knakered. It's much cheaper to change the chain early rather than let everything wear out and have to change the chain rings and cassette as well.

All the parts - new chain, chain breaking tool, wear guage, etc, cost me around £50, fitted it myself. Course cost £50 so I can now do all of my own routine maintenance!

Where did you do the course?

oldwelshman

Smokin Joe wrote:

I assume you mean the chain and sprockets. 1200 miles for a chain is sensible, but unless you have been unlucky the sprockets should last for three chains. The industry advice is too change the chain and sprockets together, but that is way over-cautious (and profitable for them).

1200 miles for a chain?
I have never had a chain need replacing that fast.
They sound like a Renault service centre !!!

nickwill

I usually change my chain at about 1500 miles on my 10 speed Campag Centaur equipped Summer bike. As stated above the cassette usually lasts 3 times that.
Maybe I'm ultra fussy, but a dodgy drive train spoils my enjoyment of a ride.
My 9 speed Shimano 105 Winter bike's chain usually last a bit longer, partlly because I expect my Winter bike to run more roughly, but also because 9 speed does last longer.
I usually get about 2500 miles from it, and about 5000 from the cassette.

redddraggon

I've done just over 2000 miles and I'm on my 3rd chain!

1st chain died rather early due to stiff link

2nd chain I destroyed it playing with my new chain tool

The first chain was a warranty job and I'm only running 8spd so when I broke the 2nd chain it only cost me £8 to replace it.

DavidBelcher

I tend to replace chains every 6-9 months (other posters seem to have commented already that keeping them in service too long affects the lifespan of the rear sprockets and hence your wallet in the long run!), depending on how much the bike is used and what sort of conditions it puts up with; based on limited experience of my first 9sp set-up the chain life seems shorter than 8sp - I started off with a SRAM PC59 chain for my new 9sp transmission which almost broke around the pin at one point (and not at the Powerlink or any point where a chain tool had been used, I should add) after 9 months. I now have a Wippermann Connex 900 which seems fine so far.

David

keith57

redddraggon wrote:

Where did you do the course?

www.cyclewales.net/

I did a 1 day course, which was fine. Others there at the same time were doing a 3 day course where you get to completely strip your bike down to its component parts and rebuild it - I think that would be the one I do myself if I was going again.

PhilofCas

My MTB has been abused year in year out, i've let the chain and sprockets just wear away together, had a pretty poor maintenance regime and must have well over 6000 on them, no slippage even now.

Sadly it looks as though the shop did something like your name A Rob, i'd switch shops, seems to have been too low mileage to be believable, a cheap trick to play in my book.

windyphil

I saw an article where when you got a new cassette (rear sprocket set) you get three new chains. After 1000miles use, you change the chain to a new one. After 2000miles you put on the third chain. At 3000miles you go back to the first chain as it has approximately the same wear as the 3rd one you're taking off and you do another 1000 miles and so on changing chians at 100mile intervals........In this way you get 9000 miles from one cassette and 3000 miles from each chain.

As regards the people riding old clonkers with no maintenence / lubing etc and chains lasting years......they never chain gear so the chain doesn't get any lateral twisting. Any twisting really knacks the chain quick hence 9spd not lasting like 8spd, plus they're generally thinner chains so are more 'flimsy'.

ARob

oh poo! looks like i walked into that one.

oh well, i have the old bits, i'll just put them back on in about 6000 miles time when the new set wears out!

pedalrog

Sounds like you were ripped off. Either rotate chains every few hundred miles (suggest 3) and cassette replacements will be very, very rare - or do as I do and change the chain & cassette about every 8000 miles.
Shops seem to replace the cassette and chain for no reason - other than it makes them money and if somebody takes their bike to a shop for a service then they probably don't understand when to replace worn parts. Another reason I guess is that a new chain & cassette will mean that any chance of gear slippage is minimised thus the customer won't be returning the bike for a free replacement because "it wasn't like that when I brought it in".

PhilofCas

ARob wrote:

oh poo! looks like i walked into that one.

oh well, i have the old bits, i'll just put them back on in about 6000 miles time when the new set wears out!

that's not too bad then, pretty sure you'll be fine to do that