Is this normal wear & tear?

biondino

Ah well. Shall I add some proper grease tonight? I also have a brand new (KMC) chain for my winter bike - little did I know as I took it out of its tiny box that it was already greased! It's now in a plastic bag, sigh.

il_principe

Dry lube is all good. I use Finish Line pro road and it does the job.

Greg T

I'm not buying this.

By the end of a week's winter riding my chain is clagged to buggery.

A clean dry cloth with some soapy water just aint going to cut it.

A chain cleaning machine loaded with Industrial strength T-72 atomic stripping solvent is the way forward.

Dry lube for desert.

Life is too short to try and wipe your chain clean - non?

JoeSoap76

jashburnham wrote:

KMC, who are a renowned chain manufacturer recommend never ever using a degreaser on their chains as it will damage them even if you relube.

Interesting you should mention the chain. I talked to the branch manager this morning and he said that the mechanic had spotted that my chain was a little worn and might be the culprit. I pointed out that my chain has - along with the rest of the bike - fewer than 800 miles on the clock and he told me that it's not uncommon for chains to need to be replaced after that kind of distance.

To me, that's crazy talk. 800 miles per chain? That seemed a litttle - nay, a lot - on the low side to me and I said so... but he insisted, especially, he said, if the bike is not maintained.

Ah, but I clean my bike weekly. He then suggested that maybe it's my cleaning technique that caused the problem.

So here it is:

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=24

That's how I clean my chain. I even use a Park Tools chain scrubber purchased from Evans (along with a lubricant I was assured by the assistant was just right for Glasgow commuting).

I don't remember reading any warnings on the box for the chain scrubber along the lines of: Caution! May cause metal fatigue!

cjw wrote:

If a consumer chooses to request a repair or replacement, then for the first six months after purchase it will be for the retailer to prove the goods did conform to contract (e.g. were not inherently faulty) to wriggel out of it.

Sounds as though this is what they are try to do

That's exactly what they are trying to do. Straight from the manager's mouth to my ear: they need to determine if the problem was due to a manufacturing fault or if it was my fault. I get the distinct impression that the chances of them deciding the latter are fairly high.

I wait with bated breath. :?

il_principe

Chain should outlast 800 miles! As for cleaning, my best bike well that gets cleaned after every ride. Why, because the components are expensive and I'd like them to last. The chain is never degreased; regular cleaning ensures it ain't clagged. Considering replacing it would cost around £50 I figure this is worth it! As for the SS I’d consider degreasing that as the chain is far cheaper. Clean regularly and you'll seldom need to use degreaser on a road bike. I’d always imagined chain baths were invented for MTB’s.

Greg T

jashburnham wrote:

I’d always imagined chain baths were invented for MTB’s.

Were you wearing a tweed jacket, plus fours and monocle when you typed that.

"Jeeves put some more wood on the fire and flog the gardener.

If you see another hybrid on the drive please shoot them, vermin.

I’d always imagined chain baths were invented for MTB’s"

That sort of thing.

always_tyred

You should get more than 800 miles from a chain.

You should get more than 400 out of a bb

You should get more than 400 out of cables, brakes, pedals.

If parts needed replacing that often, many of us would be replacing chains once a month to 6 weeks, and companies like Halfords would be selling disposable bikes by now.

Personally, I'd "elevate" this complaint, if only to ensure visibility.

Good example this week. I take my car in to be rapaired at Kwik Fi t (I know...)

Oddly, it takes them an entire day to call me back to collect the car, after they've looked at it. As I arrive at the garage, I see a deep and long scratch down the wing, and damage to the sill. I bring this up immediately and I'm invited to "prove it was them" and after I say that I'm not an idiot, I'm told to leave the premesis.

So, on the face of it, I'm left with an insurance excess, and loss of no-claims.

After initiating an insurance claim, magically, the comapny have agreed to fix the damage at no cost to me. However, it took me to persuade the area manager to look at the damage and to speak to his staff. Its pretty clear that the damage is the same shape as the ramp, and I'm guessing that if I can figure that out, an insurance assessor can figure that out and that the area manager and everyone else at Kwik Fit knows exactly what shape that scratch has traced. It was obvious that "the boys" decided that they would be able to get away with it, but if I hadn't complained until I was blue in the face, I'd be about £400 down.

In your case, I suspect that someone, somewhere within the Evans empire will be shocked and appalled by the service and advice you have received. Often, within a particular group of people, an abberant culture comes about, for example at the CHESSER BRANCH OF KWIT FIT GRRRRR!!!.

At the Glasgow store, it seems from your posts that the culture has gone to one where the customer having to demonstrate beyond all possibility that the shop are liable, in the face of explanations that are not the most likely but which the customer is going to find it quite difficult to disprove.

The bike is a simple device. You have not purchased a high performance 'cross bike, cycled for 800 miles through the Campsie Fells on forest tracks and left the mud to dry for weeks, or stored your bike in a canal.

Ask them what might have worn the chain out. Ask them in what way the chain is worn and how this might relate to the damaged part. Indeed, ask them to demonstrate that the derraleiur hanger is bent, because if the chain caused the mech to rip apart, the hanger really should be bent, because it would have transmitted the force.

They would have to point to a badly rusted and/or seized section of chain, which is unable to pass through the mech for this explanation to hold, or a section that might have been jammed in the front chain rings somewhere (and which one might expect still to be jammed in the front chain rings). However, before pulling up to the lights, you really would have been aware of a seized link as you pedalled - its unmistakable and it feels like the bike is trying to change gear. the same applies to a lesser degree to a damaged link.

No slight extra play in a chain will cause the rear mech to snap. No stretching in the links of a chain will cause this to happen, unless the chain was far too long to begin with (which, for the record, is a possibility). The gears may not shift very well, or may even skip whenyou have a worn chain but the rear mech will not sponteneously hang itself.

There is an infinitecimally small chance that a very loose chain can become entangled during use such that the wrong part of the chain ends up above the level of the jockey wheels and/or the cassette, causing it to pull apart when you pedal. For this to have happened, you would have to have either been on a rocky or rooty section of single track, or been over some epic pot holes, AND for the chain to have been maladjusted or hugely stretched in te first place.

If this has happened and you have NOT been on any single track, then it is possible that one of the motions of the deralleiur may have become seized. Mine is riddled with rust just now, and occasionally the lower cage stops moving and the chain isn't correctly tensioned (bad bicycle owner!). Again, this should be self-evident from a brief inspection of the bike and seems profoudnly unlikely after 800 miles of moderate use, even in Glasgow!

I'm angry again, and I may take it out on Kwik Fit.

il_principe

Greg T wrote:

jashburnham wrote:

I’d always imagined chain baths were invented for MTB’s.

Were you wearing a tweed jacket, plus fours and monocle when you typed that.

"Jeeves put some more wood on the fire and flog the gardener.

If you see another hybrid on the drive please shoot them, vermin.

I’d always imagined chain baths were invented for MTB’s"

That sort of thing.

Quite possibly old boy.

Having owned a Ridgeback Hybrid I'm afraid that I do view Hybrids as being vermin. I know I shouldn't but they are such a horrible compromise. 2 colleagues have the same model (Gary Fisher Wingra) it's never going to be used "off road" weighs a tonne and is completely unnecessary. They could have paid £300 or so for a SS and that would have been better in so man ways, but no, perceived wisdom says COMMUTE = HYBRID. One of them took his bike onto the LBS the other day to fix a puncture, sigh. Typically I wasn't in the office at the time.

EDIT - (RANT WARNING) The Wingra has a Triple for God's sake, a triple in London, what is the point! They're both healthy fellas, you don't need a triple to tackle the bloody Alps so why you need one on a Hybrid is completely beyond me.