New chain kerchunking
I have just had to fix a broken spoke on my London commuter: a five speed Reynolds 531 ladies racer by Carlton. c. 1972 I'd guess, and excellent.
I had to remove the freewheel to get at the spoke as it was on the drive side, and that means taking out the axle, so gave it a bit of a clean and a service.
A new chain was overdue (last one was in August) and I put one on, but it kerchunks on the cassette (freewheel in fact), which was also new in August.
Now if this was one of the road bikes, I would replace the cassette - and I would have replaced the chain far earlier. But it is a hack commuter that has to take a lot of punishment, summer and winter. It also only has a single chainring at the front - which is actually showing signs of wear.
The cassette has plenty of life in it in my opinion. To get it off is easy enough as I copper grease the thread. But I have to take out the axle to get the adapter in there so it is not a job I want to do again. Especially as the wheel bearings are spinning very nicely.
My question is this: should I just put the old chain back on and carry on. I reckon I might get a trouble free year out of that, and then have to change chainring (40 odd years old), cassette (nine months old) and chain (ditto).
Or could I just carry on with the new chain, ignore its slipping until everything beds in and runs smoothly? If so, how long would this take on a bike ridden 12 miles every day - a week or so?.
One has to be mindful of the expense here: the new cassette cost me £5 - proportionally a huge sum as the bike itself cost me £27. So I do not want to go to any rash expense.
I had to remove the freewheel to get at the spoke as it was on the drive side, and that means taking out the axle, so gave it a bit of a clean and a service.
A new chain was overdue (last one was in August) and I put one on, but it kerchunks on the cassette (freewheel in fact), which was also new in August.
Now if this was one of the road bikes, I would replace the cassette - and I would have replaced the chain far earlier. But it is a hack commuter that has to take a lot of punishment, summer and winter. It also only has a single chainring at the front - which is actually showing signs of wear.
The cassette has plenty of life in it in my opinion. To get it off is easy enough as I copper grease the thread. But I have to take out the axle to get the adapter in there so it is not a job I want to do again. Especially as the wheel bearings are spinning very nicely.
My question is this: should I just put the old chain back on and carry on. I reckon I might get a trouble free year out of that, and then have to change chainring (40 odd years old), cassette (nine months old) and chain (ditto).
Or could I just carry on with the new chain, ignore its slipping until everything beds in and runs smoothly? If so, how long would this take on a bike ridden 12 miles every day - a week or so?.
One has to be mindful of the expense here: the new cassette cost me £5 - proportionally a huge sum as the bike itself cost me £27. So I do not want to go to any rash expense.
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Comments
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What's 'kerchunking'?
Is it banging into gear during gearshifts or is it just skipping cogs under power?
If the latter then you need to replace either the freewheel or the chainring or both to match the new chain.- - - - - - - - - -
On Strava.{/url}0 -
It is skipping slightly under power in third gear only - but this is about the only gear I use.
Will a new chain bed in in time and stop skipping?
Changing freewheel and chainring for a cheap new chain seems the wrong way round, when the old worn chain worked fine.0 -
The chain, cassette and chainring wear as a set, although chainrings wear much more slowly than the chain and cassette.
If you want to avoid replacing the cassette when you change the chain, you have to replace chains much more often. Some people buy a few chains at once and then rotate them repeatedly every few hundred miles to get better life out of the cassette.
You'll never get good performance using an old cassette with a new chain.
If it's just skipping in one gear, you might be able to replace just that sprocket.- - - - - - - - - -
On Strava.{/url}0
