Chain skip/worn cassette - again!
This is quite a familiar problem, but I have only really faced it with 5/7 speed commuter bikes in the past. I have then let things just slide because I know the chain is worn and whatever damage it does to the cassette is only going to cost a tenner.
With the road bikes it all becomes more costly, with cassettes at £40-50. I use two bikes in the dry and have kept the same chains on since I bought one and made the other up for a couple of years. I don't use the Sheldon ruler method to check wear because I can't hold one steady enough to notice 1/16 of an inch. So I use the Park Tool CC-3 chain wear indicator tool.
It showed that the chain on my 12-27 cassette on my Trek triple (with Shimano 105 5600 10-spd cassette) was more than 0.75% worn but less than 1% worn. So I changed the chain to a Sram 10g and it is skipping slightly in 5th and 6th and possibly 4th.
The skip is much less clunky than with a badly worn cassette on my commuter, but it is difficult to ignore. So far I have only done short journeys so I do not know yet whether this will bed down. The highest and lowest gears seem unaffected.
Having put the Park Tool gauge against the new chain I see that there is only a millimetre or less before the chain will indicate as 0.75% worn. (The chain is new and has done 30 miles on clean dry roads.) My guess is that that will indicate itself within 500 miles in clean conditions, and possibly within 50.
Makes me wonder whether I would not have been better off sticking with the old chain and chucking it and the cassette together. For amateurs/ occasional users might this not be more rational?
My other bike, a Campag 10-speed steel frame, has done more miles but the chain is not showing any wear with the Park Tool indicator. This is a traditional double, which may be relevant as I might be varying the gears more rather than staying with the middle ones.
With the road bikes it all becomes more costly, with cassettes at £40-50. I use two bikes in the dry and have kept the same chains on since I bought one and made the other up for a couple of years. I don't use the Sheldon ruler method to check wear because I can't hold one steady enough to notice 1/16 of an inch. So I use the Park Tool CC-3 chain wear indicator tool.
It showed that the chain on my 12-27 cassette on my Trek triple (with Shimano 105 5600 10-spd cassette) was more than 0.75% worn but less than 1% worn. So I changed the chain to a Sram 10g and it is skipping slightly in 5th and 6th and possibly 4th.
The skip is much less clunky than with a badly worn cassette on my commuter, but it is difficult to ignore. So far I have only done short journeys so I do not know yet whether this will bed down. The highest and lowest gears seem unaffected.
Having put the Park Tool gauge against the new chain I see that there is only a millimetre or less before the chain will indicate as 0.75% worn. (The chain is new and has done 30 miles on clean dry roads.) My guess is that that will indicate itself within 500 miles in clean conditions, and possibly within 50.
Makes me wonder whether I would not have been better off sticking with the old chain and chucking it and the cassette together. For amateurs/ occasional users might this not be more rational?
My other bike, a Campag 10-speed steel frame, has done more miles but the chain is not showing any wear with the Park Tool indicator. This is a traditional double, which may be relevant as I might be varying the gears more rather than staying with the middle ones.
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Comments
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If you leave it it will trash your chain rings as well and you'll be in for an even bigger bill, i change my chains just before .75 and the cassettes last far longer and i never have any skipping, the skipping on your's is probably the gears that get most use, I got my new 2x10 equipped bike may last year and i am just about to fit my fourth chain in under a year and it hasn't had much use this winter.0
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My pick is the skipping will go away ater a week or two. It takes a lot to wear the front chainrings and they are typically fine regardless of chain wear. Also typically it's only the 39 that needs replacing and they are fairly cheap. I would see how you go for a few weeks and just be aware that this will be your last chain on that cassette. I always look to make a new chain and old cassette survive through winter and sevral thousand KM's before swapping to nice new cassette and chain for spring. At Rose you can buy individual sporckets for a fiver or so for Ultegra. So if you are like me and the 15 is always worn you could just buy that as well when doing a new chain.0
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I have a similar problem. Had a worn chain but added a new cassette without changing chains. I ran it like this for a couple of months. I have now changed to a new chain, but I am getting slipping when pulling off from the line in my middle gears on the rear cogs. Have I basically ruined the cassette by using the old chain for only a short while?
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Quite possibly. I use 3-5 chains per cassette. I always have a spare cassette and spare chain so that when it looks or measures worn I swap chain first. If all is well and no skiping great. Keep using for 2000-5000km (Winter is maybe 2000km) If it skips in more than 2-3 gears after a weeks use then you know the cassette is toast and I would then swap the casette at that point and you should be good for 2000-5000km. If when I last swapped the chain it skipped for a week I generally bin the cassette at next chain replacement.0
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Not sure if I was being more tentative pulling off from the lights, but skipping didnt really happen 2nd time round. out of curiosity, why would the skipping disappear after a week os so??
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Just seems to work. Like they mesh together better. I think the chain/cassette wears a little bit in that short time and it helps. Doesn't seem to cuase any ill effects for longlivity0
