Campagnolo chain slippage

Craigbes

Whilst putting the power down while in the big chainring (50t), I keep getting slipping almost causing me to come off. The chainset is about 10000 miles old. I don't get this in the small ring (34t). The teeth are pretty pointed so I don't know if this is the issue or if the chain is worn. I don't want to go to the expense of replacing the whole drivetrain if I can possibly avoid it.

rolf_f

Craigbes wrote:

Whilst putting the power down while in the big chainring (50t), I keep getting slipping almost causing me to come off. The chainset is about 10000 miles old. I don't get this in the small ring (34t). The teeth are pretty pointed so I don't know if this is the issue or if the chain is worn. I don't want to go to the expense of replacing the whole drivetrain if I can possibly avoid it.

It's not a case of 'can possibly avoid it' - you need to replace whatever needs replacing. The only way you can incur unnecessary expense here is by not identifying where the problem is.

There's three potential problems - chain, cassette, chainrings - in normal order of cost.

Chain and cassette are normal consumables so put new on the bike (possibly just for now. Even if you get to take them off again, you'll need them one day).

If you still get slippage with new chain and cassette then yes, your big chainring is borked (and you probably know that it is already!). On that basis, you need to find a new chainring which might be surprisingly expensive but sometimes things need replacing. So put the new chainring on and check that everything is now nice. Then you can put the old cassette and chain on and see if everything is still nice. If it isn't, try the old cassette with the new chain. If it still isn't happy, you've replaced the drivetrain unavoidably!

Or just replace the whole chainset with a standard one as you might not be ideally suited to a compact (normally, if anything, you'd expect to wear out the smaller chainring first so the fact that that still looks and performs OK might suggest you spend too much time on the big ring!).

cycleclinic

Pointed chainring teeth mean they are worn so replace (along with the chain and cassette) if they are worn enough.

Campagnolo chainrings will last longer than 10,000 miles if the chains are replaced regularly. It sounds like your chain and cassette have no been replaced regularly so they may need doing as well.