Chain wear - London Commuter

Squawk

Chain wear is obviously dependent on various factors, hence the specificity of London commuters.

I commute into the centre of London (Cannon Street) daily, taking in god know how many sets of traffic lights necessitating lots of start/stop riding. The first chain on my bike I replaced after 2k miles, when my chain wear indicator was just hitting 0.75mm. The new chain slipped like mad on the middle 4 cogs on my cassette, necessitating a cassette change as well.

The new chain/cassette have now been on the bike for around 1000 miles, and yesterday I managed to get my chain checker tool through the chain at 0.5mm stretch. I don't want to replace the cassette every time I change the chain, so I'm considering a chain change again, but this seems like a ludicrously small number of miles for a chain change.

My maintenance schedule isn't exactly stellar, but the drive train is never allowed to make a noise and does get cleaned every couple of weeks.

If 1k miles is the life of a chain then so be it, I'd rather spend £15 on a new chain every 3 months rather than clean the chain after every ride, but I'm keen to understand if this kind of mileage is typical for a London commuter.

The chain in question is http://www.wiggle.co.uk/sram-pc991-9-sp ... 5360249742, running on a Trek 7.3FX

Cheers

gbsahne001

I usually get 3000 miles out of a 9 speed chain and you might be able to squeeze more out of them if you cycle (no pun intended) the chain.

Using 3 chains, change each chain at 1000mile intervals until all 3 chains have been on the bike 3 times and then change cassette and chain; This way you should be able to get 9k out of 1 cassette.

I can't say whether this works (it's what I've been told) as I'm too lazy to faff around and just change the chain at 3k and cassette at 6k.

If you're just using the same gears then you may well be replacing chains and cassettes at the same time; look out for bargains in the sale and stock up on chains and cassettes.

POHB

2K miles sounds about what I used to get per chain for my London commute when I had dérailleur gears. I'd guess probably 4 chains before I changed the gear cassette.

Rudd

Apologies is you already know this, but you can extend the life of a chain if you ensure you dont spend too much time going from small ring on the front and small rings on the back and vice versa. I used to regualarly break chains until i started being more careful.

Long_Time_Lurker

Was going to say something similar. Chain life can be extended with slicker gear changing and riding in the correct gear from a standing start. My mate gets about 1000 miles out of his chains, whereas everyone else seems to get double or triple that distance - you can hear metal crunching everytime he changes gear.