Are we changing our chains too often?

saladfunky

I am interested in peoples thoughts on the ritual of replacing a chain on a road bike early to save you having to buy a new cassette at the same time. We are told this will save us the expense of changing a cassette but a shimano 105 cassette costs the same as a chain. . My first chain lasted 5000 miles and when I changed it I HAD to change the cassette as well. Since then I have used a park tool to check the chain and so I tend to run a chain at 2-2.8k miles before the indicator says I'd best get a new one. KMC X10 at about £20. After 3 chains my gear change is a bit jumpy but ok. Maybe I can get 4 or 5 chains out of it but putting up with an irritating gear change!! If I stick to getting a new cassette (shimano 105 *£20 sale price) every 4 chains that would be £100 every 10000 miles. But if I stick to running the chain 5000 miles and changing the cassette at same time, thus guaranteeing smooth changing, it will cost me £80 per 10000 miles. Yes that is less expense than changing the chain so often. In the 80s I rode my chain and cassette until completely and visibly knackered and that worked fine. I think when we are told we are saving money by changing our chains so often we are probably being fooled!!??? Maybe if you use a really expensive gold plated cassette it may be a different story, but for basic shimamo 105/Ultegra level this is how it appears to me.

keezx

Indeed , if cost is the only parameter, you will have to make calculations what to do.
Besides that, people have more than 1 bike and wheelset.....

marcusjb

Life is too short to put up with 'jumpy' gear changes for the sake of saving a few quid.

Ben6899

How far does a chain have to wear before it starts knackering chainrings?

jermas

I do agree that chains are probably binned prematurely but, using worn chains on new(ish) chainrings causes accelerated wear so you'd have to factor that into the equation.
I tend to save worn/part worn drivetrains and run them into the ground in winter- going past 1% stretch without any problems.

iron-clover

I tend to change mine when my chain indicator reaches 1% and this means the cassette survives. Before I had the wear indicator tool I would leave it too late and inevitably have to change the cassette as well. Now I've been through 3-4 chains without changing the cassette now, although it's looking like I'll have to change it next time.

How Far is too Far

On my road bike I get aprox 8000 to 10,000 miles out of the Chain, Cassette and Chain rings. I never change the chain and run the lot until I have to change it. I figure t all wear together, never had a problem doing this and I do a lot of climbing as well.

Ben6899

How Far is too Far wrote:

On my road bike I get aprox 8000 to 10,000 miles out of the Chain, Cassette and Chain rings. I never change the chain and run the lot until I have to change it. I figure t all wear together, never had a problem doing this and I do a lot of climbing as well.

What groupset do you run? That could get expensive, replacing chain rings every 18 months (based on my mileage).

kajjal

I just wait until the cassette wears and change both. I prefer the changes to be clean.

Semantik

Chainrings last longer if you change your chain before it's worn out. Depends if this matters to you or not.

pinarellokid

For the sake of saving £20 a year I'd much rather change the chain more and have silky smooth gear changes

keef66

I use the cheap and cheerful Park Tool chain wear checker and replace when it fails the 0.75% worn side. Shimano 10 speed chains seem to last about 1500 all-weather miles, and the 105 cassette has thus far outlived 4 chains. I have a new chain and cassette to go on now. Hopefully the chainrings are still good for another few years.

andrew_s

saladfunky wrote:

I think when we are told we are saving money by changing our chains so often we are probably being fooled!!??? Maybe if you use a really expensive gold plated cassette it may be a different story, but for basic shimamo 105/Ultegra level this is how it appears to me.

A far as chains and cassettes are concerned, you are correct - throwing away chains with plenty of working life left in them to save a cheap cassette is a waste of money.
If you just leave a chain and cassette on the bike until it starts to give problems, then replace both together, you will get something like 3 or 4x the miles that you were at when the chain reached the 0.75% replacement point, so you've paid for one chain and one cassette rather than 3 chains and about half a cassette.

When you add chainrings into the equation, it doesn't look so good, as you will have to change one or two chainrings after only 2 or maybe 3 cassettes. Slipping chainrings are also a worse problem than a slipping cassette, as slipping can damage the chainring enough to make it unusable, whilst with a cassette it's just a matter of not stomping too hard.

smoggysteve

marcusjb wrote:

Life is too short to put up with 'jumpy' gear changes for the sake of saving a few quid.

This. Its not exactly the most expensive part of bike to replace. A good KMC chain should last for miles and when you come to replace it they are usually around 20 to 30 quid. For something you may only buy every 12 to 18 months at the earliest thats pretty cheap