Chain has lasted five years

bice

Five years ago, or it may have been 2010, I built up an Italian steel frame with 10 speed Campag, a standard double 53/ 39, including a Campag chain. It is a mixture of Record, Chorus, and Centaur.

It shifts perfectly OK, and I use a Park Tool chain wear tool regularly.

There does not seem to be any chain stretch at all.

I have no idea how many miles I have done on this, but I use it through the summers (50-70 miles a week). I even used it winter before last.

I cannot understand why the chain is not showing signs of wearing out. I am not complaining. I even bought a new cassette and chain last year, intending to change everything, but have not bothered fitting it.

I seem to remember paying quite a lot for the chain. I can't say I was overcharged.

Bobbinogs

Why not get a decent steel ruler and measure the thing?

fenix

If he's got a gauge why would you bother ?

Our summers can be so short though - he might just be getting 3 months a year of riding ! ;-)

keef66

Fenix wrote:

If he's got a gauge why would you bother ?

Our summers can be so short though - he might just be getting 3 months a year of riding ! ;-)

I was speculating on this very subject at the weekend. The 9 speed winter bike is just reaching the 0.75% wear point. That's a KMC chain I got as part of a used Tiagra groupset 2 years ago, so I don't know how many miles it's done, but many of them have been on filthy roads since I've been using it. And 'winter' can stretch from September to April most years, with the occasional wet summer ride thrown in for good measure.

The summer bike has a 10 speed Shimano 5701chain which looks as good as new despite being 3 years old, but it doesn't go out in bad weather, so it has an easy life, and I'm not sure how many miles it's actually done. Probably not that many.

I have a Garmin Touring Plus that doesn't differentiate between bikes, so I know how far I've ridden, but not how far on each bike...

fenix

Ironically I found my chain gauge at the weekend. Winter bike is fine, Summer bike needs changing. Dammit.

Bobbinogs

Bobbinogs wrote:

Why not get a decent steel ruler and measure the thing?

Fenix wrote:

If he's got a gauge why would you bother ?

...

...because the gauge might be reading incorrectly or the OP might be using it incorrectly. 5 years of 50 miles a week in all weather is a lot of usage and it would be a remarkable chain if it hadn't stretched at all in that period.

fenix

Mine is just a gauge that slots in. Simple enough.

My old gauge that I leant to someone is just as easy to read. I'd think a ruler is harder to read than the gauges ?

cycleclinic

After 1500 miles my chains are shagged. Leave it for 2000 miles and my cassette is too worn, shifting is no longer precise and a new chain would skip. I have to change to preserve the cassette. Some people must be really easy on them.
During winter i dont even get 1000 miles from a chain. I shag a whole mtb drivetrain far more quickly.

Using a ruler is simply fiddley and having used this metjod for a while i gave up. Those that comtinue to use it are just to stuck i there ways to change. Some of the chain wear tools out there though dont do a verh good job. The park tool worskhop tool does though it catches my chains just at the right time to avoid excessive wearnon the cassette.

rolf_f

Fenix wrote:

If he's got a gauge why would you bother ?

Because almost all chain wear tools measure both roller and pin wear. Roller wear doesn't matter - no matter how worn the rollers are, the space between them remains the same so the chain doesn't slip. If the pins significantly worn, the chain will slip.

If you measure with a ruler, you only measure the pin wear so the chain wear tool is potentially far more conservative than a ruler.

I use the wear tool as a first pass and when the chain gets to 0.75 I start using a ruler. Sometimes at 0.75, the pin wear proves to be negligible.

Incidentally, if your approach to chain cleaning is to wipe it with a rag, you can see that you probably do a good job of keeping the rollers clean (which doesn't matter much) and a crap job of keeping the pins clean (which does!).

Also, I suspect that if only ridden in dry conditions, a chain could last 10s of thousands of miles.

keef66

I don't do enough miles to worry about the accuracy of the Park Tools wear gauge, and in the worst case It's only really adding the wear on the two rollers it's contacting. It's quick and easy to use, and when it gets to 0.75% wear I order a new chain and fit it in the following weeks. I like the idea I'm prolonging the life of the cassettes and chainrings.

In the days when I had only one bike and rode it year round, I too was getting about 1500 miles to a 10 speed 105 chain. Now I have 2 bikes and only one Garmin I have no idea how many miles I do on which bike / chain, so I depend entirely on the Park Tools chain checker.

rolf_f

keef66 wrote:

I don't do enough miles to worry about the accuracy of the Park Tools wear gauge, and in the worst case It's only really adding the wear on the two rollers it's contacting.

Errrrrrr....... I don't quite know how to respond to this! You should probably read some Sheldon Brown.

keef66 wrote:

It's quick and easy to use, and when it gets to 0.75% wear I order a new chain and fit it in the following weeks. I like the idea I'm prolonging the life of the cassettes and chainrings.

You are taking a very precautionary approach which, if you are as disorganised and forgetful as I am may not be a bad idea. However, there is a good chance that whilst you are prolonging the life of your cassettes, you are doing so at a rate that eats more money in chains than you save in cassettes. Remember, at 0.75% on the wear gauge, the pin wear might be negligible.

keef66

Rolf F wrote:

keef66 wrote:

I don't do enough miles to worry about the accuracy of the Park Tools wear gauge, and in the worst case It's only really adding the wear on the two rollers it's contacting.

Errrrrrr....... I don't quite know how to respond to this! You should probably read some Sheldon Brown.

I've read all the articles ever published on measuring chain wear and the failings of simple tools like mine. Annoyingly all their diagrams seem to be of older chains with separate bushings. I try to picture a modern, bushingless chain, and I'm imagining a theoretical chain where there's no wear to the pins or the inner plates; the intermediate rollers are just hanging there on their pins, not affecting chain length.

In the real world I'm sure pins, side plates and rollers will all wear at similar rates, so I'm happy that my precautionary approach is the best way of mitigating my lack of organisation and increasingly unreliable memory

You are taking a very precautionary approach which, if you are as disorganised and forgetful as I am may not be a bad idea. However, there is a good chance that whilst you are prolonging the life of your cassettes, you are doing so at a rate that eats more money in chains than you save in cassettes. Remember, at 0.75% on the wear gauge, the pin wear might be negligible.

keef66

not sure what happened there; looks like you wrote all of it...

arthur_scrimshaw

I've made the mistake of forgetting how to use the park tools chain wear gauge, I missed the point were the gauge would just drop in (meaning the chain was toast) and thought it was the other side(the inside of the gauge) which had to touch the chain. Until the chain wouldn't sit on the chainrings properly. I won't do that again.

itboffin

just checked my commuter which had a new chain in Dec its toast but not skipping or miss shifting at all

prhymeate

Must be that time of year. I checked mine for the first time in ages and it's over .75. I don't remember when I last changed it but it must have done at least 5,000 miles. The cassette has over 10,000 miles on it and looks fine but I ordered another just in case the new chain starts to jump. I don't commute on it so it rarely sees bad weather but I figure I'll need one sooner or later anyway.

cyberknight

itboffin wrote:

just checked my commuter which had a new chain in Dec its toast but not skipping or miss shifting at all

My commuter chain lasted about the same time , replaced it a couple of weeks ago .

drlodge

I find an easy way to check for chain wear is to look how the chain seats on the big ring. On my Condor, I noticed the chain was quite stretched towards the lower part of the chain ring and it looks like the chain would start to wear out the teeth due to stretch. I have no idea how stretched it is, just that it looks like it needs to be replaced.