CX Chain

bikessmidd

I have done around 450 miles on my new CX bike and my chain which is an FSA Team Issue CN-1102N 11 Speed Chain is almost 75 % worn, now I know we all ride a little differently and my rides seem to be very very dirty rides as in sand mud etc but is this normal? is it worth changing to a different make chain? or should I stick with the sram as they are only £15 each!
I have SRAM disc rotors and the rear disc has warped which is putting me off SRAM a little!

ugo.santalucia

Chain stretch measuring rulers are designed to make you change your chain frequently... a bit like the industry tell you a helmet only lasts two years, when in fact 20 is a more likely figure.
If the chain gives you grief, replace it, if not, keep it until it does give you grief. If you see light between the chainring and the chain, then it might need replacing after all... that was the rule before they came out with these silly rulers

Jterrier

Chain wear is maybe a bit of a white elephant. Does it run ok when clean and lubed?

bikessmidd

Jterrier wrote:

Chain wear is maybe a bit of a white elephant. Does it run ok when clean and lubed?

It runs absolutely fine mate, lubed and cleaned after every ride, I just think 450 -500 miles out of a chain seems a little low mileage wise? although it does go through the mill on every ride! I suppose the only way to compare is for me to change to shimano and see if I get more life out of my chains?

fenix

500 miles if all of those miles are with it caked in mud is a bit of a different proposition compared to 500m in the dry.

If you run a stretched chain you will wear the chainrings and sprockets and then when you replace the chain you'll need to replace those as well. Expensive.

So its either change the chain more - or run the whole shebang into the ground.

Personally for the sake of £15 I'd change it - but its up to you.

I think this was discussed on here a couple of days ago and everyone was in favour of changing it when it got to 0.75% !
Funny how things change !

bikessmidd

Thanks for the advise, I am quite well up on chain wear and the damage it does which is why I checked it and knew it was almost 75% worn, I just wasn't sure how long a CX chain should last as its my first CX bike and was hoping it would last a little longer, I may choose Shimano over FSA just to see if that changes the life expectancy of my chains, thanks again.

tgotb

"Stretch" isn't the only way in which chains deteriorate, though it is the easiest to measure and presumably the overriding concern for road use.

I replace the chains on both my CX bikes annually, during the off season. I reckon they probably only do 400-500 miles in a season, which is peanuts in road terms, but with all the mud and pressure washing they do have a hard life. Interestingly, when I take them off the wear indicator shows negligible stretch. However the used chains are noticeably more "rattly" than new chains, with a lot more capacity to bend sideways. I tried recycling a couple onto my commuting bike. Shifting was noticeably poorer, and the second chain failed catastrophically (whilst showing very low elongation). At this point I discontinued the experiment :-)

These are KMC X10.93 chains.

VamP

I do it the other way around, take my road chains off while they're still decent, and run them on my cross bikes. Then bin them after a season - which can be as little as 100-200 miles.

Cross is hard on components, chains are no exception.