Chain slipping. Any advice?

pmorgan1

A curious commuter setup: an 11-speed Ultegra
Chain and cassette have done about 6k, large chainring about 4k. The rig was well maintained throughout.

Replaced the chain and the cassette, and now the chain feels slippy.

Unless I'm misreading the chainring, I don't see signs of significant wear. What else could it be, e.g. a stiff chain link (how does one find one)?

slowbike

you find a stiff chainlink by taking the tension off the chain and try bending each link - you may be able to see it by slowly turning the cranks and watching the chain.
I found it's usually where you've joined the chain - one reason why I use removable links - no pins to drive in!

godders1

If that one chain did 6K miles then it would've been quite worn and so could have started to eat into the chain rings. Even so I wouldn't expect problems after 4K miles. (I once rode a drivetrain into the ground on a winter bike with very little maintenance and the chainset still lasted about 10K miles). Is slipping worse on one ring than the other? (the small ring usually wears first). Obviously if you're talking Km then this is even less likely to be an issue!

Other than that it might just need a few miles for the new bits to bed in with the old chainset. Also worth double checking that you got the chain length right too.

pmorgan1

Thank you, v helpful.

fnegroni

Unlikely to be the chain length. More likely the chainring unfortunately. Does it happen on both rings?
Other than that, I can't think of any other reason then the wrong chain was fitted, or indeed the stiff link (Shimano's pin instead of a quick link)

pmorgan1

fnegroni wrote:

Unlikely to be the chain length. More likely the chainring unfortunately. Does it happen on both rings?
Other than that, I can't think of any other reason then the wrong chain was fitted, or indeed the stiff link (Shimano's pin instead of a quick link)

Yes, turns out the small chainring slips more.