Clean vs non-clean - real world difference?

Squawk

My last chain lasted 1300 miles until 0.5mm stretch. That's crap! It was on the bike about 3 months, was cleaned (badly) once, but was always lubed. The cassette is fine, now on it's third chain. This bike is my workhorse, commuting 14 miles each way into London daily. 105 groupset, and a 105 chain.

The question is, how much extra life could I eek out of a chain by cleaning it weekly?

To go from 4 chains to 3 a year I need to increase my mileage per chain by about 33%, 1700 miles between replacements give or take. Is that realistic? Anyone ever tested this in the real world on a commuting route that has lots of stop/start?

If I could do one fewer chain change per year I'd be happy. The costs are kinda irrelevant, it's £15 for a new chain, but every time I change a chain I take the cassette off the bike and give it a full clean, then usually end up re-indexing the gears to make sure. Having to do that once less each year appeals, but is weighed against cleaning the chain each week.

joncomelately

I'm sure the cleaning isn't the only factor in chain wear, but FWIW I clean mine roughly every 100 miles/2 weeks and get approx 2000 miles before I change it (although that is slightly arbitrary as I don't have a chain checker and the last time it was based mainly in the degree of rust).

The cleaning isn't that much of a PITA if you get a chain cleaning device - I have a Wiggle one that was pretty cheap and it does a perfectly decent job. Takes me about 10 minutes to degrease, rinse, dry and lube.

W12_Lad

I've never cleaned a chain other than brushing while washing the bike. I hardly ever wash my bikes. I dry the chain if wet and lube every 150 miles or so. I regularly get 3000 to 3500 miles on my summer bikes and 2500+ on my winter bike. I use a chain checker and replace when near to 100%.

The Rookie

I clean the chain (not thoroughly) about once a month, typically a chain lasts me two years on my commuter which is about 2500 miles, it's usually changed long before wear is an issue as the high salting rates where I live tend to result in an orange chain of shame. I do lube it regularly and scrape off the excess at the same time.

greenamex2

My Ultegra chains last about 1000 miles (to 0.5mm stretch then next payday) and get cleaned and lubed every 85 miles.

I ride on cycle paths, roads, a dirt track pretending to be a national cycle route and mud, lots of mud.

I can do a cheap BB in 750 miles and wheel bearings in a couple of thousand.

Squawk

I feel some science in order, so I bought the cyclone cleaner job, loads of degreaser and resolved the clean the thing once a week and monitor wear over my next three chains. The proof of the chain is in the stretching (or the proof is in the chain, to steal the commonly used but irritating and nonsensical variant)

Moonbiker

I think it may depends on the rider style do you mash of spin the pedals?


Maybe less force = less wear?

craker

I got 4500 miles out of my fixie chain, minimal attention (oiled when squeaky) - at that point the drivetrain was getting noisy and felt pretty grimy. New chain + cog, chainring looks good as new still. That's year round commuting plus the odd audax.

greenamex2

I am a spinner - 90-95RPM

I think one of the biggest factors is the number of back gears you have which will affect how "thick" the chain is. An 11 speed chain is pretty thin everywhere!

roger_merriman

Depends on the bike, and use, the MTB which is a full suspension lovely I clean with the tears of unicorns every outing and not unsurprisingly is showing very little wear on chain/cogs at just under 1000miles, the CX which is a cheap and cheerful bike, I should do the same but I tend not to so chains and cogs tend to be done by 750Miles.

Clearly neither is commuting though!

My Commute bike is a old MTB had originally been 3*9 but is now 1*9 which generally is better, for that use, but the chain dies just as frequently which is 1000miles my commute is muddy/gravel etc Royal Parks so it's a fine grinding paste, I do clean it now and then but it's fairly rare, I did used to more often but didn't seem to make any difference what so ever! I try to use dry or otherwise clean oils.

My previous two commute bikes where Single Speeds, which I used as commute plus roadie which I tended to stick to the tarmac vs gravel paths tended to last 500-750miles per chain, worse if cheap was used! I suspect that was due torque I tend to set off fairly smartly and so on.

Moonbiker

Wow you really eat up chains.

tgotb

greenamex2 wrote:

I am a spinner - 90-95RPM

I'm a proper spinner, 100-120rpm, sometimes more...

I stopped cleaning the chain on my commuter because it didn't seem to make a jot of difference to chain life; they seem to reach ~0.75% after a couple of thousand miles, regardless of what I do.

Many years ago I tried a cleaning regime using petrol. This was a bad idea for many reasons, and one of my chains actually fell apart, but up to this point the rate of "stretch" was no different. Similarly my CX chains take all sorts of abuse, but as far as I can tell they're also "stretching" at the same rate. I actually suspect that, so long as they're reasonably well lubricated, chain stretch is largely independent of cleaning regime. This is plausible because the mechanism for chain stretch is elongation of holes in the plates, for which I suspect dirt/debris is not the primary cause.

One thing my CX and petrol-cleaned chains do exhibit is a much greater amount of side-to-side play, presumably related to wear on the sides of the plates. This manifests itself in poor shifting, and I imagine a decent cleaning regime could make a big difference here. I tried recycling old CX chains that had done a season of racing but were well below 0.5% stretch onto the commuter, but gave up because the shifting was so poor...