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The Infinite Chain aka another when to change your chain thread

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  • August 17, 2018 at 1:21 pm #28852
    Organon

    I got a new(ish) bike earlier in the summer. One previous owner said they had done 1200km on a trainer but the frame size wasn’t good for him. When it arrived it was perfect condition just as described. I am a bit paranoid about chain wear as I have over extended before and ruined other components. I checked with my Park tool and it was barely above 0. 

    So it is now a few months later and I have logged 3520km on it myself and the Park tool says about 0.45, not even 0.5. I understand you should change before you hit 0.75, but this chain seems to go on and on. It must have done over 4000km. Obviously everything else was new too and it started with some low impact miles from the previous owner.

    My question is, is there any other issues with wear or is chain stretch the only thing I should worry about and carry on for the time being?

    thanks, O.

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  • August 18, 2018 at 11:33 am #925539
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    hawkinspeter
    StraelGuy wrote:
    I completely agree, I don’t buy expensive chains because they’re a consumable iteem but with wet lube I generally only get 800-1,100 miles on a chain before it gets to 0.75%. Having said that, I’m currently running one on my summer bike using the molten wax method and it’s on 1,300 miles and still looking good.

    Wax should make the chain last longer as dirt doesn’t stick so much to it and the wax tends to fill up the gaps that the dirt loves to get into.

    August 18, 2018 at 10:49 am #925537
    0
    madcarew
    amazon22 wrote:
    Since I moved to 11 speed I find chains barely last any time at all and I understand that the 0.5% wear indicates a change, not 0.75% as for other speeds. I use a Park CC3.2 (the long one) and will only average a 1000 miles before 0.5% comes up, and that’s with best KMC, SRAM and Dura Ace chains. I rarely go out in the rain and and am fastidious about cleaning and lubing, using Pro Gold. With 10 speed, I used to get 3000+ miles.

    The higher priced (lighter) chains last a lot less time. I get twice the wear out of a shimano 105 chain than I do out of DA, (1200 – 1500 miles vs 2500) and out of a silver kmc mountainbike chain (on my road bike) I’ve had (and counting) about 5000 miles

    August 18, 2018 at 7:59 am #925535
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    StraelGuy

    I completely agree, I don’t

    I completely agree, I don’t buy expensive chains because they’re a consumable iteem but with wet lube I generally only get 800-1,100 miles on a chain before it gets to 0.75%. Having said that, I’m currently running one on my summer bike using the molten wax method and it’s on 1,300 miles and still looking good.

    August 18, 2018 at 7:54 am #925533
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    amazon22

    Since I moved to 11 speed I

    Since I moved to 11 speed I find chains barely last any time at all and I understand that the 0.5% wear indicates a change, not 0.75% as for other speeds. I use a Park CC3.2 (the long one) and will only average a 1000 miles before 0.5% comes up, and that’s with best KMC, SRAM and Dura Ace chains. I rarely go out in the rain and and am fastidious about cleaning and lubing, using Pro Gold. With 10 speed, I used to get 3000+ miles.

    August 17, 2018 at 10:33 pm #925531
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    Organon
    ktache wrote:
    You are a very lucky person, during the 10 wet months of autumn, winter and spring that I shall start calling “The Filth” the shortest time a chain lasted, changing at just above 0.75% on the Park CC-2, ( can almost go up to 1% as 7/8 speed, but wanted to keep the very rare good 8 speed cassettes going) was 4 weeks.  It got so muddy that I was having to clean and wet lube every night, only 15 miles a day but the mud was extreeme, not all of the journey, in fact not too much distance, but at the starty of both legs of the commute.  Destroyed some ceramic bearinged tacx jockeys in under 2 weeks.  Dust is a better problem to be having.  And heat.

    True. I think I got rained on about 3 times in May/June/July. That all changed three weeks ago. Back to the usual British fare.

    August 17, 2018 at 6:37 pm #925529
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    ktache

    You are a very lucky person,

    You are a very lucky person, during the 10 wet months of autumn, winter and spring that I shall start calling “The Filth” the shortest time a chain lasted, changing at just above 0.75% on the Park CC-2, ( can almost go up to 1% as 7/8 speed, but wanted to keep the very rare good 8 speed cassettes going) was 4 weeks.  It got so muddy that I was having to clean and wet lube every night, only 15 miles a day but the mud was extreeme, not all of the journey, in fact not too much distance, but at the starty of both legs of the commute.  Destroyed some ceramic bearinged tacx jockeys in under 2 weeks.  Dust is a better problem to be having.  And heat.

    August 17, 2018 at 3:39 pm #925527
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    antigee
    ibr17xvii wrote:
    I still have the original chain on my CAAD12 & that’s done over 6000 miles (just over 4000 dry miles outside & just under 2000 on the turbo) & it’s not showing 0.5 wear as yet & I won’t be replacing it til it does. I’d just use it til it hits 0.5 & then replace it.

    What it does show is that it’s dirt, grime, salt etc from bad weather riding that makes your chain wear quicker.

     

    sadly I’ve now got a picture in my head of the 2000 miles on the turbo being wet and the set up is in the shower đŸ™‚ 

    ran my cx stylee thing with two wheel sets (road and gravel) for a while and routinely did chain checks (park tool) to avoid issues with chain skip – replace chain before too worn and 2 cassettes to swop  – what I found was that the gravel dressing used on some of the local  shared trails really  did a lot of damage – road little impact 

    August 17, 2018 at 3:26 pm #925525
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    hawkinspeter

    Chain stretch is the main

    Chain stretch is the main thing to worry about and the main cause of that is dirt and grit getting into it and grinding down the metal. The chain can get worn so that the sideplates can snap, but that’s rare (probably due to incorrect installation) and not particularly easy to detect ahead of time.

    Bear in mind that most chain checking tools don’t correctly measure chain stretch, but they’ll give an indication. You can use a ruler to measure stretch as well. If you want the details, have a look here.

    August 17, 2018 at 3:09 pm #925523
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    ibr17xvii

    I still have the original

    I still have the original chain on my CAAD12 & that’s done over 6000 miles (just over 4000 dry miles outside & just under 2000 on the turbo) & it’s not showing 0.5 wear as yet & I won’t be replacing it til it does. I’d just use it til it hits 0.5 & then replace it.

    What it does show is that it’s dirt, grime, salt etc from bad weather riding that makes your chain wear quicker.

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