New chain

[johnridley]

Odometer ~16050
Damn, I just checked it on Sunday, and it was barely over the 0.75 wear mark on the gauge. I figured I'd replace it this weekend, but when I went out to lube it tonight, it was way over 1.0. Weird how it wore that much that fast.

Hopefully since it wore that fast it didn't do in the cassette cogs.

Comments

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

If they were alloy cogs, they're almost certainly trashed. Steel should have held up better. Easy check -- lay a new chain across the cogs, and see if you can see light through it.

Wearing that much that quick implies that a roller failed, but usually you'll notice this when the chain falls off. :)

I'd take apart that section and see just how bad the wear is. But I'm that way.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

My only concern is whether it rights right. My test for that is installing a new chain and seeing if it rides right or the chain skips.
I put a new chain on, and it rides fine. None of that lugged feeling that I get with either a quite worn chain, or a new chain on a worn-out cog.

I think it wore because honestly, it's just that season, and the chain just gets filthy in the winter and there's really nothing I can do about it.

With the grit of crap that gets into the chain on my ride, I really think the only way to get the chain PROPERLY clean would be to use a Park Cyclone cleaner on the bike, so that the chain would be flexing as it goes through the wash. I don't think a simple solvent bath would do any good.

IMO I'd rather change the $7 chain every 15 weeks instead of every 25 weeks rather than spend an extra 30 minutes every week doing a thorough chain cleaning, especially since it's mainly needed in the winter. And honestly, I'm not sure that even a weekly cleaning would be enough in some weeks. On days like today where it's good and cold and there's not much loose snow on the ground, the chain stays sparklin' clean. But there are weeks when the temp is 33*F and it's snowing and the salt trucks are out, and I'd have to clean the chain almost daily.

I reused a master link since I had a loose (new) chain sitting in the bottom of the box without one. I probably should put a new one on there, I've had those two-part tension linkages fly off on me.

I've been thinking about saying screw the master links, and just use a chain tool to actually join the chain. I've never done that before, but it doesn't seem like a crazy idea, really.

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

With 9/10 speed chain, you need to replace the pin every time, so that's annoying (the pin is longer than normal, you break off the rest after install. I've seen people try to reuse the pin and maul the plate. Most people just install a master link.

8 speed chain is easy to use a chain tool on.

Since I buy Sachs/SRAM/whomever bought them out this week chains, I get the master link for free, so why not use it?

I'm wondering how bad salt affects these chains? I'm sure they do, of course, the question I have is degree. Do you have a short section of new chain left? Be interesting to tape it to the downtube and see how it degrades (it'll have a similar exposure, but no motion, thus, it should be corrosion alone.

Can you flip the sprockets on the rear? If so, you can do so when they're worn and double the ride time on them.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I've still got every chain I've ever had on this bike, hanging on a nail in the garage. Someday I'll take a 20# box of chains over to recycling.

Yeah, now that I've got a cassette instead of a freewheel, I'll probably flip the cogs when needed. However, it seems like they're a lot more durable. They should be, since I paid $24 (heavily discounted) for the cassette instead of $12 for the whole freewheel like I'd been doing. Nobody makes high end freewheels.