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Experiment over - new chain and cassette
Apr. 1st, 2012 03:32 pmWhen cleaning my bike a couple of weekends ago, I saw that the derailleur wheels were so worn that I was concerned that they might break while riding, which could cause the chain to seize, which is dangerous.
It took two weeks but I finally found the new derailleur wheels that I bought a year or so ago.
You may remember that I have been running a very, very worn chain because last time I put on a new one, it started skipping, which means the cassette needed replacing as well. I have noticed no particular problem with running everything until it's this worn; shifting was still totally fine and nothing skipped under power.
When I had the bike up on the stand, I saw that the chain was now so worn that it climbed nearly completely out of the teeth when going around the front chainring. OK, time to finally replace it.
I put on the new derailleur wheels and replaced the cassette as well. The chainrings are a bit worn but not badly. I can't flip them, they have features embossed in them to keep the chain from falling down between the rings. I do have a whole new crankset hanging on the wall but I'm going to keep running this one for now.
According to the archives here, the chain I just took off and threw into recycling went on at 17330 miles back on April 16 2009. I'm currently st 26678 miles. So somewhere around 9000 miles on this chain and cassette. If I do the "right thing" I change a $9 chain every 1800 miles or so, so that's 5 chains or $45 in that time. Just leaving it on until everything is wrecked cost me a $9 chain and a $18 cassette, for $27 total.
Even if I put on a whole new crankset every time, that only adds $27 for a total of $54. Also, even if I do the "right thing" the cassette still won't last forever; in fact, I think I have to put a new cassette on every 9000 miles anyway, so that means I save a ton of trouble and a little money just doing no maintenance other than lube.
Verdict: it's cheaper to just run the chain and cassette into the ground then replace them both at once.
Here are photos of the new and old wheels (the specs say the bottom wheel should be 15 teeth, but the one I pulled off is 13. The 15 goes on and works so whatever).
And here's the kind of wear that I saw on the cassette. The upper chainring is the lowest gear, which is essentially never used. The other is I think gear 3 or 4, probably 4, it's the most worn one and that's the gear I'm in most of the time.
Installed: New chain (nashbar), SRAM PG 730 12/32 7 speed cassette (from REI), Shimano derailleur pulleys (LBS)
Odometer: 26678
It took two weeks but I finally found the new derailleur wheels that I bought a year or so ago.
You may remember that I have been running a very, very worn chain because last time I put on a new one, it started skipping, which means the cassette needed replacing as well. I have noticed no particular problem with running everything until it's this worn; shifting was still totally fine and nothing skipped under power.
When I had the bike up on the stand, I saw that the chain was now so worn that it climbed nearly completely out of the teeth when going around the front chainring. OK, time to finally replace it.
I put on the new derailleur wheels and replaced the cassette as well. The chainrings are a bit worn but not badly. I can't flip them, they have features embossed in them to keep the chain from falling down between the rings. I do have a whole new crankset hanging on the wall but I'm going to keep running this one for now.
According to the archives here, the chain I just took off and threw into recycling went on at 17330 miles back on April 16 2009. I'm currently st 26678 miles. So somewhere around 9000 miles on this chain and cassette. If I do the "right thing" I change a $9 chain every 1800 miles or so, so that's 5 chains or $45 in that time. Just leaving it on until everything is wrecked cost me a $9 chain and a $18 cassette, for $27 total.
Even if I put on a whole new crankset every time, that only adds $27 for a total of $54. Also, even if I do the "right thing" the cassette still won't last forever; in fact, I think I have to put a new cassette on every 9000 miles anyway, so that means I save a ton of trouble and a little money just doing no maintenance other than lube.
Verdict: it's cheaper to just run the chain and cassette into the ground then replace them both at once.
Here are photos of the new and old wheels (the specs say the bottom wheel should be 15 teeth, but the one I pulled off is 13. The 15 goes on and works so whatever).
And here's the kind of wear that I saw on the cassette. The upper chainring is the lowest gear, which is essentially never used. The other is I think gear 3 or 4, probably 4, it's the most worn one and that's the gear I'm in most of the time.
Installed: New chain (nashbar), SRAM PG 730 12/32 7 speed cassette (from REI), Shimano derailleur pulleys (LBS)
Odometer: 26678
