Interesting data on chain

[johnridley]

I put my current drive chain on at 16050 miles, on Dec 11. I just took it off and cleaned it, and it's showing 75% worn out. I'm at 17263, so it's just 1200 miles. I normally have been expecting 1800-2000 miles per chain, but that's working out to 1600 miles. But it was used in the roughest part of winter, so I guess a couple of weeks less life isn't horrible. Most people on BikeForums report getting 5000 or even 10000+ miles on a chain, but most people don't ride in the crazy dirty and salty environment I do.

I do need to keep an eye out for sales on chain. I have 2 or 3 left, I think I paid about $5 each for them at Nashbar, but for some crazy reason, they're up to $25 now, $15 on sale. Even my old trick of buying recumbent chains (twice as long) and splitting them won't work; they're $30. Something must have happened to run the price up. Maybe it's one of those "high cost of fuel" things that never rebounded when fuel dropped again.

With chains at that price, it may make economic sense for me to go ahead and run the chains in a worn-out state, let them wear the cogs out too, and start swapping among the 7 or 8 other worn out chains I have hanging in the garage, always switching to the least-worn-out one next. I could probably go for a couple of years like that, and when that runs out, flip all the cogs and chainrings over and start with a fresh set of chains.

Heck, it might even be worth it for me to start actually CLEANING my chain more often. I've got a method now that's actually pretty easy; mineral spirits in a peanut butter jar, shake well.

But either of those might be more trouble than they're worth.

It's also looking like the pulleys on my rear derailleur are going to bite it at about 10K, like the first set did. I'm having a hard time finding replacement wheels though. The whole RD costs $29 to replace, and I just did that last time, but since I have probably 8 to 10 months before the thing starts shifting badly again, I figured I'd try to find new wheels. I can find them for about $5 a set, but not that fit my RD.

Comments

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

How do you measure your chains? The standard ruler way, or did you get a feeler gauge thing?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Park Tools gauge. Most of my chain wear happens in the winter, when I'm checking it it's dark and the chain is filthy, I don't really want to creep around on the ground with a ruler and stretch out the greasy thing by hand.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

I probably should grab one of those... Normally I just check the chain whenever I remove it for cleaning, but using a ruler is awkward at best.