drivetrain woes

[johnridley]

Ugh, let the chain go too long. Or maybe the sprockets on the cassette are just cheap junk; they certainly look visibly worn. I did change the chain within a day or two of it barely ticking the "1.0" wear spot on the gauge. This is only I think the 3rd chain on that cassette, none of them went really long, and it's in bad shape.

Anyway, the skipping continues, 100 miles into the new chain. And you can't flip cogs on a cassette, they're keyed to only go on one way.

I guess this will be another winter spent in "squeeze the last life out of a wrecked cassette" mode. I'll put the old chain back on today, and I'll go through my old chains and find the least worn ones, and change to the least worn one every 1000 miles or so.

And keep a lookout for sales on cassettes and chainrings. I saw an entire Shimano crankset on clearance at Nashbar a few months ago for about $8. Shoulda grabbed it.

I gotta wonder if it's worth buying a better cassette, but given the abrasive crap that gets constantly sprayed onto my drivetrain in the rain, it might wear any cassette out. I do know that more expensive chains don't last any longer than cheap ones in my conditions, so more expensive cassettes would probably fare about the same.

Comments

[jvanhare.livejournal.com]

It sounds like that cassette may be pretty much spent. I am guessing the front chainwheels are in similar shape. Is this a road bike or a mountain bike? I used to get good used parts on mtbr.com from the rich guys who were always upgrading to the newest latest greatest. Due to that, I have a lot of XTR on my mountain bike. In fact the frame came from a guy in Ann Arbor who had upgraded. Mostly Pro-Flex frames here, they'll probably outlive me! Where are you getting chains for $6.00 btw?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

It's a hybrid, so MTB parts for the most part. I was getting Nashbar 7/8 speed chains when they were on sale. For some reason Nashbar is charging about double what everyone else is for chains these days. I'll probably go with aebike or jenson for my next batch of chains, but I'm still pretty much set for the next year or two; I bought about a half dozen chains on sale.

I've got 20K on this bike and no problems with the frame. I'm on my 2nd rear derailleur (the front should last forever; I never use it), and the rear wheel got replaced very quickly-was breaking spokes like mad and at about 1200 miles I gave up and ordered a new rim and some spokes and built a new rear. That lasted until 13000 miles when the rear axle broke (cheap-assed freewheel hub). I priced out parts but it turned out to be about a wash building/buying so I bought a 36H cross wheel from aebike - built on an XT hub and a Salsa Delgado rim by Wheelsmiths. The stock front lasted until about 12000 when I decided to go to disc brakes up front due to rim brakes working for crap in icy/snow conditions, then I bought an XT disc hub and an Alex Adventurer rim.

The frame is a cheap-assed Giant aluminum Cypress frame, but it works for me. I paid about $290 for the bike 5 years ago, and I'll be rolling it over 20,000 miles next month. Still no strong urge to replace it, though I'd LOVE to have a Surly Pugsley for winter riding, and I'm kind of thinking it'd be interesting to build something around a NuVinci hub, if I can get over the fact of an 8 pound hub.

Yeah, the cassette is done, but just for new chains. It was running fine with the old chain, it just skips badly with a new one. So to hell with it, since it's already torn up, I'll put an old chain back on and run it until it doesn't work right anymore.

I went through three freewheels on the original back hub, but this is my first cassette, so it lasted about 7000 miles; I guess I shouldn't complain. I did the same thing with one of the original freewheels; when it got worn out, I ran it into the ground on old chains.

The chainring actually is getting worn but isn't causing me any trouble. I'll run it into the ground too. The difference is, with the chainring I can flip it around and have essentially a new chainring.