chain lube or wax?

[NickJP]

Single speed chains last a lot longer - I've found that the timing chains on our tandems last several times as long as the final drive chains. Other things that I reckon improve chain life (cleaning/lubrication being equal) are:

• Using good deeply valanced mudguards plus a good mudflap on the front guard, to minimise the amount of muck from the road surface that the tyres fling onto the chain.

• Taking pressure off the pedals when you change gear, so that you minimise stress on the chain while it is twisted.

[bgnukem]

I religiously clean mine after every long ride and weekly when commuting, also using FL wet, and typically swap chains at 0.5% after maybe 1500 miles!

That seems rather low. If you look at the chain test here: https://cyclingtips.com/2019/12/the-bes ... cy-tested/, where chains were deliberately run lubricated with a slightly gritty mixture to accelerate wear, the best chains lasted about 3500km to 0.5% elongation. Note that if you're measuring wear with a chain checker that uses the rollers, then with some chains those checkers will show 0.5% wear at only about half the distance of the elongation measurement. I also found it interesting in that test that chain life increases with the skinnier chains - about three quarters of the way through the article they have a graph showing the longevity of 8/9/10/11/12-speed Shimano chains, and the 12-speed lasts the longest and the 8-speed the least.

As for which chains we use, they're a mixture - between my wife and myself we have a lot of bikes, and the chains are Shimano, SRAM, Wipperman, KMC, and one bike with Campagnolo 10-speed is running Campagnolo chains.

Use mainly SRAM myself, but not the highest quality or cheapest. I'm sure the chain checker is over-estimating wear by including roller wear twice. The chains are not discarded after 1500 miles but kept and used again later, usually up to 3 times each as everything else gradually wears out. I use long front mudflaps as I find all front mudguards are far too short to stop front wheel crud going directly onto the chainset/bottom bracket.

Odd that the skinny newer chains last longer, but I guess better materials may have been specified to offset the higher stresses inside the chains, or just that the lesser speed equipment generally is now at the lower end of the market and quality has decreased (including the chains)?

I'm sticking with 8-speed on most of my bikes, with 9-speed on a couple.