Chain Tube Life?

[Psamathe]

Thinking about a tour and wondering how long people find their chain tubes last. ICE Sprint X Tour.

Before departure tubes will probably have a couple of thousand miles from new. Tour maybe 3000-4000 miles and worst situation would be for them to fail on-tour. Would 6000 miles be well within expected tube life or "pushing it". On tour with my upright DF I do find the chain tends to get mucky and not cleaned as often as it would be at home so maybe tubes would wear faster on tour

My 1st recumbent so I have absolutely no idea. If 6000 miles on a set of tubes is getting risky I could always re-fit part work tubes after tour to get full life out of them (not wasting).

So, after e.g. 2000 miles pre-depart and expected max 4000 miles best to set out with new chain tubes?

Ian

[axel_knutt]

You don't have to throw old parts away if there's still life left in them, if I'm not sure if a worn part will stay the course I put a new one on before I leave, then finish wearing out the old one when I get back home.

[Stradageek]

I've never had chain tubes wear out, just had a few clamps/mountings wear/rattle loose, so I'd change them first.

If you are still worried, replacing the tubes is very cheap since garden irrigation tubing is perfect for the job and arrives in 25m rolls. I straighten the tube using a dowel rod and a hot air gun, then flare the ends with the same gun. Beware of twisting the chain when feeding it through the tubes - unless you believe this will improve chain wear

Just avoid then temptation to mount the tubes with cable ties, they will fatigue; pipe clamps are much better.

My six penneth worth

[squeaker]

The only chain tube I've worn out was due to mis-alignment adjacent to an idler pully - my fault. I'm now very careful to ensure that the chain (under tension) is central in the tube ends. Otherwise I have over 10k miles on the set on my Grasshopper with no problems (and I'm not very fussy with chain cleaning).
If it came to the worst you could always cut down the tube length(s) - usually there's only one or two spots where the tube is working to prevent frame contact - mostly it's just keeping the rider clean (or when folding).

[Tigerbiten]

I know two ways of killing an ICE trikes chain tube.
Either a mis-alignment adjacent to an idler pully.
Or fold the trike and then try and move the pedals, the chain then cuts the rubber section at the fold joint.
Apart from that they won't wear out unless you do something very stupid.
I've done over 50k miles on my ICE Sprint and I've only killed 1 rubber joint and no tubes in that distance.

Luck .........