Cycling UK Forum

Ok, mindful that Sheldon Brown calls chain maintenance a religious question, is there even some consensus about when to replace a chain?

I have Park Tool's chain wear measurer, which indicates .5% and .75% "stretch". My current chain is a tad past the .75% mark: with the tool in place, there's about .5mm clearance between the furthest edge of the tool and the roller of the next link.

Is it enough now just to replace the chain, or am I going to have to replace the sprockets too? Clearly I'd much rather just do the chain - but if the sprockets are going to be so worn that I'll get through chains like water that might be false economy.

Any ideas, good people?

If you are doing the work yourself, then try replacing the chain, now, by itself. If the cassette is too worn, it will let you know as the chain will just keep jumping, then you put the old chain back on until you replace chain and cassette together.

If the chainrings look good, then replace cassette and chain as soon as possible. If you think the chainrings all need replacing too then extract as much use out of the system as you can before replacing the lot.

If you try to get the absolute max out of the system, you may get a chain break. Not a link cracking but coming loose at the pin. It's happened to me a number of times. Therefore, carry a couple of spare links and a chaintool. Usually there's a bit of a warning, like a notchiness...

^ what meic said.

methodical folk use several chains to 0.5% wear, then use them again from 0.5% to 0.75%, and so forth.

I am not so methodical as that....

cheers

When 10" becomes 10 1/8", I scrap off that chain and fit a new one.

Thanks, guys. Very helpful!

I have been using a Rohloff chain wear gauge for 15 years or so. http://www.rohloff.de/en/products/caliber_2/
Its labelled 0.075 and 0.1mm, but I can't remember what that's supposed to mean.
I do know that if I let the chain wear past "0.1mm" then my cassette is toast, but if I catch the chain before that, I can run a new chain on the old cassette. I don't know how many chains I could actually run, because I never got to the end yet.........I tend to replace the cassette when the rim wears through.

Ayesha wrote:When 10" becomes 10 1/8", I scrap off that chain and fit a new one.

If you let it go that far, you often need new sprockets. If you change at 1/16 increase you won't

Gearoidmuar wrote:

Ayesha wrote:When 10" becomes 10 1/8", I scrap off that chain and fit a new one.

If you let it go that far, you often need new sprockets. If you change at 1/16 increase you won't

+1 but for me it's 12 1/16th"

Brucey wrote:^ what meic said.

methodical folk use several chains to 0.5% wear, then use them again from 0.5% to 0.75%, and so forth.

I am not so methodical as that....

cheers

Not as organised as you think, cheapskate and lazy.

Edit to add this is the system I use.

reohn2 wrote:

Gearoidmuar wrote:

Ayesha wrote:When 10" becomes 10 1/8", I scrap off that chain and fit a new one.

If you let it go that far, you often need new sprockets. If you change at 1/16 increase you won't

+1 but for me it's 12 1/16th"

I agree; 1/16" is the way; skipping is inevitable in the most favoured sprockets if you let it go to 1/8" .

cheers

Next time my gauge tells me a chain is worn out, I'm going to measure it.

Very impressed by Colin's system which means that one wheel/rim only ever has one cassette.

I realise that this must have been asked a lot on other threads, but how many miles do you tend to get out of a chain?

I must admit I often get lazy, realise that the chain has gone too far, let it go on and wear both the chain and casette into the ground and then change both at the same time.