Cycling UK Forum

531colin wrote:If you clean your chain properly, as recommended by the great Sheldon, http://sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html its worth doing.

I know that what I'm about to say is cycling sacrilege almost on a par with somebody saying how great a guy Lance Armstrong is and how hard done by he is BUT is that article in the link actually for real of have I missed a joke somewhere?
I mean everybody loves a nice clean chain, there's no denying that but there would have to be a series of rainy days on a biblical floods scale before I even vaguely entertained the idea of buggering about like that..

Hi,
There are two sides of the camp.
One side recon that they are smarter than the chain manufactures, and adopt a serious cleaning regime, they even take the chain off to clean it
The other side just ride the bike and give the chain ocassional maintainance with a bit of oil.
Then some just sit on the fence and claim that their choice of Black Knight lube extends chain life manyfold.................

The choice is yours........................

Worth considering also how much you are spending on cleaner and expensive lube versus the savings on chain replacement. I go for the occasional lube and the rare clean because a) whatever you do in cleaning you are tending to wash the grit inside the rollers where it can do harm and b) it works out cheaper in money and a lot cheaper in time to allow the chain to wear more quickly and replace it sooner than to spend all that money on cleaner and lube.

I try to change the chain at 0.5%* then put it in a plastic bag with a label showing the wear. I keep these until they are needed later.
When I find that a new chains start to jump then I will use the part worn ones until 0.75% until they jump.
I have not decided what to do after that as I am still at the 0.5% stage. That is many years of canal and unsurfaced cycle paths, but a lot of chains.

* I use a Park Tool chain checker.

So do not throw away old partly worn chains you should be able to use them later.

DanTe wrote:

531colin wrote:If you clean your chain properly, as recommended by the great Sheldon, http://sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html its worth doing.

I know that what I'm about to say is cycling sacrilege almost on a par with somebody saying how great a guy Lance Armstrong is and how hard done by he is BUT is that article in the link actually for real of have I missed a joke somewhere?
....

read to the bottom of the page

blinkered wrote:

DanTe wrote:

531colin wrote:If you clean your chain properly, as recommended by the great Sheldon, http://sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html its worth doing.

I know that what I'm about to say is cycling sacrilege almost on a par with somebody saying how great a guy Lance Armstrong is and how hard done by he is BUT is that article in the link actually for real of have I missed a joke somewhere?
....

read to the bottom of the page

Ha ha, yep just done that. The thing is I can actually imagine people doing stuff like that but I guess that's why it's a decent parody. Jokes on me for that one I guess..

Tut, tut, dear boy.......its bad form to push the rivets out of 9speed chains.......

I used to clean my chains properly i.e. taking off bike, agitating in white spirit etc., and they looked spotless, but my experience is that they don't last much longer, if any. I did it to one yesterday because it was filthy and now it's spotless, but it's worn a bit.

Rohloff don't think it's worth doing unless it's absolutely filthy. I think they're right.

I seldom clean them "properly" now and they last maybe 2000-3000 miles. I get through two chains per cassette, or in my Rohloff-equipped bike, two chains per side of the sprocket.

1500 miles sounds about par for the course to me.

There's absolutely no point in trying to prolong the life of a chain, as this simply accelerates the wear on other, more expensive components. Use a chainwear gauge and change when the gauge says change. Simple.

I have now replaced both the chain and the cassette. However, inspection of the original cassette is inconclusive, being one of these modern ones with shaped teeth to aid in shifting, it is very difficult to see if it is excessively worn. The new chain seemed to fit nicely round the most frequently used rings. I might put it back on tonight and see if it skips.

Having measured the old chain with a ruler and checked the new one with the gauge, I think the gauge is reasonably accurate and I will use it periodically to monitor the chain wear.

I have also bought some Bikehut Dry Wax Bike Lube from H*****, anyone used this? Is it any good?

My intention is to leave the factory applied wax lube on the chain and add the Bikehut stuff to it on some sort of regular basis and see what sort of mileage I get from the chain.

I can not tell if my cassette teeth are too worn, by sight.

However fitting a new chain for a short ride lets you know quite clearly, even on the flat. At that point you can still put the old chain back and get a thousand miles and much more, if you dont mind ruining your front rings.

It is nearly impossible to tell by looking alone if sprocket teeth are worn enough to jump. Rohloff make a tool to assess sprocket wear; you can do something similar using a chain whip with a good (unworn, undamaged) chain on it.

No matter what the chain cleaning regime, the ugly fact is that half the time you are riding with a chain that is at least half as dirty as it was when you decided (finally) to clean it; normally this is some kind of ugly grinding paste experiment....

cheers

At that point you can still put the old chain back and get a thousand miles and much more, if you dont mind ruining your front rings.

I guess you're probably right but changing gear was becoming a real pain in the backside, for example changing to the next lighter gear was requiring two operations; one to index to the next position, then a bit of a nudge to encourage the chain onto the right sprocket but not enough to index to the next one again - tricky. With the new cassette and chain its working perfectly again.

I have noticed the same thing. My chains tend to get replaced because they have become too flexible to deraill on command.
Though in my case it is from middle to inner at the front. At this point they are normally at a sort of wear limit where you are advised to change them anyway.

has anyone any long term experience with belt drives in terms of wear?