I’ve 3 days of back to back road trip riding coming up, and chain wear is at .75 and gear changing is getting hard to index properly (although it’s within tolerance) would you change everything before or just leave it, wear it all out good and proper, and then change…

decisions decisions….

depends what your doing…
Got everything to replace it? Take it with you?

How many miles have you done on the existing drivetrain to get it this worn?

How many miles are you about to do?

If its a small fraction of the total mileage then I wouldn’t bother changing, your drivetrain won’t notice the difference

Yeah got all the new parts sitting here on the bench looking at me…

existing lot has done about 1200 miles and Ill do probably another 100-120 or so over the 3 days, it’ll be pretty gritty though…

I reckon I’m going to put the new lot on in the comfort of home rather than have to do in a B&B car park….

Change before but try and get a few rides on it just to make sure everything is bedded in and you’re not annoying yourself fettling while you’re away.

Changed it all…Oh yeah, that’s what XTR is supposed to feel like… 😳

If the indexing’s ropey change the gear cable.
.75 is where you should usually be able to change the chain and keep the cassette and rings.

Balanced; done it all chain, cassette, inner and outer, pulleys…chainring’s a oval that’s only done 100 or so. It lasts me about 9-12 months depending on weather and ground conditions, makes it easier to track if you change it all at the same time.

If have just ridden it, you’d have worn it out about 0.001% more

Chuck your chain checker in the bin

Job would have been sorted with a cable change

Job would have been sorted with a cable change

probably.

Have I missed something? Your chain has reached the point where its going to start wearing stuff (I assumed because you wanted to replace the chain, not the rest of the drive train) and you replace everything?

What was the point of that then? Why not just run the drivetrain into the ground and just replace the outer and inner rear mech cable? Waste of wear on the existing stuff.

This is similar to where I’m at now. The guage showed 0.75 er, a little while ago and quite a bit of it was touch-and-go for renewal at the last chain change so I’m expecting the next chain to be accoompanied by at least a new cassette, maybe chainrings and jockeys too, BUT… it’s early January, and I set off to work this morning on properly salted roads for the first time in ages this morning. So do I:

a) do what I know needs doing, but then use brand-spanking new shiny bits through the worst of the salty, gritty grindy winter (same bike off-roads and commutes on road) and likely as not based on previous years have prematurely worn, aged bits to replace again by the time spring comes, or

b) try and nurse it through the worst of the salt and crud and grinding paste of winter, and treat myself to new shiny parts in spring, when I’ll hopefully be out more having fun?

Of course the reality is likely to be

c) attempt (b) then have the chain snap somewhere awkward, inconvenient and cold when the weather is awful, I’ve got a cold and I need to be somewhere urgently.

I replace everything at some random point between 9-12 months as it approaches wearing out, depending on whether my internal memory thinks it’s been ‘mostly’ dry or ‘mostly’ wet. costs about £80-£90 depends on whether I reckon I need rear mech pulleys.

Last year as been mostly wet, so I would’ve replaced it at some point soon, the choice was either do that now, or do it at some point in the next weeks/month or so. I’m at home, it’s not raining, it took me about an hour. No biggie.

edlong, exactly, my thinking was; yeah I know it’s still winter, but I’d rather do it all now, knowing it will be ok, than have it destroy itself mid ride…

Waste of wear on the existing stuff.

without wanting to appear like a dick, I hate it when the drive train has gone past that point where you know it’s shagged out and you’re just waiting for it to die, annoys me too much, and I’m too lazy to replace cables more than once a year 😆

I getcha. I quite like sqeezing a few more miles out of a weary drivetrain wondering when its going to start skipping under load. Quite satisfying in a perverse sort of way, especially when you have all the replacement bits waiting.

I quite like sqeezing a few more miles out of a weary drivetrain

you have more patience than me!! wish I could, but it just bugs me. 😆