I have a Condor Tempo for commuting – bought it last August and the chain appears to have stretched to replacement point already.

Granted it’s doing 50+ miles a week in all weathers with a fair chunk of climbing which requires pushing hard, but I thought a proper singlespeed chain would last longer? It’s a decent quality one – Izumi I think.

Are my expectations of the chain lasting at least a year realistic?

You’ve had 2000 miles out of it (approx), I’d suggest that you’ve had your monies worth…

Fair point. Not unhappy tbh, just assumed a singlespeed chain would last longer as it’s wider than your usual…

What makes you think it needs replacing?

It was making an unpleasant grinding noise which I couldn’t find the source of and the mechanic in the bike shop put a Park chain checker on it and showed me how much it had stretched.
He didn’t try and sell me a new chain either – so I wasn’t just a sales ploy

i’m replacing mine today on my roadrat after around 20 months of 40ish weekly miles.

stretch/wear almost irrelevant on an SS as long as not slipping.

I managed just under 12,000 miles out of the last drivechain on my Langster, it was all worn to buggery and the chainring and freewheel sprocket were more like claws than teeth but it kept working, if it doesn’t need to shift you’d be surprised how long they will just keep going for…

i should add that i’m only replacing mine because it has started dropping quite a bit and i can’t move the wheel to tension it further now (v-brakes), all the teeth on my chainring are fine. oh, and i’m putting a smaller cog on the back too. other than that’ i’m sure it’d keep going.

I’ve ridden a SS chain until the front chainring was so worn that you could feel it in the pedalling. Until you get to that point there’s no *need* to replace as there’s no shifting for it to bugger up and the rear sprocket costs £3, not the £50 a cassette costs these days.