Anyone got any ideas on how to accurately measure chain wear? I’m too tight to spent £8 on a wear gauge 😉

When its the same length as a piece of string tight arse.

12 links should be 12″

About as helpful as a chocolate fireguard! 12″ 1/32 is the guide to replace the chain and 1/16 is the drivetrain. You’re measuring to centre of pins and it doesn’t take into account the wear on the centre of the chain, only streth

you could do the motorbike thing, and wiggle the chain on the cassette.
Not much wiggle: chain ok
Lots of wiggle: time for a new chain?

With the exception of the £40+ Shimano tool, all the other chain wear gauges I’ve seen measure roller wear too and therefore are useless (roller wear being inconsequential).

Using a Mk.I eyeball and a steel rule (tried using a ruler, but she was busy) I follow Sheldon Brown’s guideline of 12.0625” (12 1/16”) = replace chain, sprockets should be OK.

OK, i’m being dumb…but can someone explain how a chain/link ‘stretches’?

My Rohloff has served me well and that only measures roller/pin wear.

Going by my chain wear checker, that also measures roller wear, replacing at 0.75% I didn’t notice any chainslip. At 1% it took about 3 rides for the chainslip to go away
Hardly scientific I realise, but I have an idea how a new chain will run going by my inferior chain tool

It doesn’t actually stretch but gets longer as the bushings/pins wear.

http://pardo.net/bike/pic/fail-004/000.html

The chain length increase and thus gives the impression of stretch – hence the name 🙂 as Coleman says is the pins shich wear down by a faction of a mm and thus added up over the length of the chain can add 1-2 mm+ onto the chain length. This is likely to accelerate the wear on the chainrings and cassette as each link is a little longer and bites on each tooth a little higher up causing sloping at the top of the tooth.

thanks for the info folks. Good article Macavity, had to read it 3 times before I understood it.

Think I’ll go with “The standard procedure for measuring chain wear is to hold a ruler against the chain. With 1/2-inch spacing chain, 24 links should measure 12 inches new; if 24 links measures 12-1/8 inches, the chain has worn about 1%.”

Right, where’s my steel ruler…..