I’ve been chasing shifting problems around my 1×10 for a while now. I thought I had got ‘there’ finally, but my raceface n/w chainring now looks very worn, especially the narrow teeth.

The chainline ain’t the best on mine, so I think this could be the culprit. Anyone else experienced this?

Also, has anyone tried using double chainring bolts and stacks of washers to try to get the chainring over a bit? I know I could move a BB spacer over, but my heels are pretty close to the chainstays on both sides, so I don’t want to start wearing holes in my frame unnecessarily.

Are stacks of washers a go-re for chainline fettling or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Any help gratefully accepted!

What frame is it? The narrow teeth on my Works have worn more than the wide ones but no hooking yet – doing okay after 6+ months…

I’m running a rf narrow wide on triple ring cranks (old race face) using the standard bolts with washers. Got the chainring spaced inwards from the crank tabs. It works fine, and seems to improve the chain line a little.

A worn chainring isn’t the cause of your shifting issues.

A worn chainring will cause chain slippage and in the case of narrow/ wide possible issues dropping the chain.

Sounds more like chainline/indexing related.

More info required on the chainset, current chainline, cassette, rear mech and bike and what the shifting issue is, are you running 11-36, 11-40 or 11-42, short medium or long mech?

Sorry, should have been clearer. I have had shifting issues, but also chain drop.

I’d be interested to know, AndyPaice, what kind of washers have you used and where did you get them from?

My frame is an on one 456 evo 2. The chainline is visibly gash in the biggest sprocket.

Id aim for chainline of 50mm maximum.
SRAM x1 spec is 47mm I think off top of head.

Please excuse my ignorance. 50mm from where to where?

Centre of bb to chainring?

Thanks.

Yeah. Frame centreline. To centre of chainring.

You get 6 months out of a chainring?

You’re probably not riding enough 🙂

I’ve recently built up my sulatan 1×10 and found thelow gears, especially the top two, very rumbly. Introduce any contaminants (in this country!) into the mix and it sounded terrible and felt like it wanted to chainsuck.

I ended up bringing in the chainline by one BB spacer 1.5mm which has improved it. Any more and I will have to space the chainring in from the tabs. By eye, it looks about right now, but I could probably bring it over a bit more.

One of my friends has an RF triple on his bike and he said the chainrings had the wear resistance of cheddar. Are the narrow-wide ones any better?

Don’t forget as you’re now on single ring you’re halving the life of your ring as the wear is not spread over 2 or 3 rings anymore.

I’d say a £30-40 ring every 6 months is acceptable.

A good point blazin-saddles.

I’ve ridden it for six months in all the crap, rain and mud. I only have one bike and it gets ridden twice a week, so I accept that a single chainring will wear quickly.

Anyway, I’ve just ordered a new one and some bolt spacers, so we will see if that ekes any more life out of it.

Cheers for the help guys.

That’s why hard anodising is a good idea on a narrow wide ring.

My Works Components ring is about 6 months old. Had a fair but of use in that time, and visibly worn up close. Started dropping the chain fairly regularly. Definitely due to the ring as no problems after replacing the ring. So from my experience chain retention does get significantly worse with wear.

Blazin beat me to it, a single ring rather than 2 or even three will always wear much quicker.

Don’t forget as you’re now on single ring you’re halving the life of your ring as the wear is not spread over 2 or 3 rings anymore.

I’d say a £30-40 ring every 6 months is acceptable.

I’d say that’s not acceptable – seems like a very short lifespan, unless you’re doing an incredible amount of miles.

On ones offerings are twenty odd pounds I believe.
Are there any plans for an on one expander sprocket as £60 for the hope added to the 30 odd quid for the cassette is not cheap.

6 months??!!!

it’s a bit of a “piece of string” question though, isn’t it? Lifespan varies greatly depending on a multitude of factors- if you’ve been running a single-ring setup, and riding twice a week all through winter then 6 months seems about right… obviously depending on ride length and conditions.
I tend to get just under a year out of a single ring, but then I don’t ride as often as you say you do, especially not in horrible mucky wet winter conditions.
You can get steel single rings from the likes of Surly I think, but they are a lot heavier, and you’d have a run a chain device.

In that case I guess six months might be reasonable. I typically do one evening ride per week of 12-15 miles and one Saturday morning ride of 21 miles. Give or take one or two weeks when I do more or less, my riding is pretty consistent in terms of distance. During a frankly filthy winter with no solid ground at all, maybe I shouldn’t be too worried. Combine it with chainline that, according to Brant, looks at least 5mm ‘out’, then I guess I’m on par.

We will see if sorting the chainline does the biz soon……..

If you start getting chain drop, check the chain. Mine was dropping, checked chain and it was fairly worn, replace (cassette had to be done also given the amount of wear), no more chain drop.

I’ve got Works Components rings on both my HT and full sus. Both have lost their black coating on the teeth, but otherwise are fine. Yes they’re worn a little but still work fine, but it is more sensitive to a worn chain. I go by running chains into the ground and don’t do the replace chains to save a cassette, as I found it I wasn’t getting any more life from a cassette anyway, only spending more on chains (though okay if the chain snapped and was bad enough to need a new chain then new cassette was guaranteed, but a) I buy kmc chains, no snaps, and b) if they snap, use a link, chain still good). All that said, if a narrow/wide means more frequent chain replace then may have to go for the early change to avoid the cassette change after all.

I’d say that’s not acceptable – seems like a very short lifespan, unless you’re doing an incredible amount of miles.

Seriously? I do do a fair amount of miles granted, out at least 5x a week but I really don’t think the expenditure on the ring or whatever is too bad. I prob go through 4 or 5 chains a year and they’re £20+ a pop too.

I probably get through about 3-4 chains a year. A cassette seems to last about three chains. I’m probably about average I guess. So six months for a single ring with pretty mediocre chainline might be about right. I’m a cheapo chain user as well. Shimano 10 speed, whatever’s the best looking offer on wiggle or CRC.

Let’s see if an new chainring and some spacing washers for the bolts can eke eight months out of it!