Discovered the reason for my noisy chain lats night, my rohloff sprocket is worn right down. I’ll get it reversed, if there’s enough life in the other side, but its lead me to thinking:

How long is a good life for a sprocket? This has taken about 20 months to wear out (and a bit beyond)

Would a 1/8″ thick sprocket have a longer life as it would distribute the load more? (I know Rohloff only make 3/32″ but this is thinking outloud)

The wear is not just a function of unit pressure, but also a function of how worn (or stretched) your chain is, a chain that ha suffered more stretch will load the sprocket teeth more unevenly and cause more wear.

If you change your chain before 0.75% wear, or eralier, you may expect manu years of life from a single sprocket, if you buy a cheap chain and run it for 20months without changing it, no sprocket will survive.

I would say chain quality and chain stretch (and lubrication of sprocket and chain) are more important considerations.

But, to answer your question, for the same chain, a wider sprocket should be expected to last a little longer.

20 months is good going IMO if you are riding regularly.

how many teeth are on your sproket ?

making your ring and sprocket a bit bigger can reduce wear while retainign same ratio

3 years on my first and 3 years on the current one and that’s all off road commuting all year round without ever cleaning the chain properly. The first one still had plenty of wear in it but I’d decided to change the chain as a precaution. I don’t reverse my sprockets though. When you do the outer surface which may have become worn and pitted is now running against the hub seal. This was advice from the Thorn forums so I have no idea if it can cause a problem but I was happy enough with a 3 year lifespan not to chance it. One other issue you may have if you reverse it and run it into the ground is that it may prove very difficult to remove. My curent sprocket is now along with the chain into it’s 4th year so I’ll not ever bother with measuring chain wear. I’ll buy a new chain and sprocket soon to have sitting as a spare and I’ll need a chainring too as that has been reversed and is 6 years old.

The obsessive way to do it is to reverse the sprocket every time you replace the chain, to even the wear…

Its a 16T sprocket, fitted with a new chain and chain ring.
Gets ridden “properly” once a week on average, and a short commute most days.
According to my Superstar chain gauge, the chain is fine, its just the sprocket teeth that have worn. I rarely clean it properly, maybe every 3 or 4 months when the chain needs re-lubing. Its after cleaning off the old gunk that it makes most noise, a couple of weeks later and its all bedded in again nicely.

Its after cleaning off the old gunk that it makes most noise

Well that’s your problem :-),
I never do anything but wipe the worst of the mud off my chain and cover it in some old gear box oil I’ve got lying around. I think to be fair the chalky mud of the south downs acts as a very good lubricant hence the current chain which is over 3 years old.

I reversed mine after two years, some time later whilst riding along started hearing the odd pinging noise. At home inspection revealed that the noise was the machstick thin teeth breaking of the cog. there were only abot six left on which was just enough to get a bite with a chainwhip for removal. Still got the old cog as a personal trophy.

Just wondering what the right amount of chain tension is – roughly how much free vertical movement should there be in the chain when it is tensioned appropriately?

An inch? Too loose is pretty hard to get, too tight isn’t good, so better loose than tight.

Mine has to get pretty loose before it starts to fall off, as above avoid over tightening.

Found the same as irbandito with cleaning chain and noise/ increased resistance. Too busy to clean it at the mo and finding it is running real smooth. Thanks for chain tension advice and amazed to hear the drivetrain lasting that long – wont be long before it covers the outlay for the rohlly! Had mine for a year and finding that it has bedded in really well continually over that time. Great purchase.

flyingmm mine is six years old, it’s had an oil change each year and one change of sprocket and chain and done 2 years road commuting and 4 years off road commuting all year round. At the moment my bike gets plastered in mud twice a day and I couldn’t be using something that needs cleaning for it to work. You can get the oil in 250ml bottles now which makes it more economical, it’s worth checking the German web sites for the best price.

Are you taking the chain off when you clean it ? If so, there’s a 50/50 chance that that may be the cause of the noise.
With an even number of teeth, the chainring or sprocket will wear to match the chain.
I found that if I put the chain back on with the wide links where the narrow links used to be, it was very noisy for a while until it all bedded in again.

Thanks for the tips!