Bought a new bike in November with Sram xo1 drivetrain done roughly 800 miles, had a new chain in march which snapped today whilst under no pressure on a fire road at gisburn, both chains done about same distance doesnt seem very good to me, bike cleaned and lubed after every ride. Is 400ish miles an acceptable lifspan.

Had you split it at all?

No and was fit by LBS

I got my OO Fatty in December and the 1031 that came with that was too stretched to replace after about 1000 miles, and now, it is still going at nearly 2900 miles.
Gear changes are a bit sloppy, but nothing is slipping yet.
I don’t go easy on either, its my everyday bike and it also gets used for hard fast chaingangs.
My guess is that the extreme angles of chain line in single ring set ups don’t help.
I never use bottom 2 gears that would cause a bad chain line.

I have only broken one chain in the last 20 years, and that was because I kept pedalling when the chain jammed while shifting.

You should check and see if you have any jaggy metal sticking out on your chainring/cassette which may cause wear.

snapping chains is one of those things, it’s either due to a fault, wear or it was just going to happen. I’ve said it 1000 times though miles done and I lubed it after are not really that useful for the mountain bike. (I can see how it works on the road) I can do 400 miles that I’d expect to eat the drivetrain or 400 where I’d expect to only bush the dust off. No matter how clean it is at the start of a ride if you hit grinding mud in the first puddle you will be doing damage.

Anyway what was the wear on the chain?

All it takes is one unlucky shift under load in the wrong gear combination or a happenstance of conditions built up over time (mud/dust/bounced shift/teeny sliver of gravel) that can destroy a chain with a seemingly innocuous gearshift when JRA.

Sometimes it is the fault of a badly riveted/pinned link but more often than not it is just that one in a million chance for something to go wrong and hey presto – it’s went wrong and the blame troll is awoken from within………

Suck it up and buy a new chain, KMC are good.

😉

If you’ve had two chains go, both at 400 miles, its either a lack of mechanical sympathy by the rider, or a ham fisted LBS I reckon.

Did it break at the powerlink or in the main chain? Have you been taking the chain off to clean it?

Ha ha no blame troll was just curious really but thanks for comments

I normally get mid range SRAM or Shimano chains and find I get up to 1000km before they’re sloppy and in need of replacing. It’s easily possible to wear a chain out in 400 miles. Where do you ride out of interest?

I found the X01 chains to wear and stretch quite quickly.. I’ve gone back to the XX1 chain. The last one did 800 miles before it needed replaced.

Gear changes are a bit sloppy, but nothing is slipping yet.
I don’t go easy on either, its my everyday bike and it also gets used for hard fast chaingangs.

I’m guessing it depends on your definition of “worn”. I’d bloody well hope no chain would get as far as slipping in 400 miles, I’m assuming he means it reached 0.75 on his chosen chain wear tool.

On the OP – my last three XX1 chains have all done 700-800 miles. I find chains last better with single ring transmissions.

Thanks for the feedback guys,mainly ride in lakes/Nyorks & Gisburn all are rocky areas so guess chain picks up a lot of grit. Generally take chain of every 3-4 rides to clean, rest of the time, clean it in place.Have put another sram on today if it last no longer this time will try KMC next,it snapped on the power link