I've noticed the chains on both my singlespeed and Rohloff get a lot noisier immediately after riding through wet mud.
Looking at the build up around the chainstays and seatstays, I suspect a lot of the mud that gets on the chain is dumped there by the rotating tyre.
I'm thinking of making a short chainguard to try to prolong the chain life.
Nothing too big like the old fashioned shopper bikes, just a short one, not much bigger than a front mech, where the tyre meets the chain. A modified front mech or Rohloff chain guide with a plastic or aluminium solid top to it should do the job.
Has anyone done anything similar ?
Did it make a difference ?
I did once totally plaster my DH bike in old bits of inner tube to try and keep mud from the rear tyre out of pivots/drive parts it sort of helped but mud gets everywhere in the end. a good pre-ride coating of silicone spray on just about everything seemed quite effective...
I use a chopped up drum head to make a mud guard to protect the main bearings on my FSRs. I realised that it also keeps quite a lot of the crap out of my front ring (1x9), so also have one fitted on my hardtail. The vast majority of the stuff that gets on the front gears actually comes from the front tyre, so there's not a great deal can be done about it; however, any reduction is good in my book.
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Other than for bearing protection, where such a guard really serves a purpose is for keeping to a minimum the build-up of dirt in a front derailleur.
the tyre often piles mud up on top of the chainstays which gets fed into the mech/rings from under the top run of chain.. if that makes sense... were you thinking some sort of half enclosure a bit like the old ancilotti chain devices used?
prolong the chain life
my singlespeed chains last for a couple of years. not worth the hassle imo.
How long are you getting out of your chains now? My last one did 2 years of on road and a year of off road all year round commuting. I only changed the chain as a precaution and the current one is around 16 months old and is still running fine despite never having been given more than a wipe over and a spray of GT85. I take no notice of chain wear,I just reversed the chainring and replaced the rear sprocket when I changed the chain. I could have reversed the sprocket but chose not to as I thought it better to avoid running what had become a worn and slightly pitted surface against the oil seal although I know others have done this without problems.
Personally I think adding another thing that mud can clog up will have more drawbacks than advantages.
I don't know how people get two years out of a chain.
I started one of the Merida Marathons with a brand new SRAM PC1 chain. After just 70km it was way beyond the wear limit. Even leaving it until the sprocket teeth are almost worn away, I only get a couple few use through the winter.
I use a 13t sprocket on the Rohloff, so I can't reverse it.
I should have mentioned they are both hardtails, so there's no suspension pivots to worry about.
Good point about mud getting thrown up off the front tyre. Looking at the state of the underside of the downtube, I'd agree with that.
And the way it lands on the chainstays and oozes outwards on to the inside face of the chain ring.
It's starting to look like I'll need something a bit more complex for it to have any worthwhile effect.