[Closed] The ebike chain thread

Same way you deal with motorbike chain?

run it into the ground. I'm at a coupe of thousand KMs currently, no sign of any issues yet

Same way you deal with motorbike chain?

Can you ride a motorbike up and down the towpath.

Real answer mile for mile I'm really not seeing any more wear on my ebike than any of my other bikes.

I treat mine the same as any other chain, replace at 0.75 wear

Then i replace it with a £10ish KMC/Sram chain

I get around 600-700 miles out of a chain and that's on a e-bike that's used in all weathers, lots of mud slop in winter, so drivetrain gets gunked up

Never had one snap in the 3 years ive been riding e-mtb's

normally replace the cassette when i fit a new 4th chain, never needed to replace the chain ring or jockey wheels

what makes an E-bike chain so much better?

Surely it's not like you can make it really beefy as you still need to fit in the space requirements for an 11 speed cassette and there is only so much you can do material wise.

what makes an E-bike chain so much better?

Never even seen an ebike chain.

I just run a standard xt chain on mine.

There is no accelerated wear. look after your chain and don't change gear under load like a muppet.

Ebike chains like most Ebike specific stuff is just a con to relieve the naive or noob of his/her funds.

I get around 600-700 miles out of a chain and that’s on a e-bike that’s used in all weathers

three times that mileage here and counting on original chain and cassette.

I'm expecting to change the chain and cassette in about a thousand more miles when it first shows signs of slipping in the small sprockets. FK faffing about rotating/changing chains every 600miles. Some chain checkers show .75 on brand new chains.
the 4 or 5 chains the above guy is throwing his money at actually works out more expensive for similar mileage than me replacing my chain and cassette together

My bike came with an ebike specific KMC, appearance and wear wise seems no difference to a standard chain. Just put on a KMC X11 at about 500 miles, will rotate them now until the cassette is dead and then buy another cheapo Shimano cassette and two more standard KMC chains

On all my 1x11 bikes I rotate between 2 chains but would do 3 if I could be bothered. On an ebike I would probably do 3 chains without doubt but I wouldnt be paying £30 for e-bike specific ones unless I was sure there was a benefit which it sounds like there isnt.

Thanks for the constructive comments everyone (-1). Useful thoughts and experiences to throw in to the pot.

There is no accelerated wear. look after your chain and don’t change gear under load like a muppet.

There's a LOT of accelerated wear. There's a LOT more torque/power going through the drivetrain, especially uphill as steeper hills become possible/easier to ride. It's got absolutely bugger all to do with when you change gear.

I've personally seen a cassette on an ebike too worn to take a new chain at a tad over 300 miles. Our regular users are getting 1000-1500 miles out of a cassette. I've seen a 6000+ out of a non-ebike cassette recently and many of 3000+

Ebikes trash drivetrains a lot faster then non assisted bikes due to the power, I don't see how that can be argued, personally. 🙂

I’ve personally seen a cassette on an ebike too worn to take a new chain at a tad over 300 miles.

I've trashed an SS drivetrain in 300 miles.

I've also put over 1000 miles on my ebike drivetrain and it's fine.

Weather and conditions have more to do with drivetrain wear than anything shocker.

I swapped my SLX chain at approx 725 miles when it showed 0.75 on my 2 quid chain checker. It was significantly longer than the new SLX chain I fitted in it's place.

Mine is on roughly 1300 miles at the moment and is fine.

It was serviced recently when I was out of action after my Op and nothing needed changing.

I have ordered a chain checker, 2 more chains, and I already have a tin of Putolene. I am going to try a 3 chain rotatìon.

Going to run the whole drivetrain into the ground in mine then switch it to my normal bike and put the 9 speed off that onto the e-bike I think

What’s the point in rotating chains? Is it so they all start the wear the same rate with the cassette and chainring? Seems like a lot of work.

My steel gx cassette and steel sram chainring have been on the bike a year and half. Only changed the chain for the first time a couple of months back as I’d forgotten about it. Chain checker almost dropped into 1.0 so it was stretched and I thought I’d had it. Stuck on an x1 chain and it meshed perfectly and had no issues with it at all.

Steel chainring and cassette ftw!

What’s the point in rotating chains? Is it so they all start the wear the same rate with the cassette and chainring? Seems like a lot of work.

My thoughts on this are the same.

Tried it and it really didn't seem to make anything last any longer.

I now just run everything until it's trashed.

It's surprising how worn you can let a drivetrain go and it still works good enough to not be a problem.

My chain checker almost falls straight through on to the floor when I show it to the drivetrain on my don't give a shit about it hardtail.

Ebikes trash drivetrains a lot faster then non assisted bikes due to the power, I don’t see how that can be argued, personally.

5500km on the cassette on my ebike currently and no plans to change it yet.