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Six months ago I fitted a new chain on my mtb, got all kinds of chain skipping etc. Took it to lbs, and as I suspected I had run the chain for too long. Had to get a new cassette and new middle chain ring. Chalked it up to experience and bought myself a chain gauge thingy to ensure it wouldn't happen again.
I have been checking the chain regularly and still the .75 mark didn't fall all the way in. Thinking 6 months is fair use for a chain, fitted another one and bang, exactly the same symptoms as last time.
By a generous over-estimate I reckon the chain did <1500 miles in six months, is not too worn according to the gauge and is well lubed/cleaned etc.
Anyway, before I foot out again for this I wondered what other peoples views were on chain replacement. Unless I am doing something drastically wrong, I am starting to think I would be as well to run the chain into the ground, along with cassette and chain rings rather than fork out for x amount of chains every year?
I am just curious to know others opinions, run the whole lot down, change chains more often or am I just doing something wrong?
Depends on quality/cost of drivetrain. If you're running £200 cassettes and carbon chainrings, replace that chain often. If you're running deore, you might as well let it all just run down. Have a think, see what works out as the most cost effective (and doesn't involve you having to swap chains every 2 rides, or use 14 different kinds of lube).
I think the easiest thing to do is to have 2 or 3 (or more, but then it starts getting a bit complicated) chains, and just swap them every 200 miles or so. You don't have to worry about checking the chain, or gambling that you can do a few more rides before buying a new chain, and when everything does finally wear down, it all goes together, and you just replace everything and start again. And of course it takes ages to wear, so hopefully you will total everything, buy a new bike, get it nicked or whatever.. 😀
That is odd. Chain checkers give a false positive. They write chain off before they need to so it should be fine. I run mine until the tool drops in on the 0.1 mm and then start measuring with a steel rule. My cassettes last several chains this way. Then again, I run fairly evenly across the cassette. Do you focus on one or two sockets in particular?
That's a good point, sounds like you're running a triple, but just sticking in the middle 90% of the time (like most people). Try going for a double or a single ring set up, it spreads the wear out across the chainrings more evenly.
It is just deore I'm running. I think your right might just try it as an experiment. Unfortunately I have chucked the old chain. So will try a new cassette again and then run the lot into the ground. I have a sneaky feeling it would work out cheaper.
Just read that last bit, I do indeed tend to use the smallest three sprockets and that is where its skipping. Maybe I should try being more even.
Use the run into the ground model myself, worked well over the years and I've not had drivetrain problems as a rule.
It can be hard sometimes to tell the wear on a cassette and know if that's causing the problem, at least it is for me. If a cog's clearly bent you'll notice but sometimes the whole thing can perform badly and there's not a real obvious sign.
There’s no definitive rule and advice conflicts - I'm running a new 3 x 10 set-up and measured the chain at just over 3 months. I was dismayed to find the chain was beyond the 1mm marker after such a short time.
Advice on the forum highlighted that run time / mileage is not the gauge, but, it is regular checks that are required.
I was lucky this time; I swapped the “worn” SRAM chain for a KMC and haven’t experienced any slippage. I now run two new chains as the X0 groupset I’m running is far too expensive to run into the ground & change all at once when it has worn out.
Gear just isn’t lasting!