new chain, grumbly

So I put a new chain on as the old one was approaching .75 wear. Cassette and chainring are only seven months old, so can’t be that worn. But I’m getting a rough/grumbly sound when I put power through the pedals. Spinning a gear is fine, as is shifting. Have heard I may need to let the new chain bed in with the other components, but I keep thinking I’ll need a new chainring etc.
I just can’t help obsessing over things like this, and I hate a noisy bike!

Did you remove the transport grease and relube with proper chain lube?

Did you route it through the rear mech correctly? It’s not running on the little metal bit is it?

Narrow wide chainring? I find they can be noisy with a new chain 5-6 rides some thinner lube it’ll be fine.

it’s not, although i have done that before!

Only asking ’cause I’ve done it myself. Chain correctly seated on the chainring, narrow tooth in narrow chain gap, wide in wider chain link gap ?

The old chain is obviously worn so I would expect a bit of noise until it beds in a bit, something has to give. Seven months is quite a long time if you use the bike regularly.

yes all seated correctly

Chainring. I got 5 months out of a Wolftooth one, it then refused to play with a new chain so got binned. I wasn’t happy

That is pretty crappy, thought i’d get a couple of chains out of the chainring!

I ended up swapping bits out until I tracked it down.

Jockey wheels?

alternatively, if it’s not that;

If the chain’s at .75 then the cassette is probably pretty worn as well. I’d put the old chain back on, use it until death, and then replace the cassette and chain, jockey wheels,  inner and outer cable all at the same time.

Sounds like chainring.

Is it the right speed chain?

I had the same on my CX bike, the cassette was just worn enough not to play nicely with a new chain while not being worn enough to justify throwing it out. It did settle down after a few miles which essentially means the chain has rapidly worn to fit the cassette!

I’ll get another month or so out of it then the whole lot will have to be replaced.

I would be very interested to know what components you are trying. My new eagle chain for a frame swap was so noisy I thought it was the bb, then the cranks, then the pedals, then the frame, then the wheel. It was desperation that made me try the chain… And the old chain was fine.

Then I put new chain and Sram chainring together, and it was good.

That all meant I got less than one chain worth of use from a Burgtec chainring. The symptom was that under moderate power or more the chain was sticking to the ring, causing noise on the return run the the mech.

Update, new chainring sorted the problem. New chain was hooking up on the old chainring and the noise was it releasing from the bottom of the ring. Only around 700 miles on that Absolute Black chainring though, the whole point of changing the chain was to get more out of the other components!Think I may as well do what i’ve done previously and just run the whole drivetrain down and replace all together!

I stuck a new XX1 chain on a 12-14 month old drivetrain recently. XT 12 speed cassette / XT mech / North Shore Billet chainring. It had had an XX1 chain on it for almost the whole time I’d used it. No idea on mileage but I’ve used the bike quite a lot in that time and it’s been dragged through all sorts of crap and slop over the last winter.

When I put the new one on it worked ok in the stand – but on first ride on Thursday it sounded quite noisy. Didn’t slip at all though and by the end of the ride I wasn’t noticing the noise. So either it quietened down or I got used to it. I suspect a bit of both. Was about 30km and 830m of climbing so it got some decen strain on it.

Will see how it goes next time out – but if it works ok I’ve properly got away with it – I reckon the fact I had a very decent chain has probably saved things as it likely hasn’t stretched as quickly as a cheaper one from what I’ve read.

Most posh aftermarket rings wear considerably faster than the more “mundane” options from both of the Big S’s.

I think the CNCd chainrings use much wider and taller teeth which could be a source of the problem. The Sram one is forged and relies more on the shaping and profile of the teeth for the retention.

What chain? KMC?

I’ve been plagued by this for months until recently. I’ve always been a KMC man but first my full bouncer, then hardtail then both drop bar bikes developed the same rumble under power. All running 1x. And all following new chains post March 20. Tried alsorts from jockey wheels to BB spacing to chainrings to different cassettes and never fully went.

Then swapped to sram chains and instant silence. Running across a mix of shimano, sram and Sunrace.

Came to the conclusion KMC now prioritise bling over function. Not the first to be reporting KMC issues.

Interesting re KMC chains… I have a NEW (non-blingy) KMC chain running on a NEW Rotor chainring… noise is awful. I thought it was a chain line issue as when riding I could only hear it in the easiest gears, but I think that’s just because in harder gears wind/tyre noise drowns out the grind. Only done 4 or 5 rides and am hoping it’s going to quieten down as the chainring was eye-wateringly expensive

Ditch the kmc imho. I thought the same but old / new kit made no difference. I think internal dimensions are fractionally smaller than the big S’s and i think its flex that causes it. When chain line gets more angular it causes the issue.

Clue for me was the speed the anodising wore off the chainring teeth and yhe side of the chainring that lost the colour.

Interesting. I’ve just changed the chain on a GRX chainset after 3000+ miles. Chain wear was over .5 but not yet .75. And it’s running smoothly first time. Odd to hear of chainrings doing a quarter of that and needing replacement.

Cant be chainring so soon. Not unless damaged. I’knocking on 5k miles on my GRX ring and umpteen chains and still sweet running.

However, the KMC crap made instant noise and did exactly that hook up.

The 11sp kmc chain is too narrow to fit 11sp SRAM jockey wheels and 1x chainring where teeth are wider than std so translates into grinding and hooking in both cases. Any after market road chainring slightly wider than normal would also have the same problem.

If you only got 700mls I’d be back onto Absolute Black. I certainly would. Thats a new chainring every 6 weeks 😳😳 !!