Worn cassette – second opinions please?

Afternoon STW,

I replaced a well stretched chain last weekend it was well over the .1 on my Park chain checker and riding to work this week the chain slipped in the 2 small cogs at the rear when in the lower ring at the front.

The was cassette fitted in July/August 11 and think it’s got about 2.5-3K miles on it. I bought my Garmin last June and since then it has recorded 1900 miles on it.

Looking at the cassette it doesn’t look significantly worn. I’ve also noticed that the new chain is rubbing on the rear mech when on 36 / 11. So could it be the chain is too long or should I just change the cassette (I’ve bought one) and keep an eye on chain stretch in future?

Just to add other than slipping on the small cogs shifting at both ends is fine.

New cassette would be your best bet.. However a few more rides and chain may settle onto cassette
Better ? I’ve taken a small file to burrs on cassette before which helps..

Put the old chain back on would be the best bet, that and stop using a chain checker, which is purposely designed to make you change your chain before you need to.

Imagine if shoe shops sold a shoe checker that told you when to buy a new pair of shoes…

i agree with crikey on this, if its pedalling fine and not skipping leave it alone.

I would have said that the cassette was done for, sorry. Although it hasn’t done a huge number of miles it has had to deal with a fair portion of those miles with a well worn chain which will have caused the cassette to wear at a faster rate than you would otherwise expect.

I’m not sure if it’s possible to get the chain to settle in and work with the old cassette, it may be. But if this is the case then all you are doing is accelerating the wear on the chain until it was within the non slipping tolerance of the worn cassette, which is surely a false economy.

Depends on where you ride but I generally get about 1 cassette to 3 chains, but I do check the chain fairly regularly and change it as soon as it hits the max wear point on the guide.

[edit] Alternatively what crikey said is perfectly valid, although knowing that the chain was all sloppy would play havoc with my OCD tendencies.

Put the old chain back on would be the best bet, that and stop using a chain checker, which is purposely designed to make you change your chain before you need to.

I threw the old chain in the recycling bin, so unfortunately that’s not an option. The shifting on the old chain was terrible even when clean, it would skip and drop gears then randomly change gear/drop down when stationery, but not slip.

So at what point do you know your chain is ready to be replaced, using a ruler or callipers?

So at what point do you know your chain is ready to be replaced, using a ruler or callipers?

I use one of these and replace when once the wear gets to 1.0:

Having worked this way for a while I tend to keep an eye out for good chain deals and buy a couple whenever they are cheap, so that i generally have at least one or two in the spares box.

Chain checker used regular … I’ve put 5000 miles onto a dura ace cassette with 2 chains still
Shifting sweet with life left 🙂

Look at the shape of the teeth particularly on the smallest sprocket – that’s what a long since knackered cassette looks like!

muppetWrangler, that’s what I use, albeit not often enough.

Crikey, how to you determine when to change your chain?

The bike’s now got a new chain, cassette and big ring on.

So I’ll how many miles I get out of it.

Plus one, the bike’s my only road bike/commuter so it get ridden to work and road rides all year round in all weathers, so you can imagine the filth that accumulates on drivetrain. That combined with a sporadic maintenance means everything wears quickly.

Does anyone know the correct chain length for running a 9speed 12-25 with a compact chain set?

Thanks for the replies everyone!

🙂

The shifting on the old chain was terrible even when clean, it would skip and drop gears then randomly change gear/drop down

Sounds more like a cable issue than a drivetrain issue to me, that.

I am due to change the whole drive train on my touring bike as it is 9 years old and totally knackered .As its 9 speed I will get away with about £120 so not to much annually.

Does anyone know the correct chain length for running a 9speed 12-25 with a compact chain set?

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Depends ,how long are your chain stays ,what length cage has the mech ,too many variables for a one length fits all answer

Isn’t it something like,

Put it in the biggest rings, then cut the chain to “tight” plus two or three links? Something like that.

it is indeed that

I run my chains until I get a problem with them; at present I’ve got a 3 year old complete chain-cassette-chainrings set up on my good road bike, and a 3 year old chain-cassette combo on my winter bike, which has replaced a 7 year old chain-cassette-chainrings setup which had done at least 8000 miles.

Chain checkers are snake oil.

Put the old chain back on would be the best bet, that and stop using a chain checker, which is purposely designed to make you change your chain before you need to.

Eh? Change chains at .75 and you’ll get 3 chains per cassette/middle-ring – plus use the last chain until everything dies.

And chains only cost £10.

Spot which front ring was worn out:

I’m experimenting on my commuter with not changing anything until it dies, along with only lubricating and not cleaning. Best part of a year since it went past the 1 mark on the chain checker and it still works well enough. Some point I’ll change it all if it stops working, but pretty sure I’d be a couple of chains and a cassette in by now.

Eh? Change chains at .75 and you’ll get 3 chains per cassette/middle-ring – plus use the last chain until everything dies.

Exactly; you’ll use and pay for 2 extra chains over the life of the cassette instead of just one…

Put the chain checker down and step away from the LBS.

Exactly; you’ll use and pay for 2 extra chains over the life of the cassette instead of just one…

Not IME, you get more life from the expensive bits (cassette and rings) by changing the cheap bit. I guess it depends on how many (offroad) miles you do, for me it makes a difference but for those only riding 20-30 miles a week I suppose not.

Sounds more like a cable issue than a drivetrain issue to me, that.

shifting if fine with new chain and old cables, apart from slipping in smallest cogs

Just to clarify, this is for my road bike which I commute on so at the moment it’s 115+ miles per week.

but for those only riding 20-30 miles a week I suppose not.

Ooooh a riding God!

Just to clarify, this is for my road bike which I commute on so at the moment it’s 115+ miles per week.

my chain and cassette, which is by any rule dead, currently has in excess of 8,500miles on it, weekly mileage is somewhere in excess of 200, i might replace it sometime, but it still shifts still has tooth shaped things on the cassette. the chain rattles a bit….

put the old chain on and don’t worry about it.

crikey’s view is extreme IMO, given the cheapness of chains, it seems to me you can get better value swapping them before wasting the cassette and chainring.

I doubt anyone’s done a worthwhile experiment on it though.

Ooooh a riding God!

So not you then 😉

Worn chain, clean it with a sponge and soapy water frequently,

also check the middle chainring on the fron, they wear quite quick,

Place bike 90 degrees to wall eg facing it and front wheel touching wall, then aply downward pressure to the pedal and see if the chain slips off the chainset ring.

See above for road mileage, mountain bike and cyclocross mileage not included love.