Mountain Biking - chainring, chain, sprocket life???

i bought my mountainbike brand new. i have put about 3000 miles on it. most of those miles were on concrete. Basically the whole drivetrain is destroyed. completely rubbed down, the bike shop told me it would be about 100 to replace and install everything, i asked if there was anything i could do to prevent this, and they pretty much said it was just normal wear and tear. How many miles should the drivetrain last??? I bought it new in april of 2003

The life span of MTB drivetrains is a joke, especially new 9 speed setups. The best advice I've heard is that when you get new chainrings and cassette buy 3 (or more) chains and rotate chains every month. That way you will get less chain stretch thus prolonging the life of your teeth.

FYI I have a SRAM 8 speed chain and cassette with 1 year and about 5000 kms on it that has just about had it. Getting new parts for next season, although I have to use a 9 speed chain with my new crankset so I'm expecting less life out of it.

3000 miles is fairly good. Other then keeping it clean and smoothing out your spin, there isn't much you can do.

Why rotate chains? :confused: Just keep it clean and lubed. I'm at 2600+ miles and haven't seen much wear in the chain department.

Oh and I use a Shimano XT/XTR IG90 drivetrain setup.

thanx for the replies!!! so if i rotate chains every 600-900 miles and clean and lube drivetrain, will i still have to replace components once a year?? i ride about 600-800 miles a month. mostly on concrete.

Are road bikes that much different.I have always been told change your chain..Don't let stretched chains destroy cogs and the cog will last a long time.Seems most of my road bikes, as long as I change the chain every 3,000 miles, do not allow stretch - the cogset lasts up to 30.000 miles.

ahem ....

it's not stretch

it's wear.

;)

ahem ....

it's not stretch

it's wear.

;)

The wear causes the stretch.

We true Mtn.Biker's have "always" called it STRETCH, even though we have 1/2 a brain & know that the chain didn't actually stretch, but did get longer due to the components that make up the links being worn.

Note to all Newbies to the sport of mountainbiking: Don't come into the sport with the idea of "renaming" events, riding styles, certain trail hazards, bike components, or trail names. All of these items have already been described, and learned by the veterans of the sport... Our fun will still be around long after you guys get tired or bored with it.

Have a nice ride!

If GoldWing made a bicycle, It might look like this ....

Well, you chain is certainly shot at 3000 miles. The cogs usually will last the life of two or three chains. The chainrings generally last even longer. I have trouble believing the chainrings are worn out.

As far as the chain stretch thing is concerned. The individual pins and plates wear. This wear on each link causes the chain to get longer. So when talking about the chain as a whole, it has indeed stretched.

I don't know how this is possible, but it seems my chain has not stretched at ALL in 5 months of intense use.

8 links = 8 inches.

Am I just really lucky?

One of the most cost saving tools you can buy is a Chain Checker. It measures the amount of wear (Stretch) in a chain. It's about a $12-15 tool.

I end up going through about 3 to 4 chains before I replace the cassette and chainrings.

3000 miles is pretty good for a complete drivetrain. If you had replaced your chains more often you could probably extend that out to almost 4000 before replacing the whole drivetrain again.

Wear depends on a lot of things however. I'm a big guy and tend to push bigger gears versus spinning an easier cadence. This causes a lot of wear on my chain. A smooth pedal stroke will extend the life of your components. Me? I'm happy if I get 3000 miles before changing my cassette.

L8R