I have a raleigh 24 speed mountain bike (front shocks only) that is about 6 months old, but I didn't start riding it every day until about 2 months ago (10 miles a day). Yesterday when I was going up a steep incline and pedaling hard my chain broke. This bike was $600 and I didn't really expect something like this to happen so soon... I've seen 20 year old bikes that still have their original chain and have never been lubed. I lube my chain every 2 to 3 rides because I ride along the beach and get a lot of sand in the gearing. Could the sand have caused the chain to break, was I over lubing the chain, or was it just a cheap chain? I use tri flow lube and white lightening lube.