Originally Posted by PraiseYeJah
chains stretch .. i have mks tensioners .properly installed and tracknuts tightened down as hard as you can. my chain has stretched in the past month..its a fact. i reset my chain tension about a month ago as i say and when i did i made it fairly tight(ish) as i like to not have any play when i trackstand.i ride without a handbrake so my chain gets stressed i guess you could say..but there is no denying that there is now slackness in my chain and hence a small amount of play in it when i trackstand..so..chains stretch!
Sheldon Brown sez...
Chain "Stretch"
Cyclists often speak of chain "stretch", as if the side plates of an old chain were pulled out of shape by the repeated stresses of pedaling. This is not actually how chains elongate. The major cause of chain "stretch" is wearing away of the metal where the rivet rotates inside of the bushing (or the "bushing" part of the inside plate) as the chain links flex and straighten as the chain goes onto and off of the sprockets. If you take apart an old, worn out chain, you can easily see the little notches worn into the sides of the rivets by the inside edges of the bushings. With bushingless chains, the inside edge of the side plate hole that rubs against the rivet has a smooth radius instead of a sharp corner. This probably contributes to the greater durability of bushingless chains.