Originally Posted by
gregjones
+1
I go against "ultimate perfect" advice a lot. Usually because I can't tell a difference or, usually, not anywhere near enough of a difference to make up for even a bit of the extra trouble I go through to get it.
Like tire pressures, I experience less of a decrease in pedaling effort than decrease in comfort. Effort minimal, comfort huge. I run mine at the lower range of the charts.
Same with chains, wipe and lube when they complain, not just when I think they need it and replace it once a year or if it shows stretch with the ruler. I use $15-25 chains and don't see spending a hundred bucks of time worth making them last ten cents more.
My philosophy. However, well under 2000 kilometers, my chain got to .75 mark on the chain wear gauge. In 4 months time, mostly just flat terrain commuting. That's really short I think. LBS says to wait until the 1.0 mark, ruler agrees with them, but it wears quickly from .75 to 1.0, guess some 500 k more (a month, month and a half max). Way too quick.