Originally Posted by
ItsJustMe
On my route it hardly matters how "long" it is. I have put a brand new chain on, ridden 10 miles to work (at the old place). 4 miles of that is gravel road. If it's raining, I'll park the bike in the stairwell and when I get back on it in the evening, the 10 mile old chain won't bend anymore because it's entirely caked in dried clay.
I got to the point where I just power wash it and daub some lube on it when it's dirty, and put lube on when it starts making noise. I tried keeping it clean and lubed and my payoff for hours of work over the life of the chain was an extra 150 miles (about 2 weeks) life on a $6 chain. I decided diligence is overrated.
The BEST I can do, if I'm super diligent and spend hours cleaning the chain, is about 2000 miles on a chain. If I am lazy, I get 1800 miles.
I've gotten to where I don't bother measuring my chain anymore either. I just run it until it starts to skip - about 8000 miles, and then replace the entire drivetrain. It's actually LESS money than replacing the chain every 2K.
Much common sense here. For cheaper drivetrains, this is the least costly "policy".
Some steel cranksets can even outlive at least one fully stretched chain that has started skipping on the cassette, having all started from new (and after about 10000 kms).
I also prefer cheaper chains/cassettes and less hassle with maintaining them.
BTW, for novices, I explained chain stretch, cleaning and lubing technique with pictures here:
Best bicycle chain lube
And gave an overview of various lube types with their pros and cons, in a (very) long post here:
Bicycle chain lubricants - explained - Cycle Gremlin