Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
On 8 or 9 or 10 speed, there was some discussion on chain longevity. And over the years I have seen a lot of debate on chain life with different chains. On that I have no opinion.
But I bought a bike last spring with 10 speed gearing, my other derailleur bikes have eight or fewer sprockets. One thing that I have noticed with the 10 speed cassette versus the eight speed is that I spread my usage and therefore wear across more sprockets when the cassette has more sprockets. That is because there is a smaller incremental change between sprockets on the 10 speed. Specifically, 80 or more percent of the time on the eight speed cassette I am using three middle sprockets. But with the 10 speed cassette I am using five or six middle sprockets about 80 percent of the time.
I do not know if that means that a cassette will last longer with 10 sprockets compared to eight, but it might. I am sure that sprocket thickness and hardness will come into play to, as well as the total range of the cassette, so it might not be a simple comparison.
this idea of spreading out the usage on a cassette is a good one, and instinctively I feel, an important one.
I also share this view, and also think of it for the chainrings also.
This is why I mentioned why for slower paced touring, which for me clearly happens with a more heavy load and always in hilly terrain, that I find a mtb triple to be so useful.
In the past, the bikes Ive toured with had larger mid rings,
too big big rings, 50/40/24, 50/39/26 (changed out the 30 to a 26) and invariably I'd hardly ever get into the big ring, nearly all the time in the mid ring and climbing in the small ring.
As you mention, back in the 6 and 7 spd days, the same few cogs would get used in the back, but at least with 9 speeds, it began to share out the cogs more, but I still would mostly be in the mid ring.
with the mtb triple 44/32/22, I really found that I used all three chainrings more, and the only time I found it a bit annoying going back and forth between the 32 and 44 was when I was only on the flats, like when riding in France along a river all the time, where my average speed was such that I was up at the end of cassette in the mid ring more often, probably around 25kph or so. I'm not keen on riding in the small sprockets of 13 and especially 11 for any extended period of time, so would go up to the large ring at that point.
like you have noticed, I really do have the impression that I spend a lot less time in certain cogs, or at least more time using the cogs and large chainring that I didnt use as much before, and that has to be good for both chain, cassette and chainring wear over time.
I figure a good gearing setup for a given use--ultimately the bike+load weight and terrain you're riding in--is that you consistently use all the range of your cassette and chainrings regularly. That will be different for different situations and diff factors, but its a good one to strive for.
touching on the strength of 10 spd stuff---who knows? I suspect that it has improved a lot as 10 spd is certainly not new at all, but specifically MEV's case, he is a big, very strong guy, and I'm sure he puts a heck of a lot more power into his chain than I do, so this could be something that should at least be looked into and taken into consideration-especially for going off to far off eastern Russia.