Originally Posted by
venturi95
Well, what can it be? Pushing abrasive paste into the rollers when "cleaning" the chain? There is a lot of wind-blown and abrasive dust here (bordering the high desert), in fact this area is famous for its wind. That is one plausible explanation. Or... perhaps the wear accelerates exponentially with weight of an aging road rider? What do you weigh? I was 150-155 in my day, then I quit racing and started using my upper body for work. My weight went up to 165-170 very quickly, and I noticed every dynamic of the vehicle (me on the bike) changed for the worse.
I just weighed myself and I was 184. That's an additional fully loaded touring bike with my old self pedaling it.
i'm in the desert too and get way more than 3K per chain. more like 7-8K mi. my routine is to take chain off, swish in bottle of mineral spirits, move to secondary MS bath (cleaner), bathe in wax and leave in until next time. the croc already has a chain from the previous cleaning so while the one is being washed the other is in melting wax waiting to be taken out and put on bike. the dirty MS bath really is quite dirty.