Originally Posted by
gosmsgo
I've started changing my chains every 2000 miles or so and at that point they hardly show any measurable "stretch" at all. In fact they are still within new chain specs according to my LBS.
At 4200 miles on my new bike my cassette still looks pretty much brand new. Shimano recomends changing your chain every 1500 miles but that is really, really early.
I checked mine around 1800 miles and there was absolutely no "stretch." Now that Winter is realy hear, and we've had fresh snow every day for the last 4 days, and will continue to see Lake Effect snow for the coming week, my chain is actually getting dirty. I am approaching 2000 miles and no problems. I'll wait till March when the worst of Winter is behind us and put on Fresh chain. All this snow+salt can't be doing the chain much good. I did switch from Pedra Ice Wax to Perdo Synluble. I like the Ice wax as it appears to work very nicely most of the year without leaving the chain very dirty. The Syn lub is clearly much stickier and makes the chain one very nasty mess. The upside of Syn lube is that the drove train is running smooth and quiet even after getting caked with salty slush and snow. So I will use Ice Wax starting on the new chain that will get installed in Spring, and use it throughout Fall, and then switch to Synlube when the conditions deteriorate sometime in December or January.
Happy riding,
André