So I took my beloved Roubaix in for a tuneup prior to a century ride this weekend. I knew it needed new bartape, but it turned out that the chain needed replacing too. It was replaced only 1700 miles ago, but it was at the limit of wear tolerance (I trust the LBS's judgement on such matters, BTW; they're good folks.)

That's really lousy mileage for a chain, especially since it's never experienced rain, mud, etc. Dry and clean most of the time in Southern California, and lubed more often than necessary.

Is there anything to be done to prolong chain life? Do some chains last longer than others? Am I just venting about a necessary expense that's part of the newer, high-tech bikes?

1700 is not too bad.

Better the chain than the chain and cassette and maybe a front ring or two.

I think 1700 is pretty crappy myself. I get more than that on my commuter bike which sees the worst of it.

Edit: That's around 3k kms on one $10 chain. Granted that chain weighs about 100g more and I only have 7 speeds but you do the math and decide if it's worth it.

+1 I don't keep track of the mileage I get on a chain, but I know it is into the thousands of miles.

Worth it or not, that's the bike/gruppo I've got, and it's generally terrific. The question is how, if at all, I can extend chain life, either by getting a more durable chain, different lube, whatever.

What group/chain are you using? One of the places bike companies cheap out on is chains. Only an experienced buyer will spot a less expensive chain when they are bike shopping.

I burn through a KMC chain in about 3000km. I mean this thing is trashed.

Dura Ace/Ultegra group (shifters, cassette, brakes, wheels D/A; derailleurs Ultegra). Ultegra chain.

Two factor to consider:

1. Chain Maintenance - keeping the chain clean and lubricated will help prolong its life. I mountain ride and apply a dry lube every ~40 miles. For me, a dry lube doesn't attract sand or dirt and allows the chain to be cleaned with a stiff brush, but the drawback is dry lubes don't tend to last as long as wet lubes.

2. Quality/brand - I've had great results from SRAM chains.

Do you know how to measure the chain yourself using a normal 12" ruler?

This is hard to explain but it made sense to me when I read it. Every 1000 mi or so flip the chain around, I wish I could explain it better but the way I took it was to take the chain apart and turn it inside out so that what was once the top becomes the bottom. Does that make any sense? Maybe another example would be if you took a fat rubber band and wrote something on it, so you could read it from the outside, now flip it so the writing is on the inside. ??? I'm going to give it a shot and also add a master link while I'm at it.

You're kidding, right?

I rotate my tires weekly too, just to get the effect of seeing the logo on the OTHER side. I mean, i take them off and put them back on the other way round, not turn the wheel. i mean, i do that too, of course, but.... and they're tubulars too, so i must be dedicated.


Hey Bob, where are you located?

It seems you are joking, but people DO rotate their bicycle tires because they wear out on the left side.

Many roads are made with a slight rounded curve that goes un-noticed to the naked eye. This is to allow rain to run off the roads/streets.

As a result, the tire ever so slightly is riding on the side of a slope. This wears the tires to the inside of the road more than to the outside. IF you have ever noticed it, this is the reason why.

I had my old Ultegra 10s chain on for almost 4000 miles. It was pretty wore, but still showed within wear limits. I changed it because I changed cassettes. Maybe folks aren't considering chainline when shifting, maybe crossing too much or something. It's on a Cannondale CAAD8 R1000 with a R700 compact. I changed the cassette from 12-25 to 11-23.

oil on the outside of a chain prevents rust and causes dirt to adhere. Oil on the inside of the chain lubes he parts and minimizes wear. A flimsy 10sp chain will last a LONG TIME if it's run in a clean environment or in an oil bath....years and years.
I still believe that a good soaking in hot grease to get the stuff into the links will also tend to keep the dirt out which is why we get accelerated wear.
If you follow the path of a link as it goes around, you will see that the links of the chain under load always wear in the same arc. The smaller cogs force the links thru a greater arc so there is greater wear on the 11-14 sprockets. The bottom run is mostly slack so less wear occurs. Flipping a chain inside out really does extend use.

I have an ultegra drivetrain on my road bike as well... although mine is 9sp. I get ~6000kms on one chain and it's still good enough that I don't have to replace the cassette.

Perhaps as someone mentioned you're doing a lot of cross chaining? If it's clean and lubed that's the best I've got.

Operating conditions vary. I go through chains pretty quick (though not that quick), being a big boy. I didn't think it polite, however, to jump into weight issues with the OP whom I barely know.

I weigh 190. Reading all these posts, I'm aware that I cross-chain probably more than I should; the DA shifters and Ultegra derailleurs work so well that it's possible to ride big/big, for ex., without any rubbing or indication that the system is under stress.

Well, now you know the result.

Bob's in the deeeep south - Tainan. Home of the DPP and 4000 differet kinds of Hot Pot.

You guys are really serious about this?

Maybe I'm totally missing something here. Please enlighten me if I'm wrong but doesn't a roller and bushing, like, turn? So isn't the contact point of the roller and cog constantly changing? Are you saying that the rollers will wear because of...ah...what? I still don't get this.

Thanks jbrians for spelling it out more succinctly! For those of you that think I'm joking, well just laugh it off. There are those of us that go through life without blinders on and don't mind experimenting especially when it comes to saving a buck or two. I haven't tried it myself, yet, but I will just in case it's not a joke. What if I told you I'm going to rotate my spokes or change the air in my tires? Haha.

I'm just trying to understand what the heck the poster is talking about. I don't understand the illustration. I keep trying to picture it in my head but I just don't see it. Where exactly is this wear supposed to occur? Is it bushing wear? roller wear? plate wear?

BTW are you interested in any real estate?

take an old really worn out chain and push a pin out using your chain tool.
The pin will have a significant wear mark over a small arc. If you turn the chain inside out, it will wear over the other side of its surface. Is this going to break the bank? No. But on a fundamental level, I hate pitching things when they are only half used up. It might save me $20/yr.

It doesn't work that way. If you could see the wear arc before pulling the pin, you would see that it is always centered along the chain, not at an angle to it. Wear occurs on the pins due to a force vector directed along the links, as if trying to pull the chain apart. The pin is fixed in place by the outer plates, so the pin always resists the force on the same side. Flip the chain over and the force vector hasn't changed in relation to the pin. It will still wear on the same surface.

If you could figure out a way to rotate the pins, you could get more wear. Perhaps a pin-orientation modification to the ShelBroCo procedure is the way to go on that.