Is their any difference in the amount of chain wear/stretch you could expect to see between a fixed gear setup and a derailleur'ed setup? Would the chain wear/stretch as fast? I am talking about using the same chain ring, cassette, and chain. The only difference would be whether or not you have derailleurs hooked up on the bike or not.

Is this a hypothetical question? Are you thinking of a adding a derailer to a single speed bike because you think the chain will lady longer?


Regardless of why you are asking, my guess would be that because with a derailer you could have more links the duty cycle is lower for each roller per mile, meaning there would be less wear. In reality there is so much variance in chain wear that I doubt you would ever be able to identify it.

The derailleur itself has zero impact on chainwear. As the chain runs through the pulleys there's so little load that any added wear would be inconsequential. However single speed chains wear much better than derailleur chains. The main reason is that SS chains run straight while multispeed chains run on mis-alligned sprockets much of the time.

This concentrates the load on one end of the pin or the other rather than spreading it evenly across the full width. Compare this with sawing a log. To get through it faster, you rock the saw back and forth to get a bite on a narrower section. It's this alternate biting on the ends that increases derailleur chain wear.

The biggest difference between a geared bike and a fixed gear with respect to chain wear depends on how you use the fixed gear. Doing a lot of skid stops and braking with the drivetrain puts more force on the chain than can be done by pedaling and will cause the drivetrain to wear faster.

1/8" wide full bushing chain in a single speed . spreads the wear over the full width,
under the roller .. fine on IG Hub and single speed bikes.

Derailleur chains now are all bushingless , that is,
the metal punched in to make the hole in the inner chain plate forms the
support for the edges of the roller. and so the wear is concentrated on the ends.

But it is more laterally flexible , a characteristic fast derailleur shifting customers like.

There are bushing less 1/8" chains too, once the link making machine is bought,
there is no added cost to make all those separate little bushing tubes..

Actually, it's not a hypothetical question. Actually I was thinking of doing the exact opposite. I guess, just like biking, I've been doing WAY TOO MUCH reading on bikeforums recently. I have a few things I do have to remember as I think about it more. Most of the guys that are doing the winter riding are riding up in Canada not in central New England and most of them are using mountain bikes as their winter bikes not standard racing bikes.

After reading several guys mentioning removing the derailleurs and going down to fixed gear riding for the winter I got to thinking about doing the same thing. I know I need to replace my chain again and since I waited too long the last time to replace it I know come spring I will end up replacing the cassette as well. Thanks/no thanks to doing all the reading over on the Winter Cycling section of the forums it got me to thinking it might work to my benefit to switch down to fixed gear for the winter, not only keeping the derailleurs out of the salt/sand crap but, possibly(thinking it through my head not knowing enough info at the times) also by not having the extra shifting capabilities it might make the chain last longer. Yes, looking at the weather forecast its looking more and more like December may end up being my 5 consectutive month of doing 1500+ miles in a month.

As I was reading the responses back to my question it hit me that I would end up having one other problem and that would be controlling what the outside/running gear would be. I don't think you can reconfigure the cassette so you can control which gear comes where, aka put the 16 or 17 or 18 or 15 tooth cog where the 11 tooth cog is right now.

I'm thinking the idea isn't quite as workable as what I initially was thinking. Oh well, my mind always comes up with one stupid idea after another...what else is new Nifty idea until you really get to thinking about it. Darn!