Chain life differences?
 

Ok, so I'm used to riding in flat areas, no hills to really speak of. I keep my chain well maintained (dry lube, never goes without) I'd normally get 1000-1200 miles out of a chain, 2500 out of a casette. I'm at 745 in this chain here in Seattle and already seeing 75% stretch and some minor wear on the casette. Is this normal in a hilly area? Or is there a possible other catalyst here?

In Seattle I would attribute it to wet weather and road grit more than hills.

What type of chain? Speeds?

I was blowing through my HG73 chains pretty quickly, so I've decided to try a Campy-9 chain on one bike. Still seeing how well it will last.

I've got a 6800/HG701 chain on another bike. It seems to last a bit better, but rapid wearing scared me a bit, so I did replace it once, a bit early as my cassettes were much more expensive than the chain.

I do think the old 5/6 speed freewheels were much more durable than the current generation of cassettes. The new cassettes shift smoother, but progress isn't everything.

Perhaps I should consider going back to a freewheel for the winter commuter.

It seems to me that my chains started wearing out faster not when moving over from freewheel to cassette but from 6/7/8 speed to 9+ spd drivetrains. Narrower chains seem to stretch a bit faster to me. I remember thinking that my chains were wearing more quickly when I was pulling my two youngest sons in Chariot/Burley trailers or TagAlong TrailABikes, oftentimes with loaded panniers. So, load via hills or weight may be a factor. Also, my chains used when touring, heavily loaded, rain, mud, grit, tend to get replaced when I get back home or before heading out for long haul again.
I usually run two chains per cassette.

That seems pretty bad. You don't say what kind of chain/cassette. When I was riding a hybrid with a 7/8 speed chain, I got about 1900 miles out of a chain if I just let it gunk up and cleaned/lubed it when it got so dirty it wouldn't bend anymore or was squeaking. I tried as an experiment meticulously cleaning and lubing it, which on my route meant that I had to clean it at least once a week, sometimes every day (really should have been twice a day - a brand new chain on my route can get so mud encrusted that by afternoon when it's dry the chain is completely stiff).

With the diligent routine I blew at least 10 hours of my time cleaning, and I got 2000 miles out of the chain instead of 1900. I'd guess I was working for about 2 cents an hour.

I gave up and just went back to the normal lazy mode.

I also experimentally just left a chain on way past its recommended replacement point, left it on until it started skipping, then replaced the chain and cassette together. I found that the by replacing the chain regularly every 2000 miles or so, the cassette would last about 8000 miles (4 chains). If I just left the chain on, the chain and cassette together lasted 8000 miles. So replacing the chain accomplished nothing but using up 3 extra chains.

Now I just clean and lube when I'm bored, when the chain is making noise, or it's very dirty, and leave the chain on until things start skipping then replace both together.

I'm not sure how many miles I put on the bike in the past. Tires used to last a few years. Chains for quite some time.

However, I only remember ever "wearing out" one sprocket on one freewheel. 12T?

My riding has changed a lot in the last couple of years, but I've already blown out two 9s cassettes (multiple sprockets on each cassette), and several chains.

Stretching causes a chain to ride high on a cassette, and is very bad for the cassettes. So, the goal now is to change the chains early, and I'm hoping for better luck.

And, I'm just hoping the Campy 9s chains will be worth more than the cost difference. Time will tell.

I do high force, slow cadence pedalling. I don't know if it is harder on cassettes (and chains?) than low force, high cadence pedalling.

Even without knowing how many cogs on the cassette, brand of cassette, etc, wear on the cassette at 745 miles seems terribly premature. I use Ultegra 10-sp chains (CN-6701) and MTB cassettes on the road (XT-M771-- 7 steel cogs, only the 3 big gears are aluminum) and will generally get just about 3 chains worth of wear before the cassette is done. Give or take 3,000 per chain, so ~9,000 out of the cassette. I've used a laundry list of chain lubes, none make any noticeable impact on the lifespan of the chains.

How are you measuring chain stretch? I use a good old fashioned steel ruler, and replace the chain when I get between 3/32"-1/8" of stretch-- or sooner, if the shifting starts getting especially clanky.

Most of my miles are commuting around Bothell and Mill Creek. I don't have numbers for you but my bike eats chains at a ferocious rate. In the wet months road grime is a real issue- not sure how that correlates to chain life. As I write this my commuter needs new chain, cassette, chainrings and RD pulleys.

I think all you PNW guys need to look into chain lubes (or something) to better protect you against the wet. Yeah, I live in what amounts to a desert, so my chain gets wet a few times a year, but I thought I had short chain life at ~3k per chain. Youse guys are on the next level.

I live in So Cal and ride a fair amount of hills and lots of miles on a bike path that runs by a sandy beach so I pick up grit and salt air. I'd guesstimate that I'm getting a bit less than 1000 miles per chain and change the cassette every 2 to 3 chains.

I'm relieved to hear others getting a similar chain life. All these BF reports of riding to the moon and back on one chain were giving me an inferiority complex! ;)

What type of chain are you buying. I have gotten about 3k on chains for the last 10 years. I ride in all kinds of weather and change them around the 75% mark. I do not get the nickel plated chains (reduce rust) as I find it less expensive to buy a non nickel sram 10 speed and change them around 3k. I clean them every few months but do use very good lube every few weeks called gold link. It really does a good job keeping the chain clean. I ride really hard but usually do not change cassettes until about every 8 chains which is the recommended rotation.

I blow through chains on my mountain bike way earlier but that is really hard core riding. It's still about once per year but way less miles.

I would expect hills to have an effect on chain life for at least some riders.

Chain width definitely has an effect on chain life. As chain width decreases, so does chain life.

Dry lube in Seattle, eh? I think I found the problem.

I was using KMC x10.93 and they were lasting about 2,500 miles. I'm now on my 3rd KMC x10SL - I'm getting ~ 4,500 miles on each of them, I just changed mine 3 weeks ago, it had 4,600 miles and 230,000 feet of climbing on it and actually measured OK, but I thought it was long enough. So at least between these two chains, the higher budget one seems to be worth it.

My cassette has about 14,700 miles on it - Ultegra 10 speed 12-32. I have a new one on the shelf and expected it might start skipping when I put the new chain on a few weeks ago, but so far it seems fine.

I'm a bit surprised by how short the OP's chain life is. Granted I live in the drier climate of the Portland area, but I ride in the rain a good bit and pretty much only clean and lube my chain when it starts making noise yet I generally get 2000+ miles out of chains, and closer to 3000 since I stopped trusting the simple style of chain checker.

The one scenario where my chain life is under 1000 miles is chains used for cyclocross racing. That's a fairly extreme scenario, both in terms of how hard I'm mashing the pedals and what kind of muck the chain is being subjected to. I guess the hillier terrain of Seattle might approximate the extra mashing I do in a cross race, but I wouldn't expect the muck factor to be any worse than my rainy commuting. Could it be a consequence of lubing the chain without cleaning it first?

I find most modern chains (have tried many) are stretched at 1500mi even though I maintain/lube them multiple times a week. I tend to replace them annually on the commuter fleet but am a grinder though. The worst chain has been a recent izumi track 1/8 on a fixed commuter. It has stretched beyond .75 after only about 500 miles, def the fastest I have seen (but 44x15 is a grinder gearing)! I would say sram have been holding up for me best over the last 2 years. Old stock nos chains tend to go much longer, the alloys on modern chains (and cassettes)are lighter but seem to wear much faster ime.

I don't even start measuring chain wear until they have around 3K miles...

typically get 5-6K.

ride in dry conditions tho.

When I get to the point where I have to replace the drivetrain on my road bike, I'm seriously thinking about taking it from 10 down to 8 sprockets on the rear. Seriously, I have NO need for 10. I sometimes shift a gear and can't even tell if it shifted or not without looking.

I also don't use the granny ring on the front anymore, because it requires a long cage derailleur, and when I wrecked mine last year, I found I could get short cage ones for $20 on eBay, while long cage ones were $50 and up. I never used the granny anyway, I doubt it's ever had the chain touching it.

8 is plenty for me, and the drivetrain components last a LOT longer. I just need to do some work to convert the indexing properly.

Also the parts are cheaper. 7/8 chains are $6 on sale and last longer. 10 chains are usually $18 and up unless there's a really good sale.