How long does a chain last?
 

How long does a chain last? I got around 900 miles on it and it gets louder.

Todays thinner ramped chains only last between 3,000 and 5,000 miles as does the rear gear cluster. You need to make sure you keep your chain clean and lubed frequently with anything but wax based lubes. TriFlow, Finish Line Teflon Dry are two very good but low cost lubes; spending more for top line lube does not buy you any more mileage on your chains according to all the complaints I read on this forum about short chain life. If you keep the chain clean and lubed, that will make the chain last longer than anything else.

If your chain is getting louder its most likely not lubed or not clean. How often do you lube your chain? What makes a chain wear out is dirt and grime, keep it clean and well lubed. I use White Lightening (oh no, a wax based lub) and it helps to keep the chain clean while riding but any lube would work as long as you keep up with it.

Dan.

I have gotten around 3000 miles on my chain before it stretched and looked like it was time for a new chain. Keep that baby clean and lubed and you should have no problem getting a few thousand miles out of it.

Well, chain wear is almost entirely caused by dirt getting on the chain and working on it like sand paper. So, the best way to get a chain to last longer is to clean it frequently (of course, you have to lube it after cleaning it).

I keep my chains reasonably clean, giving them a thorough cleaning and lube every 300 miles or so. That gives me a good 4,000 miles out of a chain. Now, I read one guy post who cleans his chain after every ride (the logical extreme) and he got something like 15,000 miles of wear out of a chain.

You can determine whether a chain has stretched by measuring it. 12 links should measure 12". Different people have different ideas of how much "stretch" can be tolerated but I change mine when it gets much over 1/16".

Wax lube! - back in the "old days" the prescribed treatement was to remove the chain, clean by soaking/shaking in a can of gasoline, dry, then dip in a pot of melted wax! Life sure is simpler now!

:) I've still got a tub of chain wax from those days...remember breaking the chain apart after it came out of the pot and cooled. One big stiff coil until you broke the surface wax.

I remember doing it when I was about 17 years old and my mom freaking out when she found out I had melted wax on a gas stove without a double boiler. It was her firm belief that only by luck had I avoided burning down the house.

That was almost 25 years ago and I can only remember her being that mad a couple times.

I think he was also running a 6-speed drivetrain. The chains for those are much thicker than for 9-speed or 10-speed drivetrains.

Hey, it could have been worse.. my older brother decided to warm up some Hershey's syrup in boiling water back when it still came in cans. The only problem was he didn't open the can first. The top blew off and chocolate syrup went all over the ceiling. Burning your house down would have been worse but not much... :D

I clean and lube my chain every ~100 miles, I use white lightning. Still it sounds as if not lubed at all after I go about 20 miles. Keep in mind , I cleaned and lubed it before my ride yesterday. It’s not a “loud” loud as those K-Mart bikes have, but it’s enough for me to know that a usually quiet ride is different

I put on a new chain last summer; I probably had 3500+ miles on the old one (and I had not been good about maintenance.) I laid the new one and the old one side-by-side, and the old one was a full link longer for the same number of links. No wonder it had been making such a racket! Felt like a completely new bike when I put the new one on. Now I'm a little better about cleaning and lubing it...

I'm a little anal when it comes to cleaning my bike. The chain comes off the bike for a thorough cleaning at least once a week, more in rainy weather. The first chain lasted about 4,000 miles before it needed replacement. The chain on there now should last another 2-3,000 miles at the rate it's wearing now. I have yet to notice any funky shiffting on the cassette, it still has nice clean crisp shifts. At hte next chain replacement, I'll consider a cassette replacement also.

i make a point of replacing my chain every 1800-2000 miles.

i'll generally buy a few DA chains at a time when performance or whoever is having a sale and i have a 20% coupon. you can pick them up as low as $13 sometimes.

i also recently bought one of the spinning drivetrain degreaser/scrubber kits and it made a huge difference over my old method of just wiping the chain and cogs down with degreaser and a rag. highly recommended $20 investment.

I've been riding for about 30 years myself, and I too remember the can wax stuff, but when I bought my first bike my LBS told me to use TriFlow instead of the wax because it would lube the chain better; so I never use the hot wax. I understand that you can still buy that wax though. When I was a kid we just used motor oil in a squirt can for our cheapo bikes and never cleaned the chain...but never had a chain problem!

Looks like I have another 2 thousand in this chain, I'll just ignore the sound and give it some more lube. Thanks