Yeah -- what they've set you up with will work fine.

And as far as cleaning goes, rubbing down with a rag is both fast and effective. just put a teeny bit of SimpleGreen in your rag and squeeze the chain while you pedal backwards. Don't worry about getting your chain so clean you could eat off it. Just get it so it's clean enough -- when it seems to move fast and easy, you're good. Then lube lightly and remove the excess.

The most common mistakes new riders make is putting too much lube on and not cleaning often enough. Putting on too much lube will make your chain attract grime like a magnet and gunk it up. Not cleaning/lubing often enough leads to premature wear and reduced performance.

Simple Green killed my wheel bearings so I have stopped using it. I would still consider using it on a chain. Just be careful with it around the wheels and bearings, sealed though they may be.

Here on Bike Forums we have had many many multiple paged arguments that go on and on and on about lube and chain cleaning. No one will agree. Search. WD40 is only good to remove dirt, IMHO. My next chain lube will be some 3 in 1 oil. I kill chains. I live on top of a big hill, 750 feet, steep too. I climb lots of hills, Petes Mountain, Wisteria, Cemetery Hill, Bald Peak etc. So I push hard and stand up a lot, I'm 175lbs / 6' as well, and I'm not the best at keeping the chain clean. So I get about 1K out of my 10sp chains. Some people do a lot better but I don't think they climb as much, maybe my lube sucks, I dunno..... :)

Great thread. Lot of good info for us non-mechanics! Kind of like "Everything you wanted to know about chains and cassettes, but were afraid to ask".

Ha! We have strayed into the "temple of chain cleaning" so the passions should flare up and this tread will go straight to Hades in a big hurry. ;)

Any more questions?

You guys have done a terrific job answering my questions....So if the thread is now prepared to go Hades, I'll just move to the side and enjoy the show.

You have now posted something reasonable. That will doom this thread to be "ignored". ;)

There's a big difference between using a bit of this on a rag to wipe a chain down and using enough of it to strip all the lube off. I strongly prefer White Lightning for this purpose. But I think the OP would be fine with it so long as he doesn't soak the rag.

The OP's off to a good start. First century after just 6 months and at an 18mph avg pace riding solo. He's getting familiar with his bike and the options. Who wants to take bets on when he wants to upgrade his ride?

Yeah, I was hosing the whole bike down with straight simple green. I've used it in a chain cleaning machine and it works great. I just clean, over lube and wipe very well.

I think you may have saved this thread. I'm thinking he's already thinking about upgrading. I'd suggest carbon fibre and a relaxed geometry, of course, as I always do. Specialized Roubaix or Bianchi Infinito being the front runners for me right now. Just to keep it interesting, no aluminum and no steel. :50:

i saw your thread about that great first century. it pains me to say that as a noob you are already a better cyclist than most here. every noob question you ask just rubs salt into that wound.

Just hope his next "noob" question is how to convert his speedometer from kilometers to mph!:roflmao2:

:lol: That's funny right there!! :lol:

That's scary, because I am a "toy" guy. But we just bought a new house, and I have a 10 month old daughter, any major upgrades are going to have to be a while.

That's awfully nice of you to say, I don't believe that it's true, but still very nice.

Great thread. Great info. Thank you for not slamming those of us who don't know as much as you all. I, for one, am tired of forums that turn every little question into a chance for the responders to make themselves feel more important by belittling the noobs. We all had to learn everything we know, and, thanks to this thread, I know a little more now.

Oh...don't be fooled...there's plenty of that here. I mean PLENTY.

That's true. But seriously, the collective knowledge base and experiences from BFers is tough to find anywhere else. So we put up with the silliness because we love cycling and there are definitely some really good nuggets here, for both the novices as well as the experienced.

Cue "kumba ya..."

this thread just caught my eye - I don't want to hijack it but I have a related question. You can always tell me to go get my own thread but the ambiance is so nice here...

Today I was told that I need to replace my chain and cassette - the chain is totally believable but I held off because it seemed unlikely that the cassette was that badly worn. I bought my bike up 7 months ago from a friend who had put less than 50 miles on it then hung it on her wall to gather dust. Since October I've put about 1300 miles (it's been rainy) on it and have been not totally bad about cleaning and lubing the chain; I've taken apart and cleaned the cassette once.

So anyway I'm accepting that I need a new chain and not convinced about the cassette, especially after reading this thread. I was thinking though that when I do replace it I want to get something that makes more sense than just whatever came stock. I have a triple (30/39/50) with a 12 - 27 in the rear. I pretty much never use my 30 (but the times that I do use it I am very glad to have it) and I rarely find myself in the 39 - 27 or 39 - 24. I do on occasion begin to spin out the 50 - 12 (yes, on a flat road) - not saying I can hold that pace for long put it does happen, a little more each month.

But if I'm going to be replacing the cassette anyway is there a cassette that would be better suited for me?

My money is on the cassette being fine. So the question may be moot. That being said I suspect your current gearing is fine.

I only replace the cassette if it starts acting up once I install a new chain (was posted in another post recently). The reason riders say to replace the cassette is because the teeth may form to the old chain and not agree with a new chain. You'lll know because the chain will skip around on teh old cassette. IF it doesn, THEN replace the cassette.

IF you take care of the system (clean/lube) the chain will last longer along with the cassette. Some riders replace the chain every 2,000 miles. I do every 4000 and haven't had any problems but I keep it clean and lubed. IF I did encoutner a problem, I did once, I replace the cassette.

I had a bud that insited on replacing his DA cassette and chain every 2,000 miles cause the shop told him to do so (waste of money IMO). I never understood that as my bike always ran just as well as I kept it finely tuned!:thumb:

---------------

You could use a 12/23, might be nice but if you need that 27, you'd have to go to the 30 front ring for the lower gear combo to ease the climb.

Which my opinion, is that I use my 30 and the mid cogs in rear rather than cross my chain in the 39/25 (my cogset). I do my best to eliminate any crosschaining though. SO really, I don't need the 30, I use it to avoid crosschaining adn keep my chain mid cogs in the rear.

UPDATE - for you guys who have been so helpful, just a little FYI... I took the bike to my LBS and I'm getting a Shimano 12-23 9 speed cassette put on. I get the bike back this afternoon, so after I get a ride in I'll let you know how it feels!!

I'll be curious for our report. I have a 12-28 on a triple crank. I mostly use the middle ring up front & find my cadence often jumps 10-12 rpm when I shift in back. I'll probably need a new cassette in about 1000 miles and am thinking of getting a tighter group. My only concern is that while I don't often use the granny gear with the big cog, I do on occasion and am glad I have it when I do.

There is a fairly easy way to deal with this -- just keep multiple cassettes.

Swapping cassettes only takes a couple minutes if you have a cheap tool called a chain whip. In practice, you'll want the tighter cassette the vast majority of the time, but on the rare occasions when you expect to to need some seriously low gears, you can just mount the big cassette.

Incidentally, owning multiple cassettes is one of the reasons why you want a chain with a removable link since the correct chain length will be different for different cassettes.

Nice Tread,

I am have the same problem, my chain is jumping under load some times. I am going to measure the chain. I also need to look at the cassette to see if it is wore. It only seems to happen in the middle gears.

This is a sign that your cassette is worn. The reason it's jumping only in those gears is that those are the ones that are worn the most. If the chain you're using is new, just ride for a couple weeks and the problem may go away.

When you replace your cassette, be sure to replace the chain too.

Not sure if this has been covered yet (because I'm not going to read all of the responses).

If your LBS said "your chain is stretched" go to another shop. Chains do not stretch. They wear out. A chain can and should last you 1000's of miles before replacement.

Not going to happen. I mispoke before. My cassette is a 12-27. I may just go to a 12-23 or 12-25. I wonder how much difference there really is between 30x27 and 30x25 or 23. What do you guys think?

If you're at the point where you're in the 30-25 and you can't keep the cadence up, that extra 2 teeth will seem very worth it. I run a compact (50-34) with a 12-27 cassette. Although I can ride the hills in my area with the 34-25, there are places where my cadence would drop too low for sustained periods of time and this would often aggravate my knee. Adding 2 teeth wasn't very "manly", but it was worth it.

Bob

There is no practical difference between going from 12/27 to 12/25 for your purposes because all the cogs are the same except the last 2 cogs. The last 4 cogs on the 12/27 and 12/23 are different:

12/23 -- 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21,23
12/27 -- 12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,24,27

Note the 1T jumps that take you all the way except the last 2 cogs. With the 12/27, once you drop below the last 5 cogs, you have multitooth jumps. The difference would be nice but not super dramatic so I'd wait until the 12/27 wore out naturally before replacing.

I wouldn't ding them for this. Everyone knows they don't stretch, but this is just a colloquial expression that you'll hear all the time.

And I'll be honest, I don't know that he actually used the word stretched, he put this tool on my chain and showed me how the spacings were off. Stretched just seemed like the correct description to me.

Also, my baby got sent home sick from daycare yesterday, and I'm still on sick baby duty today. So I probably won't be able to give a ride report until this weekend. (it's killing me too, as I really want to try my new cassette out!)

That's my plan. In the meantime I might pretend I don't have the smallest cog & see how much I miss it.