I bought a road bike about three months ago, with a full Ultegra ( 6700 ) group. Since then I've put about 1,400 miles on it, with too many of them being rainy miles. And Seattle has steep hills, so the chain has seen its share of stress.

Anyway, I took the bike to the LBS the other day because I'd heard the drive train creak a few times, and figured it must be time to replace the chain. Well, it's not. The chain wear tool says it's about halfway through its life. ( They took the cranks apart, cleaned and greased them, and the creak went away. )

So, with some lube every 100 miles or so, it looks like I should get 2,500 to 3,000 miles out of this 10-speed chain. I've been getting about 1,000 to 1,500 out of the 9-speed chains on my CX bike. I'm impressed!

Anyone else notice the same thing?

I get 3,000 miles on 10 spd chains.
6 to 9,000 miles on 9 spds.

Talking about chain life is like talking about religion. Why do you hate chains?

I was going to say that my 9=Speed Shimano 105 chain is about 6,000 miles in with about 50% of its life remaining. While I ride in Colorado, mostly in the mountains, and have a more mashing climbing style, I do wonder if the dry weather here benefits chain life, compared to a place like Seattle.

Really!!

Either I've been doing something terribly wrong, buying lousy chains, or ... something. My last one was good for about 1,200 miles, and I had to replace the cassette with it. The chain before that got about 1,500 miles, and so did the one before it.

I got about 5,000 miles out of my last chain, a 105. I'd measure it periodically with a ruler, and it barely showed any wear and ran fine. I bought a new crank and put the old chain on it, thinking it was still good, and it ran like crap. Put a new chain on and it now runs good. So, I don't know. I think 3K miles is about right for me. I do ride in the winter, which around here means lots of grit and salt, but I am a little obsessive about running a clean drivetrain.

I'm guessing an FSA Gossamer isn't the best chain ring in the world...

They are crap. I should know as I have two of those cranks.

But you should be getting more life than you are out of the chains, even allowing that you are riding in slop which will significantly shorten life. How do you decide when a chain is finished, and how are you cleaning them?

The Park Tool CC2 is about as worthless a chain checker as I've ever seen. It measured a brand new chain out of the box at .75% stretch.

The CC3 is a bit better, but as others have mentioned a ruler or caliper is the true way to check chain wear. I have a feeling you're getting more mileage than you might think out of your chains.

Chain checker tools always exaggerate the actual elongation wear on a chain; sometimes as much as twice the actual amount. A 9 speed chain should last longer that a 10 speed chain of equal quality.

I've done quite a bit of chain wear testing and found that even the fastest wearing model (Shimano DA) would take about 3500 miles to reach a true elongation of .5% (measured with a precision rule) . The KMC DX10SC that I tested would last 4,000 miles and a Campy chain would never come close to .5% elongation before the rollers wore out at 6,000 miles.

If you try that with multiple chains, I'll doubt you see that much stretch in the others but you could get varying numbers. It's not because of the chain checker tool is no good.

The only issue with using a chain checker over measuring is that they don't take roller wear into account so reading may be exaggerated.

That's not quite right. The tools will often report .25% wear when a chain is new, but it's due to smaller diameter rollers and/or larger roller clearances. A Shimano or KMC chain may measure .210-.215 inch between the rollers, when new, while a Campy chain only measures .200 inch. The chain checking tool is made to report no elongation with a chain that measures like Campy. Any initial wear is totally false and should be subtracted from future readings.

What do you base this fact on?

@OP - previous to living in Seattle, I lived in ABQ, NM.
I was getting 8-9000 miles out of 9s chains. The issue is the moisture, and to be completely precise, the amount of grit and particulate that sticks to the gears in a wet climate.
The small bits of sand/rock/dirt/asphalt/etc create much more wear.

sad, but true.
The cost of living in paradise, eh?

Also - want to go for a ride over the holiday? PM me!

I lube them about every 100 miles with "epic ride white lightening" chain grease - the stuff that at least says it's for wet weather, then I wipe away the excess. But that's it.

I guess I don't have the most robust method of deciding when a chain's life is up. I write down the odometer reading when I get a new one, but then when it's not shifting well, or making noise after I lube it, if it's been more than a thousand miles, I've been bringing it to LBS and asking someone if it's time to replace it, then taking them at their word...

I'm not sure if it's the Park Tool one or not, but the LBS the new bike came from used something like this to determine the chain has seen half its life:

I dunno. The parts that wear, the pins against the inner plates/bushings, are the same, the only thing different between 9 and 10 speed chains is the thickness of the outer plates, which can't wear in a way that elongates the change.

nothing lasts forever in the cold november rain

Homebrew lube chains last longer.

They don't last forever, but that is pretty good. Ask a good friend of mine who found out the hard way when some dude, who obviously never checked his chain, broke it right in front of him as they were accelerating, down he went with a bunch of people with a broken clavicle.

Check your chain before every race/ride season. Buy the good $30 tool by Park that is adjustable to check..worth it IMO.

Well, the tools will always report false wear if the roller spacing is in the .210-.215 range and none or very little if the spacing is only .200 inch. There is no chain I know of that measures less than .200 inch when new. I once owned a Park chain checker (early model with the dial) and it would hardly fit into a Campy chain, when new.

The main point to take from this is that initial false wear is just that - totally false. A new chain will have no elongation and most actually measure a little short, if you have an accurate device for measuring the full chain length (which I do). Most new chains are about 1/16" short over the full length, but initial break-in takes care of that quickly.

Measuring elongation, or the change in pitch has nothing to do with the rollers and they should never be used in the measurement. When I want a real accurate measurement, I have a full length tool, with a tight fitting pin at one end and a precision 6" scale mounted with it's center 53 inches from the center of the pin, so I can measure the full chain length.

I got about 1800 out of my last SRAM 1091R. It starting stretching very quickly towards the end of its life. But I subject it to the nastiest of the weather around here and live right next to Cougar Mtn. I just got home from a 45 mile(+) ride in this downpour.

I'm climbing 2300 feet on average, per ride, 4-5 times a week...

FWIW, I had a new 10 speed Dura-Ace chain last me 44 miles the week before last. It broke while climbing on Zoo Hill during the 26% grade part. Fail..

My brand new CC-2 tool is showing about 50% in a new chain, that is snug though. At 0 there is just at touch of play <1mm. So depends on how you push the thing.

Doesn't matter. Measure a few times, get your baseline, then just take it from there. So mine is 50% now it reads, at 100 it should be half-way, then you can take it from there and guess pretty close. When in doubt, I replace the chain, some bad stories and things can happen when a chain goes at the wrong time.

A new chain every 2000 mi. is cheap insurance compared to the
damage you could do to yourself or your bike.

That's how the instructions with the CC-2 say to use it. Up to 0.50 is equivlent to a brand new chain. 0.75 is a moderately worn chain, and 1.0 is time to replace, according to the CC-2. I don't wait for 1.0, by that time the cassette is being damaged. I replace at about 0.8. I get about 1800- 2000 miles per 10 speed chain.