I replaced the whole drivetrain 23 months ago (cassette + crankset + chain all at once). I bought the cheapest new parts I could find which came out to 5 local Big Macs on today’s McDonald’s index (in total).
The chain has started slipping every time it rains. I don’t blame the rain I just suspect that it’s reaching the end of life and the water just puts it over the edge enough to slip. I assume it will soon start slipping in dry conditions as well, correct?
Can I do much better than 2 years?
I somewhat abused the chain. Added proper oil every ~2 weeks but never cleaned it. There are lots of unsupported claims in the wild that cleaning the chain substantially increases the longevity. Okay, sounds plausible but I’ve seen no stats. If a weekly cleaning (thus 104 cleanings) would extend the drivetrain’s life by a couple weeks for example, that’s not worth the effort. So does anyone have any figures, even anecdotal?
Guess I should mention this is urban city riding, not trail, so presumably cleaning would be less impactful. And I’m not a serious enough rider to need high performance.
I’ve also heard the sprocket and cassette should be replaced every other chain replacement. Is that good advice? So I only need to replace the chain at this point?
Is it just the chain’s life that is shortened by not cleaning, or are the gears also significantly worn down faster?
Basically the point is that dirty chain collects dust and sand and grinds down the cogs faster. Usually you should change to a new chain when the chain has stretched about 0,75-1%, if the chain has stretched more it has begun to eat on the cogs and then a new chain won’t sit on the teeth properly and will start slipping. Normally if this is the case we would recommend to change the whole drivetrain or ride the old one until it breaks. Of course it depends on the quality of the drivetrain, eg if you have a 12-speed cassette it’s a lot more prone to wear than, say, a 8-speed one. The fewer gears the longer the life of parts. If you swap the chain often enough you will get more kms from the chainrings and cassette. For normal riding (~5-15kms per day, again, depending on conditions, riding style, drivetrain etc) you should swap the chain about twice a year. If you use the gears evenly and ride so that you don’t force the change and use proper gear then you can easily go through several chains before needing to change the cassette.
The life of a chain is best measured in distance used rather than in time. Are you also riding in poor weather? Winter roads with destroy any chain. Up to 10speed a chain should last at least a few thousand kms in seasonal weather and several thousand if used only in good weather.
I’m riding in all seasons and often get caught in the rain. The chain has stopped slipping. So I’m not sure what was going on to cause slippage for a week or two but it corrected itself and so I’m still getting mileage out of it.
