The Cycling Thread

Dean, I'd be curious to know what you're putting on your chain...



IMO, Teflon dry lubes like White Lightning shouldn't get anywhere near bicycle chains... and I would dump most other dry to the touch lubricants in the same rubbish bin.

The best is the factory lube... except that we can't buy that. Get what you can from that before putting anything else on the chain... I get about 400km, but winter mileage varies.

The best bottled lube IME, especially in winter is a synthetic oil that goes on wet and stays wet, but yes, dry weather too...

Two that I have recent experience with that I would recommend are Purple Extreme and Finish Line Cross Country


My GF was religiously putting that awful WL teflon stuff on new 10 & 11 speed chains (which seem quite sensitive to lubrication and wear) and it was ruining them very quickly... noisy and horrible shifting within 1000km that would drive me nuts listening to it. "But this is what the bike shop recommended"... Gaah! Just because something is popular clearly doesn't make it good and here is the evidence! (Sweetly of course when I speak to her.)
She was lubing the chain before a ride too... The carrier solvent didn't have time to evaporate and the jockey wheels would turn into a couple of balls of teflon and grime... Wiping the chain down and oiling with actual oil(!) at the end of the ride solved all wear and noise problems.

I haven't had to drop the chain in kero by staying on top of the wiping and oiling. The cassette gets a nylon brush with long bristles to knock any sand out and is occasionally removed and soaked in a tin of kero for proper cleaning.
Maybe you're aware of this... If you have a chain breaker don't ever be tempted to use that to drop the chain for cleaning without a new joiner pin (don't push the existing joiner out either)... Without it there is a good chance of wrapping the chain and rear mech around the back of the frame. Noob mistake... Old 5, 6 & 7 speed chains could be broken without the pin, but I found out the hard way about newer chains when I did that to one of my 9spd mountain bikes many years ago. It's not pretty.



BTW, I notice some deep scoring in your rim. It pays to check the brake blocks regularly for embedded road metal and pick it out to save the rims. You should be able to hear it too.

While you're at it keep an eye on the hub bearings. Cone and cup hubs can nip up a hair during summer and loosen during winter due to differential expansion between the alloy body and steel axle (sealed cartridge hubs aren't immune either). More expensive C&C hubs have tool-less or "digital" adjustment for this reason...

And there I go again... Hopefully some of it is useful.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Dipper

Spot on Mav, my current winter cassette has done 5000 miles, it's still shifting fine. I think the last one was changed at over 8000 miles when it stopped shifting nicely.

Thanks John. This article is a good explanation of how chains wear. It also confirms mine and Dippers view about changing chains being cheaper in the long run and world tour teams do this, rather than replacing cassettes and chain ring's. Kinda expensive when you consider the price of something like a Dura Ace cassette.

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/a...plained-46015/

Originally Posted by MattCollins

Two that I have recent experience with that I would recommend are Purple Extreme and Finish Line Cross Country

Agree with this, I think dry lubes are pretty poor. Never seemed to last and was noisy on my MTB, road bike and even motorbike chains.

I always used the green bottle of Finish Line lube for my MTB (for 3 yrs now anyways) and now use it on the road bike.

[carelesschucca]

Originally Posted by MattCollins

Dean, I'd be curious to know what you're putting on your chain...

matt I've been using a Muc-off lube. But I do find it worrying that I've written off a chain so quickly. It's not as if I've been crosschaining, I have had a couple of times where I've dropped the chain off the outside of the 50 cog and I've been going pretty quick when it's happened. It certainly won't have helped.

The rims were done by the old brake blocks, this my biggest annoyance so far I should have stopped procrastinating. It didn't matter how much I cleaned the blocks and the rims the original blocks didn't stop the bike and squealed like a pig.

Now away to do some research and find out which Chain to buy.

[maviczap]

Cheap turbo's at Halfrauds ebay site

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Elite-Magn...9bcc4d8a85abab

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by carelesschucca

Now away to do some research and find out which Chain to buy.

I don't tend to do too much research into chains, I just buy cheap branded ones I know.

So long as its Sram, Shimano, KMC I don't mind. A new chain is so nice!

9 speed aren't you Dean?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SRAM-PC-95...QAAOSwNSxVVPbx

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SRAM-PC-95...3D131595055370

As its for MTB's you might need to take a couple of links out, I've bought from the latter seller quite a few times and they are very good

Or there's Merlin

https://www.merlincycles.com/chains-...?speed=9-speed

Buy a couple, so you've got a spare or rotate them so you can take it off and give it a proper clean.

Replacing (but first and foremost keeping clean) your chain regularly means the cassette and chainrings will last longer.
Bike shops usually recommend changing the whole lot (or at least the cassette and chain) because by the time people take them in it's usually gone too far.
Steel cassettes will last longer than a lot of people think, compared to alloy chainrings which can shark-tooth relatively quickly.

Originally Posted by carelesschucca

matt I've been using a Muc-off lube. But I do find it worrying that I've written off a chain so quickly. It's not as if I've been crosschaining, I have had a couple of times where I've dropped the chain off the outside of the 50 cog and I've been going pretty quick when it's happened. It certainly won't have helped.

The rims were done by the old brake blocks, this my biggest annoyance so far I should have stopped procrastinating. It didn't matter how much I cleaned the blocks and the rims the original blocks didn't stop the bike and squealed like a pig.

Now away to do some research and find out which Chain to buy.

Muc-off dry teflon lube?

If that is the case it could be part of the problem... As mentioned (at length!) my experience with that sort of lube has been entirely negative. Bin it and get a little more religious with a proper lube.

I didn't even know chain gauges existed until I saw your post and the linked article makes a lot of sense. I have only ever used verniers across the pins.

If you're dropping the chain of the outside the front mech might want a tweak.

When 9 speed was current Shimano chains were available in several more grades. Now there are two (that I can find) - HG-53 and HG-93. The HG-53 was at the bottom and that is likely what you've got.
I was using HG-73 chains on my mountain bikes which were roughly middle of the road and supplied with 9spd Ultegra (I also put 9spd Ultegra or 105 road cassettes on my MTBs). Most of the middle grades don't seem to be around any more.
The HG-93 was at or near the top of the line for XT chains... that'd be the one I'd buy and they're going for a rock bottom price of £12 at CRC right now, in fact I'd buy three at that price and it would still be less than the cost of just one HG-73 or half of one HG-93 purchased in Au 10 years ago.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s...ain/rp-prod656

[Dipper]

I consider chains to be disposable and buy cheap branded, the longer a chain lasts the more you'll have to clean and lube it, IMHO life is too short...

Oh and by the way the two questions never to ask in cycling world if you don't want a million different answers are tyre choice and chain maintenance

[carelesschucca]

It wasn't dry Matt it was wet lube in a squirty bottle.

My Louis Garneau XR3's turned up today so I've been in to pick them up 60% off because the sole had a slight rub and there's no box... I call that a win... Also ordered two chains from Wiggle.

Only thing I need to do now is sort my route for tomorrow. As the weather might be iffy I think I'm going for a short loop done twice.