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My relatively new bike came with sram X1 11 speed and with a view to doing the right thing, keeping on top of wear/expense etc recently invested in a Park chain checker.
According to Strava, I’ve done less than 500 miles on it but the .5 gauge goes in to the chain. .75 doesn’t.
Should I be looking to change the chain now, and if so, can I look forward to new chains every 500 miles or so?
Or leave it ‘till the .75 goes in?
From the last few threads you can get to .75 easy and even up to the 1 some have been fine with.
Always worth remembering miles matter but it's more what you do with them!!
Stop worrying, buy a new chain for about £25 if your bothered. I ride them till they skip, then change the whole set, gears and all. Normally takes a couple of years and I ride 4+ times a week all year off road. 3yr old Capra original set no skipping.
Doesn't matter if they stretch, its only an issue if it skips under load. So if it aint broke, dont fix it.
Either spend on lots of chains for shiny kit and cassette every couple chains, or just run it on and it'll continue with the same cassette for few thousand miles or more until it starts skipping. Once you start changing chain before cassette though you'll need to do it very early and bin perfectly good chains to avoid binning (perfectly good) cassette.
Throw the chain checker in the bin. The Park one is particularly useless - I can get it to show . 75 on a new chain. My last employer called it the money maker... I called it fraud and left.
You have to find your own way with these things,some people say they get 5 years out of a mountain bike chain others say 5 weeks(I'm in the 5/6week week camp during the winter)-what I do know is wear is proportionate to usage(torque,conditions and mileage).
'For me' changing the chains at .75% wear seems to work well I reckon 8 to 9 chains per steel SRAM 11 speed GX cassette (£15 chain £80 cassette) which is £215 per 5000 miles ish.
When in the past I've let a chain run through I only get around 1000 miles(granted this is when I ran shimano alloy cassettes so may be diff ) or a bit more before encountering issues ,especially in bad conditions - first annoying thing to show is chain suck.
So running through 1 £15 chain on one £80 cassette 'may' last me only 1000 miles = £95 per 1000miles as opposed to £215/5000 miles ((this will also take the £20 jockey wheels(in 4 years of running 11 speed SRAM jockeys - I've never replaced one through tooth wear -only the bearings because of play) and the £20-£50 chain ring down with it the same time ))
Like I say you have to find your own way with these things and even though I'm frugal by nature I'm more than happy with the longevity of my full Steel GX drivetrain .