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Evening chaps, I put a new chain on my Pompino recently and it’s gone from brand new - no wear - to 0.5 on the Parktool chain gauge in about 200km. I don’t run the chain particularly tight, the chainline is good (at 42mm) and I use Purple Extreme lube.
Does that seem somewhat excessive to anyone else? I know that the type of gauge I have can be inaccurate, but THAT much?
make of chain ? new chain ring and sprocket ?
Unless you lubed it with sand it definitely does
That’s what I thought. It’s a KMC z1 chain (I think) and the crankset is a Stronglight Track. 19t cog and a 48t ring.
I’m at a loss. Maybe the lube is rubbish, it’s the first time I’ve tried it.
On a single speed does it matter?
Never measured my pompino and Alfine hub, hit 23k when I sold it.
Seems high my KMC Z1 has done over 1000 miles and the 0.5 part of the chainguage won’t go in
Seems a bit excessive got over a 1000 miles on my KMC Z1 and the 0.5 part of the chain gauge won’t go in
are the sprocket and chainring new or worn ?
You’re right, @Saccades, it doesn’t matter as much as geared I guess. It just seemed an alarmingly quick rate of wear.
So all things being equal - chainline good, chain not too tight - what could cause wear that quick?
Edit to add - @Klunk, they’ve been on about 1000 miles ish.
I had a KMC wear out on my SS bike very quickly too a few years ago. Never used them again!
I used to use a chain wear gauge and would swap chains when worn but I now think it's a total waste of time.
Just run it until it stops working properly or just feels generally janky.
There's a web page somewhere with an explanation of why most of these gauges are junk.
FWIW the gauge I have never seems right, so i use a vernier caliper and measure in at least three locations. Seems reasonably accurate.
I thought the test on a singlespeed was to push the chain sideways. When it touches the tyre you order a new one?
I've had brand new chains measure around the 0.5 mark on chain checkers before but id I use the Sheldon Brown tape/ruler method they are spot-on. Try that instead and see what result you get.
Also is the chain genuine? When I looked recently there where an awful lot of fakes, especially on eBay.
Thanks chaps, lots to consider.
@reluctantjumper - when I fitted the chain the .5 gauge didn't go in, so it has certainly stretched a bit. I measured it with a steel rule as per Sheldon and it's just a touch over the 12" mark, not much at all.
@nickjb - I hope it was genuine, I got it from Wiggle. I bought one for my singlespeed MTB at the same time but I've not used it as much.
On the SS does it matter?
On a fixed gear a worn chain feels horrible as it clunks back and forth.
Singlespeed I just keep going untill the teeth fall off.
I use kmc on all the bikes in the house and never had an issue.
To me it sounds more like the chainring or sprocket could be worn. Once they're worn out then everything else wears much quicker. I've never found a scientific way of measuring worn teeth though.
Unless you lubed it with sand it definitely does
Bit of an aside, but apparently Muc Off's lubes are just like sand. Zero Friction Cycling couldn't even finish their standard wear rate test as the chain had disintegrated before it finished.....
He described it as 'cutting paste'.
I always see a similar thing with SS KMC chains and a Park chain checker. Measuring links is better as I think the rollers wear or bed in a bit, but yes those chains do seem to stretch initially quite a lot (relatively speaking) and then settle down.
At 200km the chain wouldn't even have needed lubing yet - the grease within the links themselves is all it needs. I personally just wipe off the external grease and don't put any other lube on until is starts to need it (gets noisy).
Are you putting a new chain onto work casette and sprockets? That'd cause a chain to wear to match the pitch of the old one quite quickly.
Same happened to me with a Z1. Maybe there are some fakes or defected ones about? Fitted an 8 speed Sram months ago and it's still like new.
Noticed my last two Z1's didn't seem to last as long as I was expecting.
Was just using a basic gauge so I think I'll measure this latest one instead. See if I was getting false readings