Drivetrain maintenance / life

[Richard Rose]

I am two years and 7300 miles in on my Clem. Chain measure tool indicates I need a new chain & 38t large chainring on the Silver crank has some "sharkfining" evident. New chain and chainring will arrive in a few days. Small ring and cassette look good. What sort of mileage do folks usually expect out of these components? While I am at it, bike is apart and standard Shimano cartridge bottom bracket does not exactly feel smooth. It did feel smooth spinning when crank was still installed & there is no play evident. Riv suggests these bottom brackets might be good for 15,000 miles? I do not want to needlessly replace it but the bike is apart so..?

[Bill Gibson]

Chains and other drivetrain components will wear quickly or slowly depending on lubrication and conditions. There is no rule of thumb for mileage. Chain lube is a perennial favorite topic, along with tires, etc. but real progress has been made in the past few years, and much lore of old is now obsolete. I like Silca's chain lube products, and if you enjoy the topic, they offer extensive dives into the independent testing and research that back their claims on YouTube. I can attest that their chain wax is well worth the prep, and will save time and wear in any condition. Some of the favorite lubes of the past cause much more rapid wear than no lube at all (due to grinding paste formation), so I urge you to check out the research. The chain is harder than the chainrings, so cleaning, lubing, and replacing it in time will extend the life of the chainring, and the rear cogs, too, depending on what they are made of.

Don't expect the modern cartridge bottom brackets to be as smooth and free as perfectly adjusted and lubricated cup and cone bottom brackets of old. Ask a shop to let you feel a new one, or pay them to check yours. Some bearings just don't have to be perfect to be good! Unless you obsess...which is part of the fun...!

Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA

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On Sun, Jan 7, 2024 at 12:18 PM Richard Rose <rmro...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am two years and 7300 miles in on my Clem. Chain measure tool indicates I need a new chain & 38t large chainring on the Silver crank has some "sharkfining" evident. New chain and chainring will arrive in a few days. Small ring and cassette look good. What sort of mileage do folks usually expect out of these components? While I am at it, bike is apart and standard Shimano cartridge bottom bracket does not exactly feel smooth. It did feel smooth spinning when crank was still installed & there is no play evident. Riv suggests these bottom brackets might be good for 15,000 miles? I do not want to needlessly replace it but the bike is apart so..?

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[Patrick Moore]

I probably replace my chains too soon, but riding bulk SRAM 9-speed chains on fixed drivetrains on pavement but in (high) desert conditions with a lot of ambient dust, for decades I've been replacing them at about 2K miles. This 2K has been a constant no matter the cleaning/lubrication regimen: wax, Molten Speed Wax, ProLink, Purple whatever, etc etc. For some reason my derailleur chain (I have exactly 1 derailleur bike, since 2016, after a decade of riding only fixed) seems to last a bit longer under the same cleaning and lubricating regimens. I have no idea why this should be so.

OTOH, when I replaced the TA Pro 5 Vis with 46 t ring on that 1999 fixed gear gofast with a 52 t first-gen Dura Ace crank at over 16K miles, the 46 was only just barely visibly hooked.

Speaking of derailleur drivetrains: Just a few months ago I measured the chain on my 2016 Matthews "Road Bike for Dirt" and found it at about 50%. This bikes gets about 50% of its miles on our riverine bosque river-silt sandy trails; but dry, very little rain or mud. But the 42 t plain vanilla Sugino chainring was visibly hooked; not horribly, still usable, but visibly hooked. This after (I forget exact miles) less than 2.5K miles. The chain, again, was still alive at about 50%. I don't know what lesson to take from this. Avoid Sugino crs? But I've used many Suginos over the years with perfectly normal wear, and I replaced it with a 44 t plain vanilla Sugino to compensate for the drop from 29 1/2" Schwalbe Big Ones to a 28 1/2" Soma Supple Vitesse SLs. We'll see how it goes.

On Sun, Jan 7, 2024 at 12:18 PM Richard Rose <rmro...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am two years and 7300 miles in on my Clem. Chain measure tool indicates I need a new chain & 38t large chainring on the Silver crank has some "sharkfining" evident. New chain and chainring will arrive in a few days. Small ring and cassette look good. What sort of mileage do folks usually expect out of these components? While I am at it, bike is apart and standard Shimano cartridge bottom bracket does not exactly feel smooth. It did feel smooth spinning when crank was still installed & there is no play evident. Riv suggests these bottom brackets might be good for 15,000 miles? I do not want to needlessly replace it but the bike is apart so..?

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Patrick Moore]

As someone who waxed chains for decades -- every ~200 miles for road, ~100 miles for dry, sandy dirt -- until James at Analog convinced me to try the dry liquid lube "wipe 'n' drip 'n' wipe 'n' wipe more" method -- I'm very interested in hearing others' experiences with the Silca wax lube.

I used plain paraffin (grocery store canning paraffin and old ornamental candles from a friend) for years, tho' I added various things on the basis of mere hunches that they might increase chain life, tossing into the crockpot dollops of ATF and 30-weight. The ornamental candles added vague cinnamon and vanilla scents, and the ATF colored the wax a pretty rose, but the result was a very conservative but very consistent 2K miles between chain replacements -- tho' the chains stayed operating-room clean on the outside, despite riding in very dusty conditions.

I swapped to Molten Speed Wax and this basically doubled miles -- 200 to 400 on (dusty shoulder) pavement, 100 to 200, more or less, in silty sand -- so I wonder if Silca Wax is any better than Molten. But I haven't measured chain life under this regimen.

Aside: I largely switched to James-at-Analog's dry-lube drip-'n'-wipe method because it's easy; but really, waxing with a crockpot is very easy itself; certainly easier than removing a chain for cleaning, the reinstalling to oil it.

Patrick Moore, who had a Phil bb get crunchy in ~2K miles of sandy bosque riding.

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[Bill Gibson]

This: 

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/lubetesting/

Chains seem to easy to test for amount of wear, but cogs and chainrings? Skipping in the rear, difficulty shifting in front, but on a fixed/singlespeed, cog & chainring wear is less of an issue. Chains really are a maintenance factor.  

Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA

My Photographs : https://billbgibson.myportfolio.com/ and on Behance: https://www.behance.net/BillGibson

If you like my photographs, buy me a coffee!

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[Will Boericke]

Chainrings are good until they don't shift well anymore.  Your chain life seems reasonable to me.

Will

[Collin A]

Everyone has a rule of thumb, but this is mine - replace chain at whatever wear indicator is appropriate for the chain speed (9 is about 0.75% wear, 10/11 is 0.5% wear). An 11 speed chain for me lasts about 6000-8000 miles of pretty nasty conditions with proper waxing and cleaning. My 9 speeds last less but those are the ones on the tourer/commuter/rafter bike. Funnily enough, the chainrings that came on my clem wore out pretty quickly, no idea why though. The 7075 alu rings seem to last much longer.

As for other drivetrain  parts, I change my cassette after I've gone through 3 chains, and I change my chainrings after I've gone through 2 cassettes. Of my oldest drivetrain currently in use (about 5 years now), I've only just had to replace the cassette once, so I should be good to go on my chainrings for another 5 years, woo!

As for BB, no need to replace until they get crunchy, it isn't too hard to switch out a cartridge BB. Especially since the venerable Un55 BB that I assume your clem has is no longer in production and the Un300 are kinda "meh" in comparison.

Cheers,

Collin "hold on and let me measure" in Berkeley

[Richard Rose]

Mine is the un300. I’ve just removed it & it is noticeably smoother off the bike. It’s not “crunchy” & had no side to side play when installed. So maybe it’s not toast yet but it’s out now so…

I am honestly considering the traditional cup/cone one Riv sells. The installation does not bother me - I used to do it on my bikes from the ‘70’s. Also intrigued by the Stronglight ones Peter White sells.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 8, 2024, at 12:19 AM, Collin A <collinm...@gmail.com> wrote:

Everyone has a rule of thumb, but this is mine - replace chain at whatever wear indicator is appropriate for the chain speed (9 is about 0.75% wear, 10/11 is 0.5% wear). An 11 speed chain for me lasts about 6000-8000 miles of pretty nasty conditions with proper waxing and cleaning. My 9 speeds last less but those are the ones on the tourer/commuter/rafter bike. Funnily enough, the chainrings that came on my clem wore out pretty quickly, no idea why though. The 7075 alu rings seem to last much longer.

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[Will Boericke]

Tange for me - fits the budget and quality criteria.  SKF are very nice.  People also like Omniracer.  This debate just went down on the iBob list.

Will

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[Kim H.]

I have had no complaints with Dr. Phil.... Phil Wood, that is, and their sealed bottom brackets with thousands of miles on my old road bike that I installed in the early 1970's.  If my Clem BB needed replacing, I would consider buying a Phil Wood BB.

Kim Hetzel.

[Kim H.]

.. I should say with the Phil Wood BB I installed on my old road bike in a singular tense, not plural.

Kim.