Chain Wear

Noel said:

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and
rear gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear
gears on largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear
and lowest three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

I am no expert, but I should have thought that cross-chaining would be more
likely to wear the chainrings, coz they tend to be aluminium and thus rather
softer than the chain.

--
Dave Larrington
<http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk>
Although the hippopotamus hath no sting in its tail, the wise
man would rather be seated upon the back of a bee.

Noel said:

Quoted message said:

Is there a good way to

assess the condition of a chain?

http://sheldonbrown.com/chains.html

Dave Larrington said:

Noel said:

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and
rear gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear
gears on largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear
and lowest three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

Not valid. No point in having so many gears if so many should be avoided.
Yes avoid the few most extreme cross-over combinations, but for the expense
of /slightly/ increased chain wear, enjoy the rest. Or get a single-speed
if chain life is all-important to you.

My advice with a typical 27-speed bike is: Use all rear sprockets with the
middle ring (though not the end ones with a great deal of power or for a
long time), and the top/bottom five sprockets with outer/inner ring. Even
this is considered conservative by some experts.

Quoted message said:

I am no expert, but I should have thought that cross-chaining would
be more likely to wear the chainrings, coz they tend to be aluminium
and thus rather softer than the chain.

I don't think cross-chainring harms either sprockets or chainrings much
directly, but it increases internal chain wear, which in turn wears out the
sprockets then chainrings. Chainrings, even aluminium ones, tend to last
longer because they tend to have more teeth and for other reasons too (that
Jobst Brandt mentioned recently on r.b.t, that I don't really understand).

~PB

in message <[email hidden]>, Noel

(') said:

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and rear
gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear gears on
largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear and lowest
three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

It clearly makes some difference but I'm not convinced it makes enough
difference to be worth too much messing about. I avoid the 'big-big'
and 'small-small' combinations and use the rest. I don't have accelerated
chain-wear problems.

A good friend who is a very experienced cyclist habitually uses
the 'big-big' combination and he doesn't have chain problems either.

Quoted message said:

I do a fair amount of standing up on hills so although I have never
broken
a chain it is always there in the back of my mind. Is there a good way
to assess the condition of a chain?

You can get chain wear gauges (and I use one, although other people swear
they're useless) but they measure the enlongation of the chain, which
doesn't necessarily correlate with reduction in strength. What does reduce
the strength of a modern 9 or 10 speed chain is using a hand chain-tool to
join it; I'm convinced you're better off with magic links.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; An enamorata is for life, not just for weekends.

Pete Biggs wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I don't think cross-chainring harms either sprockets or chainrings much
directly, but it increases internal chain wear, which in turn wears out the
sprockets then chainrings. Chainrings, even aluminium ones, tend to last
longer because they tend to have more teeth and for other reasons too (that
Jobst Brandt mentioned recently on r.b.t, that I don't really understand).

http://sheldonbrown.com/brandt/chain-care.html

Pick yer camp, run up yer colours, and hang'em by the figgins!

Noel said:

Hi All,

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and rear
gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear gears on
largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear and lowest
three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

I was told this a few years ago and have always stuck to it but I see
other cyclists running up and down the rear cogs without moving the front
gears at all.

I do a fair amount of standing up on hills so although I have never broken
a chain it is always there in the back of my mind. Is there a good way to
assess the condition of a chain?

Cheers
Noel

Ride fixed, and you'll never need to worry about it again 🙂

Chris Smith said:

Noel said:

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and rear
gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear?

Quoted message said:

Ride fixed, and you'll never need to worry about it again 🙂

Unless you have a poor chain-line due to a bodge-it set up on your
hack iron. Any decently lined up single free, Rohloff or other
internal hub will be just as good.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

63 - 15 = 48 (the number of years I have been cycling) and I have
never broken a chain. Relax.

In article <[email hidden]>

Noel said:

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and rear
gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear gears on
largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear and lowest
three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

That's extreme and probably pointless - I tend to avoid the two smallest
sprockets with the small ring, the two largest sprockets with the big
ring, and don't make a habit of using the largest or smallest sprocket
with the middle ring, but using any of the forbidden combinations
occasionally isn't going to cause a problem (as long as your chain is
long enough to run big/big and your derailleur has enough capacity to
handle small/small).

Quoted message said:

I was told this a few years ago and have always stuck to it but I see
other cyclists running up and down the rear cogs without moving the front
gears at all.

You may get marginally less wear and greater efficiency doing it your
way, but it sounds like a load of hassle for minimal gain.

Quoted message said:

I do a fair amount of standing up on hills so although I have never broken
a chain it is always there in the back of my mind.

It's not about breaking the chain, it's about accelerated wear - when
the chain leaves a sprocket/chainring at an angle the load isn't
distributed evenly over the internal bearing surfaces, and when the
bearing surfaces in the chain are worn the chain will place greater
stress on fewer teeth, and may slip.

Quoted message said:

Is there a good way to assess the condition of a chain?

Use a 12 inch ruler to measure the distance between the pins - if the
one by the 11 inch mark is more than a sixteenth past the mark the chain
needs replacing.

Noel said:

Hi All,

How valid is the advice to as much as possible keep your front and rear
gear wheels in-line to reduce chain wear? ie top three rear gears on
largest front gear, middle three gears on medium front gear and lowest
three on smallest front (assuming a 27 speed bike).

I was told this a few years ago and have always stuck to it but I see
other cyclists running up and down the rear cogs without moving the front
gears at all.

I do a fair amount of standing up on hills so although I have never broken
a chain it is always there in the back of my mind. Is there a good way to
assess the condition of a chain?

Cheers
Noel

FWIW I use all 9 rear with middle front, biggest rear (and sometimes
next 2) with small front, and smallest 2 or 3 with biggest front. This
is based on what I feel I need rather than any policy about crossover.

Pete Biggs said:

Not valid. No point in having so many gears if so many should be
avoided.

Or they are the same do a comparison of gear ratios obtained, find out
how many doublers there are delete these (well one of them) and delete
the cross over ones suddenly you will find your 27 gears is nothing of
the sort.
--

www.cheesesoup.myby.co.uk

soup said:

Pete Biggs said:

Not valid. No point in having so many gears if so many should be
avoided.

Or they are the same do a comparison of gear ratios obtained, find out
how many doublers there are delete these (well one of them) and delete
the cross over ones suddenly you will find your 27 gears is nothing of
the sort.

Yes there are duplications but that's no reason necessarily to have or use
fewer or different gears. Some overlap is convenient as it saves having to
front-shift so much.

~PB