alfeng said:The chainring is good for thousands of miles ...
The nickle plating on DA 7700 rings often bubbles/blisters-or-flakes ...
BUT, that particular ring is not worth $40 ... maybe, $10-to-$15, maybe LESS ... I'm going to guess that particular ring has probably seen at least 1500 miles of use ... maybe, 2500+ miles of use!
+1. Stuff that wears out just isnt' worth much used to me, unless I know the history or can inspect it and determine the condition. I've never been able to determine wear on cassettes and chainrings by looking at them. But 2500 miles of use isn't much for a chainring, is it?
I just changed my FSA triple set out at 18K miles as the middle ring was starting to show some "daylight" under the chain. Functionally, there was a bit of "give", or "ride up" of the chain on the sprockets that could be seen when pushing on a pedal in the middle and small rings.
With the new rings on, the only difference I noticed is that the drivetrain seemed to be a bit smoother when pushing hard, and maybe quieter too.