Chain life and casette health

[gt1jackson]

Hey guys...

I was just wondering how many kms a road chain should do before it is replaced.... i have heard a few suggestions but I want to know definitively so I thought id ask all of you.....

I have head that
• You ride it till its dead - and replace the cassette at the same time (I think this is kind of brutal and would prefer to replace the chain a couple of times per rear cluster)
• U replace the chain every 500kms
• U replace the chain every 1000kms

So guys what is a rough guide for roadie chain life? I have a Scott CR1 team issue with ultegra group set so I would prefer to look after it rather than ride it into the ground...

[Turner_rider]

Simplist solution is just purchase a chain checker and remove all the guess work and rules of thumb.:)

[alexb618]

every 500kms might be a *bit* overkill!

[liamo]

every 500kms might be a *bit* overkill!On a roady!? I don't LUBE my chain that often, let alone worrying about replacing it :eek:

But I ride the chain and spockets into the ground before replacing them and would have thought 5000-10000km might be closer to the mark...

Liam

[craigb]

when i was into riding geared bikes i definatly got more than 5000km out of my chain and cluster. that said everyone is different so as turner rider said get the tool to check your chain i doubt they would cost much

[craign]

Depending on conditions I was getting 5000-10000km out of a chain and cassette on my roadie. I never bothered replacing the chain separately. That was in 8/9 speed days. YMMV with 10 speed.

[gustfront]

I've done over 25,000km on my roadie and it's on it's 2nd chain and original cluster and it's all good. A chain checker is the go.

[miko]

Get a ruler and check the length, simple.

Plenty of good info to dig through here:

http://sheldonbrown.com/chains.html