Oli wrote:Nine months is easily long enough to have worn a drivetrain out, and by the sounds of your chain it was! Fitting a new chain on worn cogs is usually a recipe for slipping gears, as the new chain fails to mesh with the worn down cogs and jumps under load.

I've read the story that you can replace a slightly worn chain, under 1% elongation, and get away with reusing the old cassette but I've never had it work.

Does anyone ever manage to do that or is it an internet myth?

OliverBendix wrote:

Oli wrote:Nine months is easily long enough to have worn a drivetrain out, and by the sounds of your chain it was! Fitting a new chain on worn cogs is usually a recipe for slipping gears, as the new chain fails to mesh with the worn down cogs and jumps under load.

I've read the story that you can replace a slightly worn chain, under 1% elongation, and get away with reusing the old cassette but I've never had it work.

Does anyone ever manage to do that or is it an internet myth?

I can usually get about 3 chains to a cassette/chainrings. I do tend to change my chain a bit before the 1% so that I can achieve this tho...

Trail wrote:
I can usually get about 3 chains to a cassette/chainrings. I do tend to change my chain a bit before the 1% so that I can achieve this tho...

have you or ony one else tried tis trick?

kiwi_zg wrote:Try running 2 chains, cleaning and alternating them. Your drive train will last a lot longer.

never found the need to alternate and cant be arsed

Trail wrote:never found the need to alternate and cant be arsed

alternating just doesn't seem to win you anything anyway , lot of faffing for no gain

I run my chain 'til they have 1/16" elongation then change cassette and chain - could probably do 2 chains to 1 cassette, but with prices on decent chains nowdays (xtr/pc991cs) the saving is tiny, and having super crisp shifting is always nice. Rings I do when I start to see suck (varies depending if they're steel or Al - I'm slowly changing all the bikes over to steel grannys)

at the other extreme - I just changed the chain/cassette on the chromegoose (87 mongoose atb pro) - my sister rides it these days and complained it was a 'bit rough'. Checked - chain had well over 1/8" elongation!!!! And one cog totally shot (I suspect she only rides in one gear 99% of the time - since she just uses it on the flat).Then again it'd done okay - it was the original chain from 88 (genuine shimano Uniglide chain, on an 13-32 uniglide cassette no less). Ended up nicking the bottom 5 cogs off an 8 speed 11-28 shimano cassette (hyperglide natch) and 'uniglidifying them' (filing the wide spline down to fit the uniglide freehub - had to keep the 13t lock cog of course - espec since it's the old/odd DA size since it's a DA-AX hub). Chucked on a pc830 chain and tuned it - now shift better than new (HG is so much nicer shifting than UG ever was)

And excuse my mongness but a 9 speed chain will fit 11/32 and an 11/34 cassette ? Believe it or not this will be the 1st time I have bought and changed the drive train myself except for converting my SS. I've got the tools, just need to be sure I'm buying the right stuff . And I'll need it tuned afterwards ay ?

Yes, 9 speed chains are a specific width that works with cassettes that have 9 cogs. If the cassette has 11/32 or 11/34 does not make any difference to the width of the chain and so either are fine. If you change from what the current set up is then you might have to adjust the derailleur a bit (b-tension screws and the like)

The indexing of the gears probably will need a little bit of a tune if you put a different cassette on, but then again you might get lucky and not have to touch the indexing.

Might be worth getting in touch with someone like CPIT for a bike mech skills course??
http://spokes.org.nz/contentevent/2010/ ... nce-course

Yeah I know. I'm a mechanical noob but have been looking at doing the one SBHS run @ Burwood Cycles. Her indoors has other more important tasks on my horizon at the moment tho. I'll get there eventually (but want to do phundamentals first )

Cheers for your help people

Lots of good information on the Park Tools site on how to do mechanical stuff if you are ever looking for instructions too

danose wrote:

Trail wrote:never found the need to alternate and cant be arsed

alternating just doesn't seem to win you anything anyway , lot of faffing for no gain

I run my chain 'til they have 1/16" elongation then change cassette and chain - could probably do 2 chains to 1 cassette, but with prices on decent chains nowdays (xtr/pc991cs) the saving is tiny, and having super crisp shifting is always nice. Rings I do when I start to see suck (varies depending if they're steel or Al - I'm slowly changing all the bikes over to steel grannys)

at the other extreme - I just changed the chain/cassette on the chromegoose (87 mongoose atb pro) - my sister rides it these days and complained it was a 'bit rough'. Checked - chain had well over 1/8" elongation!!!! And one cog totally shot (I suspect she only rides in one gear 99% of the time - since she just uses it on the flat).Then again it'd done okay - it was the original chain from 88 (genuine shimano Uniglide chain, on an 13-32 uniglide cassette no less). Ended up nicking the bottom 5 cogs off an 8 speed 11-28 shimano cassette (hyperglide natch) and 'uniglidifying them' (filing the wide spline down to fit the uniglide freehub - had to keep the 13t lock cog of course - espec since it's the old/odd DA size since it's a DA-AX hub). Chucked on a pc830 chain and tuned it - now shift better than new (HG is so much nicer shifting than UG ever was)

i love that i can read that and totally know what you're on about... its hilarious, the bike geekery herein...

Can you measure chain growth with a normal ruler?

mudguard wrote:Can you measure chain growth with a normal ruler?

yep - an imperial 12" ruler (with 1/32" markings) is easier though - since a 30cm rule is short (of course you can always just drop a link back - a 'new' chain should measure 279.4mm over 11 'full' links, 1/16" elongation equivalent over the shorter run is +1.45mm, so if it's >=281mm new chain time)

philstar wrote:

Trail wrote:
I can usually get about 3 chains to a cassette/chainrings. I do tend to change my chain a bit before the 1% so that I can achieve this tho...

have you or ony one else tried tis trick?

kiwi_zg wrote:Try running 2 chains, cleaning and alternating them. Your drive train will last a lot longer.

much better cleaning than alternating. easy off with quick links. zero work. but then there's the rest of the dirty drive chain . . .

dumbass irrelevant question i know but . . . . . silver end caps for brake cable outer. why/why not - any real use on a roadie??
snap question for gear cable outer end caps . . .?? possibly more relevant question - mechanical pitfalls of changing my compact Hollowtech II shimano BB to FSA mega exo ( FSA Was on prior replaced with compact shimano and now going back to std configuration of chainrings from compact). thanks in anticipation.

bubbaa wrote:. silver end caps for brake cable outer. why/why not - any real use on a roadie??
snap question for gear cable outer end caps . . .??

Cable outer end caps are a must as I have stripped the wire core from the plastic out with out them resulting in a reduction in power in braking