15000 miles today

[amberwolf]

Remember you need to swap out *all* of the chain drivetrain when you change a chain, or it will wear out the new chain faster, because it's not just the chain that wears, its' the surfaces of the sprockets and chainrings. See the images I attached to a previous post and the linked article they come from.

If those are individually interchangeable on your bike, you can change just the worn out ones, but if you actually shift gears (lots of people don't) then all of the ones you regularly use probably need to be changed.

Definitely if you can *see* wear on it, you should change it out. If you can't see the wear obviously, you may have to compare the teeth to an unused sprocket or chainring from a new set or different bike to tell.

 

[RustyKipper]

I know I'm supposed to swap out the entire drivetrain but that's prohibitively expensive. It's bad practice but I tend to swap everything every 2 or 3 chain changes and sacrifice the Chain as that's the cheapest part of the system and I keep plenty of spares. The chainring does get noisy and ineficient and if I leave it too long the cassette starts to skip. It's kind of a compromise between cost and keeping the bike reliable.
I dropped a bit of a clanger last time I changed the chainwheel as the pedals welded themselves to the cranks and no amount of heat would break them loose, square taper triple chain sets seem to be getting very hard to find and at the time could only find a chain wheels with the chain wheels rivit-ed on so I need to find another with individual rings.
Oh boy do I change gears! I guess they all get used except first as I try to limit the movement and wear on the shifter cable, I only run such a large cassette in case the motor failes then to get up the big grades it's first gear - small chain ring.

 

[Voltron]

Thats the point of chain checkers.... you don't need to replace the entire setup if you limit the gear wear by changing out of spec chains promptly.

 

[wturber]

Thats the point of chain checkers.... you don't need to replace the entire setup if you limit the gear wear by changing out of spec chains promptly.

Exactly!
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chain-wear.html

"
Measuring Chain Wear
The standard way to measure chain wear is with a ruler or steel tape measure. This can be done without removing the chain from the bicycle. The normal technique is to measure a one-foot length, placing an inch mark of the ruler at the side of one link pin, then looking at the corresponding link pin 12 complete links away. On a new, unworn chain, this link pin will also line up exactly with an inch mark. With a worn chain, the link pin will be past the inch mark. For accurate measurement, the chain should be held under some tension -- either on the bicycle, or hanging. Also, use a metal ruler or tape measure. Wood, plastic and cloth all can expand or shrink. Measurement is also possible with a metric ruler -- see below.

This technique gives a direct measurement of the wear to the chain, and an indirect measurement of the wear to the sprockets. first, let's look at how to do this with a ruler that measures in inches.

If the link pin is less than 1/16" past the mark, all is well.
If the link pin is 1/16" past the mark, you should replace the chain, but the sprockets are probably undamaged.
If the link pin is 1/8" past the mark, you have left it too long, and the sprockets (at least the favorite ones) will be too badly worn. If you replace a chain at the 1/8" point, without replacing the sprockets, it may run OK and not skip, but the worn sprockets will cause the new chain to wear much faster than it should, until it catches up with the wear state of the sprockets.
If the link pin is past the 1/8" mark, a new chain will almost certainly skip on the worn sprockets, especially the smaller ones.

 

[miro13car]

9 chains in 15 000 miles????
at 25 000 kilometers I did not even think about changing cassette or chain.
my is DD hub gearless drive.