Chainring worn out?

[SoreTween]

I've just given my gravel bike it's first deep clean, the chainring and mech sprockets were absolutely caked in hard grease.  It has been lightly cleaned before but I've not tried for as new on the drivetrain previously.  On cleaning I found the chain ring much more worn than I expected:


This is a gravel bike running 1x11 SRAM Rival at the back & 44T Apex at the front.  It is 18 months and 3670km old and I cleaned it ready for its first chain replacement.

• Am I replacing the chain too infrequently?
• Too little lube? (least likely, I'm pretty good about that since learning the lesson the hard way on my mtb)
• Cleaning too little and too seldom?
• Unrealistic in my expectations meaning that wear looks about right?
• Putting too much power through? I wish

For comparison this is a new 38T bought in prep for TINAT.


Lastly, is that chain ring OK to use a while longer or would I simply be wrecking the new chain and other parts.

Thanks.

[Pickled Onion]

Disclaimer: I'm not much of a gear user.

That looks absolutely fine to me. When it looks like shark fins you know you've overdone it. The mileage/kilometrage you quote sounds to me like a lot for an 11-speed chain - I guess you're replacing the cassette at the same time? You could change the chain more often and not need a cassette every time, but that's up to you and the relative expense of either way of doing it.

You won't damage the new chain using it on that chainring.

[Torslanda]

If you get chain suck (see Windy's thread) with the new chain then bin it.

A coming trend, I fear. As the marketing departments lead us down the 'simplification' route with single chainrings and ever bigger dinner plates on the casette, as the chains get narrower and narrower and sprockets on the rear multiply like rabbits, the only way to mainain the precision of the indexing is regular and frequent replacement of the components.

I wonder who is going to 'reinvent' the triple chainset . . . ?

[IanDG]

I wonder who is going to 'reinvent' the triple chainset . . . ?

I'm still using the good old Stronglight Impact chainsets running triples on 2 bikes - good selection of spare rings available too

[SoreTween]

I wasn't planning to change the cassette, that being steel looks fine.  The old chain again surprised me with its wear, hanging next to a new one there's almost half a link difference in length.  Wrist slapped, I'll change again at 6000km and then 2k intervals from there on.

I've looked at Windy's thread to be aware, thanks

Lucky I bought two chains, one to go with each ring, as they are a link pair too short for the 44T ring.  Not the easiest chain to break/make.  Presumably when I fit the 38T I need the chain 3 link pairs shorter anyway?

[Pickled Onion]

I wasn't planning to change the cassette, that being steel looks fine.  The old chain again surprised me with its wear, hanging next to a new one there's almost half a link difference in length.

You'll be lucky! But the only way to be sure is to try it.

[sojournermike]

As noted elsewhere, I've just replaced an 11 speed chain at just over 1500 miles. I was surprised it was as worn as it was and had only checked because I was cleaning it. They don't seem to be indestructible.

[IanDG]

I wasn't planning to change the cassette, that being steel looks fine.  The old chain again surprised me with its wear, hanging next to a new one there's almost half a link difference in length.

You'll be lucky! But the only way to be sure is to try it.

+1 - the cassette sprockets don't usually look worn but 'stretch' with the chain, so a new chain with an old cassette usually 'jumps'

[Samuel D]

We’re looking at the outside of the chainrings in these photos, right? If so, the new one looks pre-worn. I wonder if that’s to reduce the risk of throwing the chain, since the derailleur that normally solves that problem has been deemed surplus to requirements.

I don’t mind admitting I’d be distraught if my chainring only lasted 3670 km, although perhaps that’s not the case here.

[Torslanda]

I wonder who is going to 'reinvent' the triple chainset . . . ?

I'm still using the good old Stronglight Impact chainsets running triples on 2 bikes - good selection of spare rings available too

Was meant as a tongue in cheek comment!

By way of illustration a 12 speed, 10-50 SRAM XX1 Eagle cassette retails at £387. As I said above, what price 'simplification'...?

[IanDG]

I wonder who is going to 'reinvent' the triple chainset . . . ?

I'm still using the good old Stronglight Impact chainsets running triples on 2 bikes - good selection of spare rings available too

Was meant as a tongue in cheek comment!

By way of illustration a 12 speed, 10-50 SRAM XX1 Eagle cassette retails at £387. As I said above, what price 'simplification'...?

How much 

I'd expect wheels, cassette, chain and chainset for that price 

I'll stick to a triple with 8/9 speed cassette for the time being 

[SoreTween]

Yeeouch!  Glad mine isn't one of those.  When I first got the bike I looked at parts prices & the cassette (10-42) was IRO £150, its now £56 thankfully.  The rings aren't cheap though, £71 38T & £76 44T.

A short test ride in the forest and everything is quiet and well behaved.

[Gattopardo]

I wonder who is going to 'reinvent' the triple chainset . . . ?

I'm still using the good old Stronglight Impact chainsets running triples on 2 bikes - good selection of spare rings available too

Was meant as a tongue in cheek comment!

By way of illustration a 12 speed, 10-50 SRAM XX1 Eagle cassette retails at £387. As I said above, what price 'simplification'...?

How much 

I'd expect wheels, cassette, chain and chainset for that price 

I'll stick to a triple with 8/9 speed cassette for the time being 

I'm happy with a 7 or 8 speed.  Is that wrong?

My 531 evans bike is 7 speed!

[bobb]

Decent quality 11sp lasts perfectly well.

I got about 8000 miles out of my 2015 Campag Chorus 11sp chain and cassette. Finally started to skip - the chain is knackered but the cassette is not clearly worn (but will be replaced). The rings are fine. I've got a box of bits that I haven't got around to fitting yet. Needless to say, that box of bits wasn't cheap!

[Chamford Sideplate]

I think the ring is fine. As the chain wears it rides up the teeth. That's why they have that shape.

[andrew_s]

I got as far as 9 speed, but I've now reverted to 8 (triple), on a component cost basis. My last batch of cassettes cost me £6.20 each.

[Brucey]

I wasn't planning to change the cassette, that being steel looks fine.  The old chain again surprised me with its wear, hanging next to a new one there's almost half a link difference in length.

You'll be lucky! But the only way to be sure is to try it.

+1 - the cassette sprockets don't usually look worn but 'stretch' with the chain, so a new chain with an old cassette usually 'jumps'

yup.  Usually the most used/small sprockets wear in such a way as they will skip under load if fitted with a new chain.

Folk who think that they can blithely fit a new chain to an old cassette (that ate a chain, that was elongated by more than ~0.75%) are by and large dreaming. You can't tell by looking whether a new chain will skip under load or not; It just needs a few tens of microns of wear in the wrong place and skipping will occur.

The OPs chainring looks 'normally worn' but that doesn't mean it won't give you horrendous chainsuck, given that it will be a smallish chainring, coming from a trendy-but-daft 1x setup.

IME 11s chains are often  crap, and worse still if they are crap they are still expensive crap. If you want to be sure that you are not trashing your chainrings and sprockets, best to change the chain out when it gets to ~0.5% elongation; that way you will almost invariably find that a new chain will run on the chainrings and sprockets OK. After that you will be taking out the sprockets and then the chainring(s); past a certain point you might as well run the whole lot until destruction so that when it wears to the point of failure  you just chuck the lot in the bin.

Perhaps there are some chains which are better than this, but IME 0.5% elongation may occur as early as 1000 miles and even a well maintained 11s chain will rarely get to 2000 miles before it is more than 0.5% elongated.

cheers

[PaulF]

This is what a worn chainring should look like

8C4D64CD-3090-4252-89D2-9A5054F370DC by paulfulford, on Flickr

[delap]

This is what a worn chainring should look like

I'll see your 'barely broken in' chainring and raise you a 'probably time to check the chain for stretch' ring. (Actually, to be fair, I had been favouring the small ring for a while on that bike)

[sojournermike]

This is what a worn chainring should look like

I'll see your 'barely broken in' chainring and raise you a 'probably time to check the chain for stretch' ring. (Actually, to be fair, I had been favouring the small ring for a while on that bike)

Useful for riding downhill without pedaling?

[Polar Bear]

This is what a worn chainring should look like

I'll see your 'barely broken in' chainring and raise you a 'probably time to check the chain for stretch' ring. (Actually, to be fair, I had been favouring the small ring for a while on that bike)

Useful for riding downhill without pedaling?

Mounted at the front of a bent and used to modify the rear end of the vehicles of errant drivers?

[Torslanda]

Take the edge off with a bandsaw and use it as a chainguard...

[Samuel D]

Take the edge off with a bandsaw and use it as a chainguard...

What edge?

[andrew_s]

I'll see your 'barely broken in' chainring and raise you a 'probably time to check the chain for stretch' ring. (Actually, to be fair, I had been favouring the small ring for a while on that bike)

even worse than mine 


Once a very worn chainring slips, the tops of the teeth get ripped off, and it takes much less push to repeat the slip than it did first time. I scrapped mine when I got home, by which point any hill steeper than 3-4% caused chainslip. I'd guess delap's had to wait for the replacement chainring to be ordered and delivered

[delap]

Once a very worn chainring slips, the tops of the teeth get ripped off, and it takes much less push to repeat the slip than it did first time

Yes, that chain-ring was just about able to maintain a modest cruise on the flat or slightly downhill.  It was on a pub bike which only saw very occasional service by then hence forgoing use of the big ring rather than replacing it.  I never did work out what the BCD actually was after buying two or three alternatives in clearance sales.  I owned the bike from new in about 1986 and never did quite 'grow into it'.  It is now an parts donor to a slightly older 10 speed backup commuter.