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Not my image, but it hasn't been posted in a while and it makes me smile, this is what a worn out sprocket look like  ;D



https://www.swedentoafrica.com/drc-part-3-back-to-kinshasa/
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Thanks for the info Chris. If it could be tightened (eg by shortening it by one link or by half a link) then it would probably not fall off…….so I wonder how much elongation a chain can take and still be safely useable?

Sprocket wear would obviously also increase but I guess the sprockets could be successfully flipped and work with a new chain while the teeth still had flat ends.

Edited to add
Industrial chains appear to be designed to run to 3% elongation……so 1.8% is only just over half worn!
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I thought it was still running fine. It was getting rather loose and the only issue had been the chain coming off, even that was only a couple of times in the last few months. It was not going to get better though and did tend to be at the most inconvenient moments…
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Was the chain still operating OK with 1.8% elongation?    No slipping or roughness?
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You might consider measuring your chain later.  The cheap small chain checkers are not very accurate, but you can measure the length of an entire chain when it hangs from a hook.  One link is a half inch when new, thus 100 links is 50 inches from center of pin to center of pin.  If it is 50.5 inches, that is one percent elongation.  I think on a Rohloff bike replacing the chain when you are a bit over one percent elongation is a good time to replace it.
In case you were wondering. Assuming your method is correct ( which I am), and my maths and measurements are correct ( which I am less certain of) the chain is at ~1.8% elongation.
 
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I don’t remove any of the chainglider to oil the chain, I drip oil onto the top of the lower run of the chain just in front of the rear sprocket while pedaling slowly backwards.

The rear section comes off easily enough to remove the wheel and I removed the front part at 5000 miles in case the insides needed cleaning (there was a little grease).  The next time I swop chains around I will try and pull the replacement through with the existing chain.
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I have tried various motorcycle lubes at times in the past. Anything that worked reasonably well on a bicycle chain in wet weather also picked up a lot of dirt, so not good on an exposed chain. It might be different under a ChainGlider.

I think that the motorbike chain lube you have quoted would be fine on a modern motorbike chain, which is what it is designed for, keeping the side plates rust free and the roller / sprocket interface lubed - but I don’t think it would get into the rollers of a cycle chain.

The technical data sheet for MOTUL MC CARE C5 Chain Paste says "All types of chains: standard and with O-RING, X-RING, Z-RING.", so I'll give it a try.   

I have one motorbike with a chain (I prefer shaft drive) which is a low powered 411 Royal Enfield Himalayan, used on and off road.  The chain is the OE one with O rings but I have fitted a manual chain oiler to drip ATF fluid onto the chain to ‘wash’ dust off.  I have tried using heavier gear oils but they do not clear the dust - ATF is very thin.

My brother has a Scottoiler system on his off-road motorbike. This drips oil (Scottoiler brand) onto the chain. Works for him, but not on a bicycle (I tried).

So personally I now use a thin ‘wet’ cycle oil on my 2 bikes that have chaingliders and drip it onto the rollers.

I do the same on my own bikes when the KMC factory lube has worn off. Quick and easy to do.

But dismantling/refitting the ChainGlider can be challenging for a user with no mechanical aptitude.

Under a ChainGlider the slightly sticky factory lube on KMC chains works for a long time, but after a lot of use in salty and/or wet conditions it eventually needs renewing with something. So I need something that lasts for a few weeks even under very wet conditions.




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Hi Martin,
I think that the motorbike chain lube you have quoted would be fine on a modern motorbike chain, which is what it is designed for, keeping the side plates rust free and the roller / sprocket interface lubed - but I don’t think it would get into the rollers of a cycle chain.   The loads and speeds that a motorbike chain operates at are obviously a lot higher than on a cycle - hence it is important to keep the roller / sprocket interface clean and lubed to stop wear and heat build up.  Motorbike chain lubes also keep the O rings ‘damp’ to help reduce friction when the links move as they go around the sprockets.  It is surprising how hot an un-lubed motorbike chain can get!

I have one motorbike with a chain (I prefer shaft drive) which is a low powered 411 Royal Enfield Himalayan, used on and off road.  The chain is the OE one with O rings but I have fitted a manual chain oiler to drip ATF fluid onto the chain to ‘wash’ dust off.  I have tried using heavier gear oils but they do not clear the dust - ATF is very thin.

I have sprayed motorbike chain lube onto my cycle chain in the chainglider once.  A spray lube is quite thin until it dries, and maybe some lube got into the rollers but most seemed to go onto the outside of the chain which is not really where I wanted the lube to go!  So personally I now use a thin ‘wet’ cycle oil on my 2 bikes that have chaingliders and drip it onto the rollers.


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Motorbike chains are different to ours as they have O rings keeping the original lube inside the rollers - and dirt, water and chainlube out.   Motorbike chain lube is more to lubricate the roller / sprocket interface.
Personally I think a thinner chain oil is better on a cycle chain so it can seep into the rollers (no O rings).

I had not thought to compare bicycle chains with motorcycle chains.  My old Triumph motorcycles has a chain oiler, some of the engine oil (20W50 during most of the year) dripped on to it.  Thus, I never oiled it.  And half a century ago, there were no O rings in chains. 

I suspect that as the chain that was wrapped around the counter tooth sprocket inside the gear case at highway speed, any dirt that was not hanging onto the chain really tight got flung off of the chain at speed.  I stopped driving motorcycles a decade and a half ago.

I used to use a petroleum based lube on my bicycle chain, ranged from 20W50 to 90W140 gear lube, but it was a dust magnet.  I switched to a wax based lube about a decade ago, very happy with that. 

First attached photo shows my big chainring at the end of a tour with a lot of accumulated dust and dirt, that was shortly before I quit using a petroleum based lube.  The chain was on the middle chainring, thus hard to see the chain in the photo, but it is very clear how dirty the chain must have been for the big chainring to be that dirty.

I mostly ride my derailleur bikes, but I do not use a Chainglider on my Rohloff bike either.  I have no complaint with dripping on some wax based lube on a regular basis.

Second and third photo from a year ago, a very dusty day on a gravel trail with my Nomad Mk II.  I rode 90 miles that day for exercise, the attached photos were middle of the ride.  The chain is clean enough in my opinion, a lot cleaner since I switched to the wax based lube.

I do not try to keep track of how many miles I get on a chain.  I regularly ride four or five bikes a year. 
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Motorbike chains are different to ours as they have O rings keeping the original lube inside the rollers - and dirt, water and chainlube out.   Motorbike chain lube is more to lubricate the roller / sprocket interface.
Personally I think a thinner chain oil is better on a cycle chain so it can seep into the rollers (no O rings).

I intend to try this product :
https://www.wemoto.fr/pieces/hu4897?srsltid=AfmBOoowINysP1_XKCMyTUz_1jrHSIgqqe9KwwuhWKu3zmcDzORBnRN9
It's pretty cheap, and the ads say it's easy to apply. If it doesn't work I'll go back to oil once the factory lubricant is gone.

I don't mind opening the ChainGlider to add oil after a period of wet weather on my own bikes, but there are two bikes with ChainGliders in the park of bicycles I maintain for a nature reserve on an island.

After slightly more than a month of rain (plus a bit of salt) the one with an oil lubricated chain had the oil washed off and the chain going rusty. The other one, with the original rather sticky factory lubricant on the chain, was perfectly OK. 
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