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Transmission / Re: Replace chain
« Last post by Andre Jute on July 25, 2026, 10:59:10 PM »If you're going down the route of swapping chains to preserve other components, you have to frequently measure and not go by mileage.
Riders can do what they choose, but there are two practical options, wear it all out and replace together or replace chains before anything else is worn. Doing something between those two has no advantage and will cost more in components than either.
There's Martin's middle way of swapping chains in and out at quite short intervals when his bikes ran with open chains, which substitutes maintenance time for components costs.
He told us recently that the chain-exchange intervals are very much longer when the chain runs inside a Chainglider, which, if we're talking cost accounting, shifts part of the cost onto the Chainglider. However, as I pointed out when I tested all the Chainglider competitors and in the end could recommend only the Chainglider, after a chain cycle or three the Chainglider has paid for itself and falls out of the equation for the rest of its service life (on which nobody has yet put a number; the thing may be indestructible). So, with a Chainglider and Martin's intermediate method, the costs of transmission components falls to a distant but lower plateau. My best guess is that Martin's Method will realize ever more marginal savings.
That's not much of a guess; it's simply basic economics.
Of course, all this assumes that the cyclist actually enjoys maintenance and doesn't count the opportunity cost of his own time.
