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Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Rohloff drivetrain wear: when to replace chain, sprocket, chainring?
« Last post by Andyb1 on May 07, 2026, 08:07:14 PM »Was the chain still operating OK with 1.8% elongation? No slipping or roughness?
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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
A better scheme if you want to get maximum miles for your money, for when you ride from home, not on tours halfway around the world, would be to have all the chains you expect to be consumed on one side of the sprocket/chainring to hand, and to fit them in order at some routine event (a distance, cleaning the chain, whatever), so that they can all wear in evenly with the gears. It has the advantage that you don't need to know with high precision how much wear per chain is optimal, you just spread it across all the chains and the metal will tell you when the limit is reached. Martin has written about this method, though not in these terms, and I think JohnR has mentioned it too.
It was worth it for me with derailleur transmissions. The simplest way was with 2 chains, take the chain off when it needed cleaning, put the other one on, then clean and lube the one taken off ready to go back on the bike at the next change. Generally at 300 to 500 km intervals, but very weather dependent. The best I managed before having to replace the cassette was with 4 chains.
A better scheme if you want to get maximum miles for your money, for when you ride from home, not on tours halfway around the world, would be to have all the chains you expect to be consumed on one side of the sprocket/chainring to hand, and to fit them in order at some routine event (a distance, cleaning the chain, whatever), so that they can all wear in evenly with the gears. It has the advantage that you don't need to know with high precision how much wear per chain is optimal, you just spread it across all the chains and the metal will tell you when the limit is reached. Martin has written about this method, though not in these terms, and I think JohnR has mentioned it too.