Rohloff drivetrain wear: when to replace chain, sprocket, chainring?

[Andyb1]

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.

[martinf]

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.

[Andyb1]

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.

[Chris2020]

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.
 

[Andyb1]

Was the chain still operating OK with 1.8% elongation?    No slipping or roughness?

[Chris2020]

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…

[Andyb1]

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!

[PH]

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 



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