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

[Andyb1]

What I meant, George, was that after seeing how badly worn the sprocket was that PH posted (which was obviously in use) that perhaps we all change them too soon.
A 1:1 final drive is much more tolerant of wear than a derailleur system……where almost invisible sprocket wear can give problems as different sprockets will have different amounts of wear so some will not mesh with the chain.

[mickeg]

What I meant, George, was that after seeing how badly worn the sprocket was that PH posted (which was obviously in use) that perhaps we all change them too soon.
A 1:1 final drive is much more tolerant of wear than a derailleur system……where almost invisible sprocket wear can give problems as different sprockets will have different amounts of wear so some will not mesh with the chain.

Agree.  As noted above, I have started to put worn out chains from my derailleur bikes onto my Rohloff bike, depriving my Rohloff bike of having newer chains.

That exceptionally worn out sprocket that PH showed the photo of had 16 teeth, an even number of teeth, you can see that several teeth were broken off but in that case those broken teeth were every other tooth.  I mentioned above that Rohloff hubs are usually fitted with a 16 tooth sprocket when new if you did not buy it on a bike from Thorn.

I also think that Thorn bikes that use a eccentric bottom bracket may be more tolerant of wear than ones that use a spring loaded chain tensioner.  With a very worn chain on a very worn sprocket, as you pedal, each chain link will climb up each tooth as the wheel rotates, causing more tooth wear.  The limiting factor on how high a chain can climb up a tooth with a spring loaded chain tensioner is the spring, thus if you pedal harder the chain could skip over the teeth.  (Like happened last summer on one of my derailleur bikes, the chain was not yet at 0.75 percent elongation but some sprockets on the cassette were sufficiently worn that the chain skipped when pedaling hard.)  But with the Thorn eccentric, as long as your chain is not too loose, it won't skip because there is only a limited amount of extra slack in the part of the chain that is normally loose as you pedal.

I might have mentioned above that I am going on a tour in the near future, not sure which chain to put on my Nomad Mk II for that trip.  I anticipate a bit over a thousand miles on that trip.  And I expect it to have more wear than normal as the bike will be carrying a heavier load, expect it to be exposed to wet weather more often, and probably will get less lube than typical.  But I do not want to put a chain on that has so much wear that I could be asking for trouble.  The chain currently on the bike has the eccentric near the maximum for amount of chain tightening that can be applied.

I found one chain in my collection of used chains that has a bit over 0.5 percent wear from a derailleur bike, I think that is the one that I will put on for my trip.  It should still have plenty of life left on it, so it should not be troublesome on my trip.  Maybe I should swap chains today, and measure my old one for percent elongation before I discard it?

[Andyb1]

I have gone to 38 / 17 on both my bikes with the 38 being N/W so that the chain is always in phase…..

If you do need a new chain then you can always buy one in Scotland - but an extra 1000 miles on a 0.5% elongated chain does not sound excessive….or fit a chainglider and any wet weather will not be an issue and little lube will be needed!

[martinf]

One thing that doesn't seem to be have discussed :

- What effect does using a worn chain sprocket, chainring have on the transmission efficiency ? To me, a new chain and sprocket "feels" more efficient than a worn transmission, but some of that is probably psychological.

[mickeg]

One thing that doesn't seem to be have discussed :

- What effect does using a worn chain sprocket, chainring have on the transmission efficiency ? To me, a new chain and sprocket "feels" more efficient than a worn transmission, but some of that is probably psychological.

If you ask a hundred bicyclists what the best chain lube is, you will get 150 different answers.  Neglecting different efficiencies from different chain lubes, ... ... ...

As I noted in my lengthy post yesterday, a worn chain will have the links rubbing on more of each individual tooth.  How much of a fraction of a watt is that for each link?  Not much.  Could it be measured?  Probably could.

When they can measure how much additional wattage is consumed from a derailleur drivetrain that does not have a perfect chainline, I am sure they could find some additional friction in a worn drivetrain.  And larger chainrings and sprockets have less friction from less friction at the pin and link as the part of the chain that is under tension unwraps from the sprocket and then wraps around the chainring, that can be measured too.

With the proponents on this forum for chain gliders, that is additional friction.

Bottom line, I often leave my dyno powered lights on in daytime, even when I am on a bike trail where there are no cars to worry about because I can't feel the extra lost wattage from that, so I don't worry about it.  That is several extra watts lost, probably a bigger loss than the extra friction at the worn drive train.

Yesterday I swapped chains on my Nomad Mk II, I leave for a bike tour in a bit under three weeks.  I use a smaller chainring for lower gearing for bike tours, I changed from a 44 to 36T chainring yesterday in the process of changing chains.  The chain I put on for my tour is at 0.5 elongation from wear on a derailleur bike, but less than 0.75 percent elongation.  The chain I removed will be discarded, it measured at 1.0 percent elongation (25 inches of chain measured at 25.25 inches.)  I would rather suffer a bit of extra friction instead of incurring the cost of a new chain as I prep for my tour, even though a new chain would only set me back a bit over $15 (USD) on Amazon.