Cassette wear?

[Gubbins]

Do our e bikes put extra strain on the drive train simply because there is more power applied to the chain?..... Yes I would have thought so,.. Dragging my heavy bike and me up over the yorkshire moors must have done some damage....
Well after 3500 miles with a lot of hills climbed I took mine apart for a good clean and inspection and the cassette cleaned up as new with little signs of wear and also the chain ring.
The chain purrs along nicely and I bin it when it gets to the .75 on a park chain tool, but I did expect to be replacing the other bits by now!
Am I being a tad pessimistic, or is this normal?

 

[EddiePJ]

I'd say that wear has more to do with the conditions that you ride in and riding style than anything else.
As said before, the conditions where I live are very hard on final drive components. We have three types of soil, Wealden clay which doesn't particularly do much harm, but is very heavy, chalk, which tends to dry chains out very quickly and often in less than 20 miles of riding. Then we have the worse of the lot, very acidic forest soil which is made up of extremely fine almost talcum powder sand. This absolutely destroys chains and acts as a cutting paste. I've yet to work out if it worse in the winter or in the summer when it just becomes dust. It can destroy chains in under 200 miles.

I have recently replaced the front sprocket, cassette, jockey wheels and chain after just over 600 miles on the KTM. I have also spotted today after hearing and feeling an odd noise, that I have managed to break the connecting link on the new KMC chain as well.
I certainly feel that the small front sprocket does no favours to sprocket wear, but I have been giving thought to the subject of wear over the last couple of days. You can't tell from the photo below, but the first three low gears on the cassette have had it. The reason being that that is where the bike spends most of its time, and this in part also adds to chain wear, as the chain is seldom running a straight line. I worked out or suspect that this wear has more to do with my riding technique than anything else. If left in tour, the battery could be drained from full charge in approx 20 miles of riding, so I tend to ride a combination of eco and no assist. Clearly by doing so, this means running lower gears, so placing more strain on everything, but range increases to approx 40 miles.
The combination of riding style and soil conditions helps nothing. The wear isn't limited to just the e-mtb though. Again as said before, I am now using the pedal mtb more and more, as the weight saving is pretty much compensating for my e-mtb riding style, and I'm finding riding it more fun. The wear of components though, isn't massively different when comparing the two bikes. Rear cassette wear is certainly better in the first three gears, but chain wear is the same, and the front sprockets are taking a hammering. I'll be replacing the whole lot very soon, and the mileage will be pretty much identical to that of the e-mtb

New chain and old chain.

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[ray74]

I've just changed my chain and cassette on my Sduro after just over 3 months of commuting and about 1000 miles. I didn't even give it a thought until I was speaking to a guy at the shop I bought it from and he said I should check it, good job too as it was fully stretched past the 1% marker on the chain checker. I tried just changing the chain on its own but got severe slipping in the highest 2 gears so quickly whipped on the the new cassette.
The bike saves me about £120 a month just in bus fare to work so paying out £40-£50 every 3 months isn't a massive issue.

 

[Gubbins]

I am using 2 chains, one on and one in a jar of paraffin oil mix. Every couple of weeks I swap chains putting the used one in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner filled with paraffin and then in the oil mix to soak. It takes about 1000 to 1500 miles to reach the park tool .75 marker and then its binned. I use that ptfe stuff from Halfords and apply a small amount twice a week.
So far at 3500 miles all is good, and nothing like eddiePJ's sprockets, in fact my small plastic ones still appear as new...
Being an "oldie" I tend to run in Sport or Turbo these days and dont play out in the mud..

 

[RobF]

I've just changed my chain and cassette on my Sduro after just over 3 months of commuting and about 1000 miles. I didn't even give it a thought until I was speaking to a guy at the shop I bought it from and he said I should check it, good job too as it was fully stretched past the 1% marker on the chain checker. I tried just changing the chain on its own but got severe slipping in the highest 2 gears so quickly whipped on the the new cassette.
The bike saves me about £120 a month just in bus fare to work so paying out £40-£50 every 3 months isn't a massive issue.

Gold standard maintenance is hard to argue against, so I won't.

But were you impecunious, you could have carried on using the old chain until such time it slipped on the old cassette.

Nothing is lost or harmed, both were going to be replaced, but you would probably have got useful extra miles out of the old bits.

Front chain rings seem to rarely need replacement, although it appears the small Bosch ones don't last as long as the more common bigger ones.

 

[Gubbins]

Gold standard maintenance is hard to argue against, so I won't.

But were you impecunious, you could have carried on using the old chain until such time it slipped on the old cassette.

Nothing is lost or harmed, both were going to be replaced, but you would probably have got useful extra miles out of the old bits.

Front chain rings seem to rarely need replacement, although it appears the small Bosch ones don't last as long as the more common bigger ones.

Just googled that word and it describes me.. sort of.... I thought I was saving money to be honest, as the cassette and chainring can be quite expensive!
I had a shock when my Boardman needed a new chainring at 800 miles which was £80.. Another reason for my attitude to Keeping it in good order is that during my first session with the ultrasonic I spotted a broken link which would have let me down.. and not being a member of international rescue its a long walk home.
Plus,
I like the look of a clean transmission.

 

[RobF]

I had a shock when my Boardman needed a new chainring at 800 miles which was £80.

Boardman bikes are pretty good, but they are expert at using cheap components where the customer is unlikely to notice, and better components where customers are more likely to check.

A lot of the cheaper SRAM gears aren't up to much, not least because Shimano, over the years, has managed to keep hold of lots of patents on various parts of their design.

SRAM could use these designs for a royalty, but to avoid paying that they design their own components, which are almost always inferior.

 

[mfj197]

I had a shock when my Boardman needed a new chainring at 800 miles which was £80.

A shock indeed! I'm still on my original chain, sprockets and chainrings on my Specialized Secteur Sport non-electric, at just coming up to 7,000 miles. I should really replace the chain as it's rather rusty but I can't be bothered to work on it as my ebike conversion is nearly finished.

Michael

 

[tillson]

The best advice is to;

1) Put the Park Chain tool in the dustbin (Most important).
2) Keep the drive train moderately clean (no need to be OCD). Two chains can help. Clean and grease one whilst using the other and then swap.
3) Keep riding until no amount of cleaning and re-greasing stops the awful noises coming from the drive.
4) Throw away both chains and rear sprocket /cassette replacing with new. Chain ring / wheel will probably be ok, but replace if teeth are missing.

8000 to 10000 miles should be achievable between replacement.

I think KMC sponsor the Park chain measuring tool.

 

[Kinninvie]

My Cannondale BBS02 started jumping in the top 3 gears last week so I replaced the chain and cassette.
The original had done just over 800 miles of which about 25% is offroad and 70% is up very steep climbs.
Its also pulling 106Kg of me and 35Kg of bike and batteries.
The new chain cost £3.19 and the 8 speed 11-34 cassette was £7.49 so not an expensive job.
I was surprised at the difference between the new and old cassettes as the teeth had worn almost 75% of their length off!!!