How long should my ebike chain last?

[georgehenry]

We have moved away from the point.

The modern powerful crank drive bikes need stronger e-bike specific chain, chain ring and rear cassettes. These do not need to be overly expensive. 7 widely spaced gears would be enough for most applications, geared in a way that there are no less than 14 teeth (The more the better) for the highest top gear and with a large enough bottom cog to be equivalent to a current 36 tooth bottom gear.

You can achieve this yourself by putting a larger front chain ring on with a cassette that has a top gear with more than 11 teeth and a 36 tooth bottom gear (or larger if you can find one) to compensate for the larger chain ring.

I recently replaced my front chain ring with the next size up, two more teeth bigger and a cassette with a 12 tooth top gear and this has been noticeable more resistant to wear than the previous 11 tooth one with still a low enough bottom gear for climbing off road.

However although it has lasted longer it has still been susceptible to jumping under load as my mileage has increase.

My only option is increase the size of the chain ring again (42 teeth) to have a 14 tooth 8th gear to achieve my 20 mph cruising speed with a probable mostly redundant overdrive cog above, ( I don't want to cruise at more than 20 mph ), but on my 9 speed set up the largest bottom gear I can find is 36 teeth which may not be low enough for off road climbing when combined with a yet bigger chain ring.

It would be a lot better for a manufacturer to make one I could buy!

Do the manufacturers actually ride their bikes? Surely if they did they would be aware that crank drive bikes need a more robust drive train.

It cannot be that hard to get one made. Come on Col, steel a march on the opposition and grab the niche that clearly exists. After all good customer service is about providing what the customer needs and we need this.

As D8veh has said my previous hub powered bike had no chain, chain ring cassette wear issues as the drive takes pressure off these components rather than adding to them.

However I love my crank drive bike and have found this to be the only serious weakness and stronger e-bike specific cassettes and chains would sort it. Nuff said,Rant over.

 

[soundwave]

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/article/sram-launches-e-mountain-bike-specific-ex1-drivetrain-and-guide-re-brake-47061/

the cassette is £350

 

[RobF]

[QUOTE="georgehenry, post: 312547, member: 15104"
The modern powerful crank drive bikes need stronger e-bike specific chain, chain ring and rear cassettes.[/QUOTE]

I can't see much evidence of that, certainly not for a legal crank motor.

The chain takes the combined output of the motor and rider.

Most ebike riders are not especially cycle fit, so that combined output is no more - and often less - than the output of a fit/strong cyclist on an ordinary bike.

It's true for me, I can climb faster than a lot of push bike riders.

But equally, it's not unusual for me to be passed by a strong roadie.

 

[Croxden]

I found the alfine 11gearing much too high.. what is the rohlof like

RobF has answered for me, I find third is as low as I need on a 20% incline, the highest gear (14) is to me very high. There is a super range of gears, no duplications you get with a three speed chain ring that reduces the 27 or what ever down to less usable where and when you want them.

But when the battery is exhausted, those low gears are wonderful. I have never had to get off and push.

 

[georgehenry]

It seems to me that the power of a crank drive bike puts much more stress on chains and sprockets than on an ordinary bike.

I find that an electric mountain bike does not need the number of gears that have evolved for non powered mountain bikes. On my 9 speed I often need to change up a couple of gears missing out the ones in between when accelerating from rest.

My local bike shop wax lyrical about the older 7 speed Shimano XT mountain bike cassettes that seemed to last forever and give no problems.

It seems that less wider spaces gears that are stronger would be more suitable for a electric crank bike.

A de-restricted electric bike is no more powerful than a restricted bike and it is the power that causes the problems that ordinary bicycle components were not designed to cope with and other people seem to be having the same issues whether they are riding above the legal speed limit or not.

Of course it might just be me but I don't think so.

 

[soundwave]

get a 7spd DH cassette then i like my 11spd tho just not the price of parts

 

[EddiePJ]

I use pretty much every gear on both bikes fitted with11/42 rear cassette, with 15 tooth front sprocket, and like Rob don't see the need for an ebike specific chain either.
With KMC and SRAM chains now only costing about £7.00 a pop, I'm not overly worried about binning them every 400 miles or so. The dirt has wrecked them by then anyway, and the dirt would have equally wrecked an expensive ebike specific chain.
The only reason that I see an ebike specific chain has any benefit, is in very high torque motors. I don't consider the Bosch/Yamaha/Shimano motors to fit this category, and the only time that I have ever snapped a chain, is on my regular pedal mtb.

 

[Gubbins]

After 4000 miles and 3 x 9 speed chains ( usually cheap ones bought from Chain Reaction) I asked the bike shop to change the cassette and I bought a new front ring to go with it.. Mechanic said why do you want a new cassette and ring? Was 11-36 rear 42 front. Now 11-36 R 38 F and it is miles better. On my Boardman road bike the front ring and chain wore out after about 600 miles (cant just remember exactly, but it wasn't much)

 

[mab13]

With KMC and SRAM chains now only costing about £7.00 a pop

Sorry to pop off topic briefly, but where are you getting SRAM / KMC chains for £7 from please?

 

[Gubbins]

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/sram-pc951-9-speed-chain/rp-prod9911

 

[mab13]

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/sram-pc951-9-speed-chain/rp-prod9911

You cheated - that's a 9 speed!

Eddie's bikes are 10 / 11 speed I believe and those chains are more than double his suggested £7. I appreciate £16 for a chain isn't going to break the bank, but was just checking I hadn't missed anything...

 

[Nealh]

I suspect Eddie buys them when they are on offer and its a case of searching the various websites for them during the year.

 

[Gubbins]

You cheated - that's a 9 speed!

Eddie's bikes are 10 / 11 speed I believe and those chains are more than double his suggested £7. I appreciate £16 for a chain isn't going to break the bank, but was just checking I hadn't missed anything...

Ah. One of mine is a 9 speed and I bought a new chain and 11-36 cassette for £21 from chainreaction. My other bike is a 10speed and TBH there doesn't seem any benefit to the extra gear! Most of my riding only uses 2 or 3 of them once up to speed.

 

[Gubbins]

Another small point..
When accelerating up to speed I almost always change up 2 at a time.. Suggesting that so many gears are not needed.

 

[mab13]

Another small point..
When accelerating up to speed I almost always change up 2 at a time.. Suggesting that so many gears are not needed.

I often do the same.

For info, SRAM say that's the primary reason for premature drivetrain wear on electric bikes... which is why their new electric bike specific drivetrain will only shift one gear at a time (and the gaps between gears a larger supposedly removing the need to double shift).

At £21 for a chain and cassette though, who on earth cares!!??

 

[Gubbins]

I often do the same.

For info, SRAM say that's the primary reason for premature drivetrain wear on electric bikes... which is why their new electric bike specific drivetrain will only shift one gear at a time (and the gaps between gears a larger supposedly removing the need to double shift).

At £21 for a chain and cassette though, who on earth cares!!??

Yes I have been told that shifting is responsible for chipped and broken teeth.. but getting neatly 4000 miles on one cassette has to be good. New bike had the small front ring so wondering how long that will last.

 

[EddiePJ]

I suspect Eddie buys them when they are on offer and its a case of searching the various websites for them during the year.

For the KMC chains I do exactly this, just wait for Chain Reaction to have them on offer.

The SRAM are just off the shelf in the local bike shop. Crazy money given that split links on their own aren't far off this price. I was going to bulk buy a load of them when I bought my recent spare one for the hardtail, but was informed that they won't be going up in cost. I really should pop back and buy some anyway, just in case.

 

[Denis99]

I have always used two chains in rotation to increase the life of the chain and cassette.

Every 100 miles I take the chain off and completely degrease it and dump it in some solvent.

Then put the other chain ( already cleaned) on, the cassette is cleaned with a small brush and some Muc Off after each ride, along with the chain being wiped down and re lubed.

This has worked really well for me on conventional bikes, see no reason why it won't prolong the drive chain components on the ebike.

Another benefit is good gear shifting that comes from a cleaner chain and cassette.
Worth the effort for me.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Related to chain wear:

How many cogs can one shift up or down smoothly?

I am thinking about building a mid-drive specific cassette - would 5 teeth be asking too much?

11-16-21-24-28-31-34 for example with the big jumps being changing up downhill. Gears most used on the flat will be 5th and 4th. Changing down on steeper slopes will be a softer 3 tooth change.

 

[Denis99]

From my experience of going back to the first 5 speed gears in the 70's, I believe that more gears ( 10 or 11) are a good thing.

Having say 10 gear cassette enables you to keep a better cadence for most of the time, and also gives smoother shifting as the rear mech does have to bridge a large jump in gear teeth.

Keeping the cadence at an optimum level ( 70 to 90 rpm) gives quite smooth changes .