Help! New chain needed ?

[D C]

Not cheap though having to change cassette every two chains. 11 speed cassettes for my bike cost around £60 - £70, and chains around £20.

Agreed, anything after 9 speed escalates in price and 9 speed is sufficient for most folk with electric bikes.

 

[The Bear]

Agreed, anything after 9 speed escalates in price and 9 speed is sufficient for most folk with electric bikes.

I know what you mean, but I'm probably outside of what 9 speed delivers.
I want a really low gear to get up the steep hills on my way home, but I also want a really high gear for the sections that are flat so I can blast along like a demon.
I'm guessing my 11 speed will give this benefit over a 9 speed, though I guess the individual gear sizes are crucial to that?

 

[soundwave]

 

[georgehenry]

I have not bought any cassettes since Jan 19 when amazon were selling my preferred 9 speed cassettes for £12.95 delivered, so I stocked up.



Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
Return window closed on 3 Mar 2019
£12.95

At around the same time I bought 2 KMC 9 speed chains for £18 delivered.

I have just fitted the last of those.

Off road a crank drive can wear the drive train components quite quickly.

So with cheaper 9 speed components running costs are kept down. I have managed to break other components that are more expensive however. Such is life. The fun is worth it.

I do use a more expensive narrow wide chain ring but that lasts in excess of 3000 miles or very roughly two chains and two cassettes.

The drive train on my rear hub bike that I ride on the road with 7 speed set up lasts literally years.

 

[georgehenry]

You can get wide range 9 speed cassettes.

I just looked on amazon and there was an 11-40 cassette for £29.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CYSKY-Cassette-Mountain-Bicycle-Shimano/dp/B07L5C8RBW/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=sunrace+wide+range+9+speed+cassette&qid=1605732767&quartzVehicle=93-1829&replacementKeywords=sunrace+wide+range+

Though your rear derrailleur may also need changing or need a extension

 

[AndyBike]

Most manufacturers put between 2000, and 3000 on the wear life of a chain. You always have a contradictory story buddy.

 

[BazP]

My last bike had a wide range 8 speed SRAM cassette which retailed at £445. The 11-48 spacing was shocking to ride but it really made you keep an eye on the chain wear.

 

[The Bear]

The last then I changed the chain I decided give an bike specific chain a try. I was getting fed up with normal chains snapping, so I bought the KMC E11 ebike specific chain which cost me about £35, hoping it would be worth it if it outlasted my previous chains.

Not used my bike much since fitting the chain as I'm no longer commuting, but when I did use it the other day the gears kept slipping and eventually the chain came off the front chainring. I took it off today to discover this...






I've no idea what could have caused this after such little use, but I'm now reverting back to standard chains. I have a few Sram PC1110 & PC 1130 chains that I stocked up on ages ago, so they will now be getting fitted from now on. I think the difference between those two is the 1110 has stem inner & outer parts, but the 1130 has steel inner and nickel outer. All the same to me!

 

[Gliggsy]

I'm really almost shocked at the lifespan of the mid-drive chain life that you guys are experiencing, I almost bought a mid-drive as my first new ebike, a horror story like this would have definitely deterred me, I wouldn't want a bike that costs more in transmission parts than what my car does

 

[georgehenry]

If you are not interested in going off road and by that I mean the more adventurous demanding and technical stuff, you would probably be much better served by a simple geared rear hub motored bike.

I have both and use my old 2011 rear hub motored bikes for the majority of my road riding, errands like shopping and popping into town etc. They are excellent for load hauling and I regularly overfill two large panniers with shopping and ride back home up a reasonably steep hill.

Rear hub motors take pressure off your transmission and because of that chains, cassettes and chain rings last absolutely ages. They are fun to ride, and you still get useful exercise.

However, before I bought my first electric bike I had loved mountain biking. I bought my first rear hub electric bike to enable me to commute to work rather than drive my car. Enjoying riding off road I found tracks it could cope with and was surprised how well it did.

But I then bought a crank drive bike to enable me to use a predominantly off road route to work and include much more difficult tracks. Off road is where crank drives are much better than rear hub bikes. The weight is in the right place.

I am a shift worker and when my shift times mean I can't ride off road I now use my simple cadence sensor rear hub bike to ride on the road there and back, and it is a superb road bike.

Whenever I have time and daylight to ride off road to work I use the crank drive.

My crank drive is cheaper than most, as it is a nine speed system, but it still wears out chains, cassettes, and chain rings, much quicker than my rear hub bike.

There is no comparison. I expect my rear hub bikes ridden on the road to do several years and many thousands of miles before I need to change the transmission.

My crank drive ridden off road needs much more attention and wears things out far quicker. But the fun I have riding almost all the way to work on a great off road route that in places is quite demanding is for me worth every penny of all the many maintenance tasks that get thrown at me and worn out bits I have to buy.

 

[Nealh]

One can stil use hub bikes for offroad rough stuff, I do. Though don't do none of the very fast down hill or jumping stuff.
I use a Akm 128c in a 700c rim for my riding and don't just stick to old railway trails, I expect when on the S Downs it goes many a place that those who ride mid drives probably never venture.

 

[georgehenry]

Sounds good Nealth

 

[The Bear]

The last time I changed the chain I decided to give an ebike specific chain a try. I was getting fed up with normal chains snapping, so I bought the KMC E11 ebike specific chain which cost me about £35, hoping it would be worth it if it outlasted my previous chains.

Not used my bike much since fitting the chain as I'm no longer commuting, but when I did use it the other day the gears kept slipping and eventually the chain came off the front chainring. I took it off today to discover this...



View attachment 40522


I've no idea what could have caused this after such little use, but I'm now reverting back to standard chains. I have a few Sram PC1110 & PC 1130 chains that I stocked up on ages ago, so they will now be getting fitted from now on. I think the difference between those two is the 1110 has stem inner & outer parts, but the 1130 has steel inner and nickel outer. All the same to me!

It's only fair that I update the above post with a recent discovery that might be the cause of the worn chain.

In a different thread I have posted about how a previous snapped chain link got caught up in my rear derailleur and ripped it off its hanger and wrapped it around the cassette...




I replaced the chain (above) along with the cassette and front chainring, but the derailleur itself looked ok so I refitted it on a new hanger.

Fast forward to the other day, and with only a couple of months further use of the bike and when replacing the above snapped chain I discovered the rear derailleur cage was bent, with a possible worn jockey wheel bearing which was causing the chain to catch on the metal cage, and possibly caused the chain to fail?




So whilst my mid crank ebike does eat through chains and drivetrain, I think the recent chain fail was caused by the above.

 

[Nealh]

One of the nice places I like to visit is the Chattri memorial a place where returning hindu and sikh soldiers who died of their injuries in WW1 were cremated. A lovely spot where one can just sit and listen to the nothingness of peace and tranquillity, I eat my lunch snack there before continuing a ride. From home its a good 2 hourr ride.