Ah, that's why.....

[I like Skol]

That'll do it! looks like saddleworth mud that!

Not mud, just winter road grime and rust mixed with car engine oil!

That is one unclean chain!

Yep.

Blimey!! I'm surprised you could see anything wrong with it through all that muck

you're definitely in trouble if you ever come on a cc ride with Fossy

For me it is about the ride, not the bike. I am not one for cleaning and polishing as long as it is working ok.

Another parishioner mercifully free of the curse of OCD...Praise Be...

This winter when I put my bike away damp it still has beads of mucky water on it when I get it out of the garage a few days later

PMSL at that chain - with all that mud I thought we were in the MTB forum.

That's the weird thing. I have an MTB that does the muddy stuff, this bike has never seen mud but the chain on my MTB which gets cared for the same way is perfect and measured as no wear despite being 2 years old and used for more miles commuting and in mud than this broken chain. I can only think that my Hybrid was built with the cheapest of cheap shimano chains available?

Or, it was used when the roads were being heavily gritted and once or twice I found the chain rusted up a few days later. That might have killed it?

 

[Moodyman]

I can only think that my Hybrid was built with the cheapest of cheap shimano chains available?

You assume right. Chains are the least sexiest part of a bike and they all look the same when new. Even £1k bikes come with crappy chains.

 

[pshore]

I've had exactly the same problem a few weeks ago. Shimano HG53 chain on my touring bike, one year old but probably 5000km on it so near end of life. The chain has been skipping, then one day later breaks. An inspection revealed a second link half broken like in the picture above.

I have been mashing it standing up for a short hill every day I ride home plus toured fully loaded through wales on that chain. I've never managed to do that to any previous chain though. I never fully cross gears or change under load so I am a bit disappointed but maybe I am just riding harder than ever before.

I am trying a KMC chain now. t'internet says they are good but they also make chains for Shimano anyway so I'm not sure what there is to gain.

 

[XmisterIS]

PMSL at that chain - with all that mud I thought we were in the MTB forum.

Re the motorcycle lube, don't try just any because other brands (I've not tried this one yet) are really sticky because they are designed to not fling off at high speed. The gunk attracts all the dirt then are a nightmare to clean off. You need a can of chain cleaner for that job.

Yep, most are very very sticky and a complete nightmare to get clean - the guy who owned my motorbike before me had used the super-sticky chainwax stuff and when I took the sprocket cover off, the sprocket chamber was filled with solid, dirty, gritty wax. It took me an hour to get it clean! Then I put the wuerth stuff all over it and 18 months later I took the sprocket cover off ... not one bit of dirt in there. It is not sticky at all, nor does it fling off at high speed - it feels like candle wax when it dries. Can't go wrong with it, I say.

 

[downfader]

It is amazingly good, I buy it in bulk now (just ordered a box of 6 cans). That price looks pretty good though! I think I got mine off ebay too. It is so thick that you only need one or two coats on the chain for it to be well coated. It is so durable too that on a bicycle chain it lasts for ages! On a motorbike chain you need to add another coating about once a week, for regular riding. To make sure I get two coats without wasting lube, I bought a can of spray-on glass enamel paint from B&Q, then I rinsed my chain and sprayed one of the links with paint. That way I have a marker on the chain so I can count two rotations of the chain while I'm putting lube on. The enamel paint is pretty much permanent.

I use teflon lube, Raceline stuff as that dries in the same way. No propellant either. Shake and pour from the spout.

 

[twozeronine]

I had a similar problem last week with my chain jumping and skipping all over the place (it must have been happy about something ). After a few days of this I got home one night to discover that half the teeth on one of the cogs on the rear cassette had broken off!

It turns out that I'd completely bodged my attempt at truing the rear wheel a couple of weeks earlier, and I caused the whole wheel to pull over to the left, putting undue force on the cassette.

 

[ColinJ]

I had a similar problem last week with my chain jumping and skipping all over the place (it must have been happy about something ). After a few days of this I got home one night to discover that half the teeth on one of the cogs on the rear cassette had broken off!

Had they literally broken off, or did they just look a bit different to the other teeth. Some sprockets (cogs) have missing or cut-away teeth to aid gear changing.

It turns out that I'd completely bodged my attempt at truing the rear wheel a couple of weeks earlier, and I caused the whole wheel to pull over to the left, putting undue force on the cassette.

It sounds like you hadn't done the quick release up tight enough.

 

[twozeronine]

Had they literally broken off, or did they just look a bit different to the other teeth. Some sprockets (cogs) have missing or cut-away teeth to aid gear changing.


It sounds like you hadn't done the quick release up tight enough.

Yep, half the teeth on one cog had literally broken off, there was nothing left of them. The quick release was definitely tight enough. I took in in to the shop yesterday to have the new cassette fitted, and he'd spotted that there was only a 2mm gap between the left chain stay and the wheel. Not sure how I messed it up that bad.

 

[fossyant]

Some shocking filth in this thread. Lol.

 

[I like Skol]

Mmmmmm.... shiny. Can I borrow it?

 

[ColinJ]

Mmmmmm.... shiny. Can I borrow it?

It's not mine - I'm afraid that my transmission looks rather like I like Skol's at the moment!

 

[potsy]

You can always tell those that ride their bikes and those that just sit there looking at them by the cleanliness of their cassettes

Edit- Written before the above response (still true though)