chain and surface rust

[Yellow Saddle]

Hello,
are a particularly wet and muddy ride on my road bike i washed it and put it away but foolishly did not re-oil the chain. I just dug the bike out this morning from the shed and notice that there is surface rust 'colouring' on the chain. Am i doomed to buy another chain or could it be salvageable?
Thanks

Yes it is fine. Just oil it and go ride. Rusty chains are inevitable in winter.

 

[ColinJ]

Hmm - I haven't looked at my chain after a few hundred km of riding recently on mucky gritted roads. I reckon that the transmission will be in need of some TLC! I'd better take a look tomorrow...

 

[Mick Mudd]

Has anybody ever had a chain snap?
It's only happened to me once in many years of cycling, I was out for a bike ride and turned onto the lower slope of a hill and put the pressure on the pedals and SNAP it went, and I hit the deck, no injuries.
I'd always kept the chain well oiled and rust-free, so it must have been metal fatigue or something.

 

[Alex321]

Has anybody ever had a chain snap?
It's only happened to me once in many years of cycling, I was out for a bike ride and turned onto the lower slope of a hill and put the pressure on the pedals and SNAP it went, and I hit the deck, no injuries.
I'd always kept the chain well oiled and rust-free, so it must have been metal fatigue or something.

Yes, I have had it happen twice in the last three years or so.

Both with 11 speed chains on my 105-equipped Cube.

 

[Paulus]

I've had it happen twice, once was a ten speed Campagnolo chain, one of the side plates snapped where it went around the pin.
The other was an old KMC 6 speed that I had only just put back on after a total refurb of a Raleigh Royal. It snapped at the point where I had rejoined it.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Has anybody ever had a chain snap?
It's only happened to me once in many years of cycling, I was out for a bike ride and turned onto the lower slope of a hill and put the pressure on the pedals and SNAP it went, and I hit the deck, no injuries.
I'd always kept the chain well oiled and rust-free, so it must have been metal fatigue or something.

No, not metal fatigue but user error. Your chain did not break in outright tension but in a bit of cross-chaining on the cassette where the chain was halfway between two gears and you applied pressure. If you can recall, you'll remember that the chain burst open and the sideplate separated from the rivet.

Had the chain broken in tension, the sideplate and rivet would have remained in place but the sideplate would show a break at its narrowest part - that part exactly in the middle between the two rivets, with a teensy bit of elongation.

 

[Spiderweb]

Has anybody ever had a chain snap?
It's only happened to me once in many years of cycling, I was out for a bike ride and turned onto the lower slope of a hill and put the pressure on the pedals and SNAP it went, and I hit the deck, no injuries.
I'd always kept the chain well oiled and rust-free, so it must have been metal fatigue or something.

Never had it happen to me, I do look after my chains, regular wiping and re-lubing.
I also try and avoid cross chaining, keeping as straighter chain line as poss.
I always drop the power for a split second when changing gear whilst going up hill, I think that helps too.

 

[Big John]

Had it happen twice that I can remember. Once on a club hill climb when I hit the deck and ended up in A & E and the second time was after I'd come off in an LVRC race and I was cycling back to the race HQ. I guess the chain had got damaged in the fall and me cycling back to the HQ just put the finishing touches to it. Thankfully on that occasion no physical harm was done.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I had a chain (KMC 9sp) which exhibited the odd click (infrequent).
On cleaning and oiling, I got 'catching' on the paper towel I use to wipe x 3.
Close inspection revealed that not one but two of the outer link plates (different links) had parted (but not let go) by a radial 'crack' from pin to edge.
Quite likely the cause was as @Yellow Saddle describes. Besides endeavouring not to change up under any power, lessons identified (and learnt):
1) Use SRAM chains henceforth
2) If you get any little 'catches' like I did, take the trouble to check the chain carefully.

 

[toffee]

Has anybody ever had a chain snap?
It's only happened to me once in many years of cycling, I was out for a bike ride and turned onto the lower slope of a hill and put the pressure on the pedals and SNAP it went, and I hit the deck, no injuries.
I'd always kept the chain well oiled and rust-free, so it must have been metal fatigue or something.

Twice. It hurt both times when I hit the cross bar

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I had a chain (KMC 9sp) which exhibited the odd click (infrequent).
On cleaning and oiling, I got 'catching' on the paper towel I use to wipe x 3.
Close inspection revealed that not one but two of the outer link plates (different links) had parted (but not let go) by a radial 'crack' from pin to edge.
Quite likely the cause was as @Yellow Saddle describes. Besides endeavouring not to change up under any power, lessons identified (and learnt):
1) Use SRAM chains henceforth
2) If you get any little 'catches' like I did, take the trouble to check the chain carefully.

I've had those before as well and I'm ;pretty sure I've posted pics of it before. Those are from faulty heat treatment. Usually they appear on multiple plates on the same chain, all of them being from the same batch. They could be quite deadly if a plate opens up in the wrong direction and catches the jockey cage. Just another reason to keep your bike clean and pay attention during the cleaning process. A loved bike always reveals its imminent failures during a wash and polish.

 

[Jenkins]

In the past 18 months I've had to replace 4 chains due to damage - 2 which broke (both without damage to me as they went as I was pulling away from standstill) and two which were found when they snagged the cleaning cloth. The common link - all SRAM (3x PC1110 & 1 x PC1130) either fitted from new or from reputable sources.
I think the general state of the rest of the chain (where visible) may give a hint as to why they failed.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Three times my own chain and once another commuter from memory. Fixed with chain tool at side of road.

 

[Mick Mudd]

Aircraft manuals recommend throwing out various items after X hours of use (even if they're showing no signs of wear and tear) and fitting brandnew ones, so perhaps we should dump our chains every 6 months or so and replace them with brandnew ones to be on the safe side?

 

[Ajax Bay]

'Flying hours' scheduled chain replacement = yes, but not because of fatigue risk.
Chains (and for example spokes) suffer from elastic stress/strains so the number of cycles before failure through fatigue is very high: I suspect that, given chain plates are steel, the stress they experience is below the material endurance limit (so infinite cycles before fatigue failure).
The significant longitudinal force fluctuation in each chain link is when it leaves the sprocket (and comes under tension) till it engages with the chainring: so one load cycle per 'chain cycle' going from ~1000N to close to zero (assumes pedal load of 60kg, a 50t ring and a 170mm crank). Assuming an average pedalling cadence of 60rpm (assumes 25% freewheeling), a chain ring with 47 teeth (average with a 50-34 and 80% use of the 50t), and a chain 57" long (so 114 x 1/2" pitch) each hour's cycling implies about 1500 load cycles.
Pre-pandemic I averaged about 400 hours cycling a year, so that'd imply about 6x10^5 load cycles. However I'd be changing chains every 100 hours/ 2500km because they had elongated >0.5% with that use. So each chain would 'only' need to have a fatigue life of well more than 1.5x10^5.
I guess they all did.
The number of load cycles each spoke has to go through per hour (average 25kmph) is about 11000, btw.