Chain gang - Another chain query

[jimbut]

Sorry, if this has been answered elsewhere BUT .. want to ask a couple of questions re my chain ( Shim Ultegra ). Firstly, this is a new bike which I`ve ridden since start of April ( less than 7 weeks ). Have done about 600km. I would like to know on ave what sort of distance should I be able to put on the chain before I can easily change it alone ( ie not having to change out sprockets or chainrings ). Secondly does a bog standard chain link remover do for opening this chain OR is there a necessity for a special one. On that question my ( very old ) tool seems to fit OK .. just not sure it will do the job. I ask the first question cos I`m sure any lightweight chain takes a LOT of abuse and I wish to maintain my costly bike well. Ultegra chains set you back about £35 .. I`d hate to think I would not get a reasonable service life out of it. Ta very much for any informed input.

 

[monnet]

Look after it and you'll get a good few thousand kms out of it. I think Top Velo did a test on 105 chains and got 10 000kms out of one. Their verdict was that you could plait it but it was still usable, just! I got about 8000 out of my 105 before I changed it, so you should get similar, if not a bit more out of an Ultegra.

As for your chain splitter. I would imagine you'd need to get a 9/10 speed specific tool but I have less experience in this area!

 

[bonj2]

Sorry, if this has been answered elsewhere BUT .. want to ask a couple of questions re my chain ( Shim Ultegra ). Firstly, this is a new bike which I`ve ridden since start of April ( less than 7 weeks ). Have done about 600km. I would like to know on ave what sort of distance should I be able to put on the chain before I can easily change it alone ( ie not having to change out sprockets or chainrings ). Secondly does a bog standard chain link remover do for opening this chain OR is there a necessity for a special one. On that question my ( very old ) tool seems to fit OK .. just not sure it will do the job. I ask the first question cos I`m sure any lightweight chain takes a LOT of abuse and I wish to maintain my costly bike well. Ultegra chains set you back about £35 .. I`d hate to think I would not get a reasonable service life out of it. Ta very much for any informed input.

You can get a chain measuring device which one side of can tell you if it's 0.75% stretched,and the other side tells you if it's 1% stretched.
0.75% stretched and you should be thinking about replacing it soon, 1% and you really need to replace it now.
If you change it when it's 0.75% stretched as opposed to 1% you can get 3 chains to a cassette, or so I've heard..