Has anyone had experience with cheap vs expensive parts?

[AliShah2020]

Hi all,

Has anyone had experience with cheap vs expensive parts? For example what is the difference between say an unbranded £15 chainring vs a branded £40-50 chainring? Does a cheap chainring wear out quicker? Can it damage the chain and cassette? Are all manufacturers equal? Do you get quality for paying more or do we simply pay for brand?

 

[MontyVeda]

I put cheap unbranded chainrings from Ebay on about five years ago. They don't look as swanky as the Truvativ rings they replaced, but they do the same job so next time they need replacing, I'll be going down the skinflint route again

Note: I did need to do a little bit of filing to get one of them to fit properly.

 

[vickster]

Hi all,

Has anyone had experience with cheap vs expensive parts? For example what is the difference between say an unbranded £15 chainring vs a branded £40-50 chainring? Does a cheap chainring wear out quicker? Can it damage the chain and cassette? Are all manufacturers equal? Do you get quality for paying more or do we simply pay for brand?

Probably actually the expensive lighter ones that wear quicker, less robust!

Get your chainrings from Spa

 

[AliShah2020]

Ah cheers thanks for the heads up chaps. I bought a nice expensive branded chainring but noticed there are lots on ebay for £15! That's quite a significant different.

How long does a chainring typically last you guys (in years or miles)?

.... I think I'm developing an addiction to bike parts 😄🤣🤣🤣🤣💯🤦‍♂️

 

[vickster]

Ah cheers thanks for the heads up chaps. I bought a nice expensive branded chainring but noticed there are lots on ebay for £15! That's quite a significant different.

How long does a chainring typically last you guys (in years or miles)?

.... I think I'm developing an addiction to bike parts 😄🤣🤣🤣🤣💯🤦‍♂️

Took me around 6000 miles I reckon to wear a SRAM Rival one (big ring, little still ok)

 

[AliShah2020]

@vickster WOW! Not bad going at all!! I am guessing 6,000 miles is around 2 + years? Do you commute on your bike or is it weekend leisure?

 

[vickster]

@vickster WOW! Not bad going at all!! I am guessing 6,000 miles is around 2 + years? Do you commute on your bike or is it weekend leisure?

It took me about 4 years, maybe more...but I have several bikes so spread my miles across them. I’m a bit of a fair weather cyclist but mudguards are great for preserving components!

i do 2.5-3.5k a year depending on how knackered my joints are and how many operations I need to recover from

I have commuted in the past but not far and not on that bike

 

[MichaelW2]

With chainrings there are 2 grades of aluminium alloy used. The cheap alloy ones can be sawn with a hacksaw easily, the better 7075 t6 alloy ( Duralumin Zicral, Ergal) much tougher. It was invented in Japan for the Mitsubishi Zero structure.
For high milleage, use the tougher one.

 

[Mark pallister]

I’ve got over 12000 mls on my Shimano Ultegra di2 rings and there still fine

 

[AliShah2020]

@MichaelW2 Ahh thanks very much for explaining what the 7076 T6 means. I was wondering about that! I gathered it meant something special, and now I know! Thanks for the pro tip!!

 

[ColinJ]

Cheap as in cheap and nasty - avoid! I bought a cheapo headset for my singlespeed bike project. It was such a bad fit that I could push it in and out of the frame without using tools (it should be a tight fit)! I replaced it with a Ritchey headset costing just over twice as much and that has been fine.

Cheap as in bargain price - go for it! Chainrings from Spa have been mentioned above. I bought a triple chainset including the 3 rings from them for around £70. It has been excellent.

 

[Tom B]

@vickster WOW! Not bad going at all!! I am guessing 6,000 miles is around 2 + years? Do you commute on your bike or is it weekend leisure?

I get similar if not slightly more from a Shimano. Triple 28-38-48 then the 48 needs replacing, I generally change the 48 once then change the full triple. There is only about a tenner in it.

I'm doing around 4000 miles a year on that bike in all weathers and conditions. With the best will in the world it doesnt get cleaned as often as would be ideal.

 

[AliShah2020]

Thanks @MontyVeda @vickster @MichaelW2 @Mark pallister @ColinJ @Tom B you chaps are getting serious mileage!!!

Biking is a cheaper hobby than I thought providing you keep it clean, keep it lubricated and all is good. TBH so far, I am only riding in the dry. I don't ride mine in the wet. I don't enjoy getting sploshed.

Incidentally, what is the order of wear on bike groupset components in real world conditions? Chain > chainring > cassette? Is that about right?

Do you replace chain and chainring together? Or is chain and cassette together?

 

[ColinJ]

If you keep your chains clean and change them before they get too worn then you should be able to keep a cassette for at least (say) 2-3 chains. Buy a chain wear gauge and replace the chain when it gets to 0.5% wear.

If you let the chain get too worn then the cassette suffers excess wear too and a new chain might slip on it.

Chainrings tend to last longer. I got quite a few thousand miles (don't know how many) from the small and middle rings on the triple that I posted above. I have replaced them once each but I am still on the original big ring. I use the other 2 rings a lot on the hills round here and the fewer teeth, the more wear per tooth.

I just found this quote...

On this point, we’ve heard of WorldTour teams getting three seasons of use out of the same chainrings and cassettes, purely from replacing chains before they become worn.

This makes sense if the chains are much cheaper than the chainrings and casettes. I but cheapish chains, so that IS true.

 

[Jenkins]

Approx 10k miles from the original SRAM Apex chainrings on the main commuter which have been replaced with Spa Cycles own brand. Only the outer really needed replacing as that's where I ride most of the time. In the same time on this bike I used 3 chains (original & 2 replacements) and 2 cassettes.

This is what the old & new ones looked like