Slight slip on turbo trainer bike - just a new chain needed?

[Dan Lotus]

Hi CC crew,

my ye olde turbo trainer bike, just at the weekend under reasonably high power (for me) slipped 2 or 3 times, it felt like a very minimal slip, but a slip all the same.

It's running 105 5700 10spd, but is using a zwift cog at the rear, all be it for Rouvy and TrainerRoad.
In all likelihood, the chain has probably been in use for a lot of hours.
This turbo, cog and chain have been running together with no issues for just over a year.
The chain is however quite a bit older, though I forget how old exactly - I do recall refreshing the chain and cassette a while back, but it might be as much as 3-4 years potentially.

Slightly annoyingly took my last new 10spd chain to Spain for my daughters bike earlier this year, but am pretty sure I have a few 11spd options knocking about.
Would I be safe to use an 11 spd chain, and or is that the most likely culprit?
I think I have one of those chain wear gauges somewhere, so if I can lay my hands on that, I suppose I should use that in the first instance.

I've no idea if the zwift cogs have reliability issues, or of course I suppose it would be the inner cog on my chainset - presumably just changing the chain is the obvious first step, but I was just unsure as to whether the 11spd chain would happily co-habit with the 5700 chainset.
I'm assuming the rear cog will be fine, as I think it is sold as accommodating a massive range of bikes on it.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Zwift cogs, if setup decently so the single sprocket lines up with the bike's small ring in a compact (need to find out if I should use middle or small ring if I ever put my triple ring Marasa on mine), should wear slower than with a cassette.

However, I have to be honest, I've possibly not lubed the 11-speed chain on my road that's been on mine as often as I should considering it's Muc Off dry lube. It sounded much better after lube application this last weekend!

I don't know for sure, but I would have thought you could use an 11-speed chain given the Zwift Cog, but perhaps it might not shift so well if you ever take that bike off the turbo to ride outdoors.

The few slips could be things happening with the turbo internals, I had them with my old Direto (which got a new belt after a few years use) and old Saris H3 (that only lasted ~2.5 years before electrics randomly died, but in fairness I was 90-95Kg most of this time instead of ~80Kg for the Direto's lifetime and using 100% trainer difficulty a lot of time), yet to notice them on my ~5 month old Jetblack Victory.

At some point soon, I'm thinking I will take my road bike off the Victory to have it more ready to ride over the summer, because I rode it far too little last summer and took the easy option of my gravel ebike all but a few times. It will be intresting to see how easily my Marasa takes to the Zwift Cog setup.

 

[Dan Lotus]

They are pretty flexible to be fair with that ratchet movement to gap them in or out, and I've set mine up on the inner cog, as I've always found that to be a more reliable setup that the bigger cog - though the bigger cog has it's advantages for Rouvy races!

I do lube the chain periodically, as I probably use it on average ~5 hours per week, and lubed it probably just last week in fact - not as much as I would do for an outdoors bike, and not as regularly, but I can soon hear when things are getting a little rattly.

I hadn't considered it could be the turbo - that would be annoying if it was, as it's only a smidge over a year old, and is a kickr move.
I'll have a google to see if it could be a 'kickr' thing.
It felt very mechanical, so like a chain slip, but I appreciate there's no way I can prove that - it wasn't under sprinting either, just a fairly low cadence, and something around 230 watts iirc.

No chance of this bike going back outdoors, it's been a dedicated turbo bike now for probably 10 years, and if truth be told is a tiny bit too big for me, but I have adapted the fit to suit indoors.

 

[HLaB]

Slightly annoyingly took my last new 10spd chain to Spain for my daughters bike earlier this year, but am pretty sure I have a few 11spd options knocking about.
Would I be safe to use an 11 spd chain, and or is that the most likely culprit?
I think I have one of those chain wear gauges somewhere, so if I can lay my hands on that, I suppose I should use that in the first instance.

Most of my bikes are 11spd but my commuter is 10spd and I use 11spd chain on all of them. 11spd chains are the same dimension on the inside as 10 spd chains, they (11spd) are just a little thinner on their plates so the outside dimension is narrower so they can fit 11 teeth cogs. 11sp chains work fine IME on a 10spd set up.

 

[Dan Lotus]

Most of my bikes are 11spd but my commuter is 10spd and I use 11spd chain on all of them. 11spd chains are the same dimension on the inside as 10 spd chains, they (11spd) are just a little thinner on their plates so the outside dimension is narrower so they can fit 11 teeth cogs. 11sp chains work fine IME on a 10spd set up.

awesome, thankyou, I'm not long in from the garage where I discovered three 6800 chains I bought some time ago after a tip off on the old BR bargains thread. IIRC they were from Ribble potentially or maybe Halfords, they are just in clear plastic bags, and were cheap (Perhaps a tenner a pop?), though I forget how much exactly.
The only downside is that they just come with a pin that needs to be wound back in, but I'm going to get some proper quicklinks instead - seem to be about £5 a pair.
Just ordered 2 pairs from woolyhatshop.