Snapped Chain

[jonny jeez]

Chitty's chain snapped this morning.

Poor old girl.

So, other than a new chain, what should I look at changing. I feel chitty is due a little belated TLC

 

[GilesM]

Chitty's chain snapped this morning.

Poor old girl.

So, other than a new chain, what should I look at changing. I feel chitty is due a little belated TLC

If the chain is well worn, then I would replace the rear cassette and see how that goes, if it still runs rough after that have a look at the chain rings as well, it all depends how worn all of the parts are.

 

[John the Monkey]

What's your normal maintenance routine?

If the chain's worn enough to snap, I suspect your cassette has had it too (assuming a geared bike). May be worth looking at the chainrings too.

Definitely have a look at gear & brake cables - if they're rusty & DEFINITELY if they're fraying, change them. (Look around the clamp and the "plum" or whatever it's called at the lever end). Check your outers for wear (they should be ok though).

(Monkey Tip: fibrax do nice, teflon coated inner cables that work great - my LBS sell me the brake cables for tandems, which are easily long enough to provide one road bike brake cable & one ATB brake cable).

Check your brake blocks for excessive wear & change if necessary. Kool Stop salmon will imporve braking & be kinder to the rims, although they wear more quickly.

Less urgently, whip your pedals off, grease the threads & put back on. Take out your seatpost, grease it, and put back in. check your headset for play & adjust if necessary - consider giving the fork steerer a bit of grease if it's dry.

That should do to be going on with...

 

[jonny jeez]

What's your normal maintenance routine?

...

what's a "maintenance routine?"


only kidding.

I've popped the pedals off and greased them up in the past, and generally scrub out the rear cassette and re-lube with wet lube every week or so.

I tweak the rear meck to try and find the right sweet spot but still get trouble finding top gear, so either my gear cables or rear mech are in need of a little something.

Brake blocks are changed every 3 or 4 months (I ride around 500-600 miles a month)

I am guessing I need to look at the rear cassette, rear mech and possibly the front chain set (possibly the entire crank set as I get a little "creaking" at times")

hoping a new chain and cassette will help for now though...what do you think?

 

[John the Monkey]

only kidding.

I've popped the pedals off and greased them up in the past, and generally scrub out the rear cassette and re-lube with wet lube every week or so.

You don't need to lube a cassette - you mean lubing the chain, right?

I tweak the rear meck to try and find the right sweet spot but still get trouble finding top gear, so either my gear cables or rear mech are in need of a little something.

There are three adjustments to worry about here;
Top Limit
Low Limit
Tension

If the mech isn't travelling far enough (with cable unclamped, it should sit over the smallest sprocket, pulling the clamped cable as hard as you can should move it over but no further than the largest) it's the limits that need setting.

If the shifter does not move the mech to the larger sprockets smoothly it's the tension.

If the shifter does not move the mech to the smaller sprockets smoothly that's friction in the cable/pivot points. (Remove the cable from the cable guides, lube with a drop of lightish chain oil between finger & thumb (weldtite's cheap stuff is fine) make sure to do the bits covered by the outers - slide the outers along to do this. Lube pivot points with a squirt of GT85.

I am guessing I need to look at the rear cassette, rear mech and possibly the front chain set (possibly the entire crank set as I get a little "creaking" at times")

Creaking could be anything from bottom bracket to seat post - think about when it happens (while pedalling, while riding on uneven surfaces &c).

I think you almost certainly need a new cassette. If you've never checked your brake cables over those 2,000 miles, now's the time.

 

[GilesM]

I am guessing I need to look at the rear cassette, rear mech and possibly the front chain set (possibly the entire crank set as I get a little "creaking" at times")

hoping a new chain and cassette will help for now though...what do you think?

Do you mainly ride on one of the chainrings, if so then it may just be one ring that needs replacing, for example my mtbs I mainly use the middle ring, the last time I replaced the chain and cassette the new chain was very rough on the middle ring but the other two were fine, so I just replaced the middle ring and everything worked fine.

 

[jonny jeez]

You don't need to lube a cassette - you mean lubing the chain, right?

.

Yes, I lube the whole cassette and yes (before you ask), it sprays a whole load of oil over the rear tyre...I guess I shouldn't then

lesson 1 learnt, thanks

Lesson 2, well not really a lesson, I've set the upper and lower limiters and the mech has room to move/sit in the correct position.

but when I select top gear, it just wont budge the extra 3mm to drop onto the correct gear, if I give it a tiny push with a finger, it drops on. but no amount of pulling on the gears (gripshift) tugs it over enough, even tho there is plenty of space on the limiter.

In fact when I adjust for more top end space the chain de-rails

all a bit academic now as the cassette will be swapped, but I am keen to understand why this occurs

GILESM

yes I mainly, almost always live on the large cog, so only use 7 gears on my entire commute.

Come to think of it I cant recall the last time I used my left hand gear controller (since giving up MTBing).

so I will look at replacing that ring only, thanks good hint

 

[02GF74]

but when I select top gear, it just wont budge the extra 3mm to drop onto the correct gear, if I give it a tiny push with a finger, it drops on. but no amount of pulling on the gears (gripshift) tugs it over enough, even tho there is plenty of space on the limiter.

top gear - you mean the smallest sprocket on the cassete?

the spring in the rear mech is becoming weaker - i had this and replace when the mech would change down to the lower 2 sprockets. not much you can do unles you buy new.

 

[jonny jeez]

top gear - you mean the smallest sprocket on the cassete?

the spring in the rear mech is becoming weaker - i had this and replace when the mech would change down to the lower 2 sprockets. not much you can do unles you buy new.

Bugger, I thought as much.

LBS quoting £130 for new chain set, rear cassette, chain, gear and brake cables (inc labour). seems pretty cheap....will need to confirm components with them

thinking of upgrading the chainset to a crank and thought about going for caliper brakes but dont really want to change my levers, so will see what the new cables offer in terms of stoppy-ness