Drive Chain Lifespan

[MTB SA]

How many kilometers did you get on your complete drive chain (chain, front chain ring and the cassette)before you had to replace it? Please indicate if it's MTB or road. 

Edited 20 hours ago by MTB SA
Correction

[Danielpoalses]

Ive got 16000 odd kms out of my MTB SX groupset with csixx front ring. 

[Sepia]

SLX chainring  -  more than 25 000kms

KMC/Sram chain - about 15 000kms

Cassette - about 8 000 (Cheapest used)

9sp MTB - I use oil on my drivetrain and clean often.  Seems to be working.

 

[Ozzie NL]

XX1 chain   ~3500 - 4000km

CSixx Chain ring ~5000km

XX1 cassette 12500km

[Ozzie NL]

XX1 chain   ~3500 - 4000km

CSixx Chain ring ~5000km

XX1 cassette 12500km

[Ozzie NL]

Excuses for double post

[ajnkzn]

11 hours ago, MTB SA said:

How many kilometers did you get on your complete drive chain (chain, front chain ring and the cassette)before you had to replace it? Please indicate if it's MTB or road. 

Sorry to be pedantic. Drivetrain. 

[MORNE]

Too many variables. So many ppl will claim getting 10 000+ out of a XX1 chain but im with @Ozzie NL, i manage about the same out of mine…around 4k of hard dirty mtbing km with regular cleaning. Then they hit 0.5. 
 

Conditions matter. Type of soil/dust, lube, cleaning, vertical climbing meters, weight, type of bike, type of riding, etc etc etc. Sure, you can say you got 15k km out of an entry level drivetrain but i guarantee you it was FUBAR 10k km ago and you just kept on riding it, that or you ride it on flat relatively clean surfaces. Which is fine, it’s your bike. Its better using all the worn parts together till they all die. Putting a new chain on worn everything else or visa versa will just make it all work worse. So if you commit to it, then fine.
 

Csixx chainrings also only really work right up 5k km of hard mtbing. They communicate this on their site too. You can obviously keep using it till it looks like a @Rouxenator one and something out of a Saw movie 😁. Will it work as good as new? No. Will it keep going. Yes.

Roady drivetrains last infinitely longer…obviously. i’ve killed SLX chains in 500km. The lower two cogs on shimano cassettes even faster. If killed XT and GX cassettes in about 5000km of mtb riding. Conversely, my drivetrain on my gravel bike never got replaced…it just kept going. (GRX 810, X01 chain with NX cassette) I have a vintage road bike with shimano 600 on it…god knows how many km that saw in its life, works perfectly.

im currently testing Shimano Linkglide, XX1 chain and csixx chainring. Cheap as chips (comparatively). So far so good.  Great performance, bullet proof. Im not particularly precious over it either. Basic maintenance only.

[Bike Dewing]

How long does a piece of string last.?🤷🏼‍♂️

some people dont clean their drive trains.. some people do.. and then some people take meticulous care of their drive train.. those will last the longest but still couldnt begin to tell you how long that might be🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

[Rouxenator]

I think the last one I had that was replaced on Friday lasted over 10,000km and it was an entry level Deore/6100 12speed upgrade kit. 

Thankfully it did not let me down on Durbie Dash but two days later the chain broke the first time and then a few more days later it went a second time. That is all the confirmation I need that it's done - there is no more meat on this bone. 

Question : should I alternate between chains on my new drive train in order to make it last longer or is the gains of that approach marginal?