105 chain broken - hard done by?
Discussion
After 3000km on my commuter in 10 months I have just broken a chain
Yes its on the snotter but I have never, ever had a chain snap before
Its been looked after and cleaned and lubed regularly
Wear is showing at a whisker under 0.75%
My previous commuting chains ran for year after year using SRAM MTB chains at well over 1% wear before I replaced them
On my 'best' bikes I replace at between 0.75-1.0 mainly because Im likely to be further away from home if anything happens and use KNC
So Shimano 105 snapping at under 0.75. Fair or not?
I may go back to SRAM for the replacement
And remember kids - always carry a magic link
Cheers
I went through a spate of snapping chains. It turned out to be my chain-tool technique rather than the chains. When you push a pin through on a chain you basically destroy the plate and make a weak point. This makes it hard to fit a shimano chain safely. These days I always buy KMC chains, discarding the killed plate and extra links (or turn them into cufflinks) and use the bundled quicklink to join. I have to think carefully about cutting the chain cautiously, erring on the long side. Cut it too short and it's hard to lengthen it again without creating a weak point.
I wouldn't get too hung up about a 3000km chain that snapped unless I knew who fitted it and exactly how. Even then, I do regard chains as consumables.
I wouldn't get too hung up about a 3000km chain that snapped unless I knew who fitted it and exactly how. Even then, I do regard chains as consumables.
Over all the years I've ridden bikes I've had only three chains 'snap'. All different brands too, and for different reasons.
A SRAM 8-speed chain on a MTB just gave up and spat out a joining pin in the middle of nowhere. I managed to rejoin it using a large flint as a hammer and the crank arm as an anvil. That was after only about 300 miles.
Then came a disaster, where the chain was a symptom of the bad day I was having, not the cause. A twenty year old rear mech which had seen a hard life just threw itself into the rear wheel of my steel road bike, badly bending the (non replaceable) gear hanger. Again I limped it home, this time after being lent some tools and a dry garage to make repairs. That chain was Shimano 8-speed, and it eventually broke three times in three places, after it was badly twisted and involved in breaking a couple of spokes. I used up my two spare quick-links but fortunately the third failure came only half a mile from home so I trudged in on Shanks' pony.
A KMC X10 chain failure after only 265 miles ruined my first race on a brand new MTB. That one was the quick-ink letting go, and again I had no spare links. Schoolboy error due to replacing an 8-speed triple with a 10-speed double. I had links in my kit, just the wrong size. Could have been a poorly fitted quick-link, or could have been me opening it then re-using it. Who knows?
What I have noticed though is that with me, if a chain is going to snap, then it's likely to do it early in it's life. To put it into perspective though, two of those failures occurred in the last four years (since I joined Strava). So 17,000 miles done. And then before that only one failure in 25 years and tens of thousands of miles, many of them on excessively worn chains.
And as for "Hard done by?" Quite possibly, yes. But unless you can point to an obvious material or manufacturing fault, you're not likely to get anywhere with trying to return for a refund or replacement. I've just bought another freehub body. The fourth this bike will have had in 3,000 miles. Another wear component, like a chain, that it'd be hard to prove had failed through anything other than normal wear & tear. All I can advise is to switch to Wippermann Connex 'quick links' for reliable opening and reclosing genuinely tool free unlike the KMC/SRAM garbage. But I also keep all my old, used 'quick links' in with my puncture repair kit as emergency spares. I'll happily use KMC for this purpose, but if I'm going to want to open a chain to remove it for cleaning then the Connex links are the ones to have.
A SRAM 8-speed chain on a MTB just gave up and spat out a joining pin in the middle of nowhere. I managed to rejoin it using a large flint as a hammer and the crank arm as an anvil. That was after only about 300 miles.
Then came a disaster, where the chain was a symptom of the bad day I was having, not the cause. A twenty year old rear mech which had seen a hard life just threw itself into the rear wheel of my steel road bike, badly bending the (non replaceable) gear hanger. Again I limped it home, this time after being lent some tools and a dry garage to make repairs. That chain was Shimano 8-speed, and it eventually broke three times in three places, after it was badly twisted and involved in breaking a couple of spokes. I used up my two spare quick-links but fortunately the third failure came only half a mile from home so I trudged in on Shanks' pony.
A KMC X10 chain failure after only 265 miles ruined my first race on a brand new MTB. That one was the quick-ink letting go, and again I had no spare links. Schoolboy error due to replacing an 8-speed triple with a 10-speed double. I had links in my kit, just the wrong size. Could have been a poorly fitted quick-link, or could have been me opening it then re-using it. Who knows?
What I have noticed though is that with me, if a chain is going to snap, then it's likely to do it early in it's life. To put it into perspective though, two of those failures occurred in the last four years (since I joined Strava). So 17,000 miles done. And then before that only one failure in 25 years and tens of thousands of miles, many of them on excessively worn chains.
And as for "Hard done by?" Quite possibly, yes. But unless you can point to an obvious material or manufacturing fault, you're not likely to get anywhere with trying to return for a refund or replacement. I've just bought another freehub body. The fourth this bike will have had in 3,000 miles. Another wear component, like a chain, that it'd be hard to prove had failed through anything other than normal wear & tear. All I can advise is to switch to Wippermann Connex 'quick links' for reliable opening and reclosing genuinely tool free unlike the KMC/SRAM garbage. But I also keep all my old, used 'quick links' in with my puncture repair kit as emergency spares. I'll happily use KMC for this purpose, but if I'm going to want to open a chain to remove it for cleaning then the Connex links are the ones to have.
I've snapped quite a few, at least 5/6 over the past 3 years.
Funnily enough, when I was nearly 30 stone I snapped them regularly, now I'm nearer 20 stone not so often.
There's another big lump near me that rides a road bike and he had an OTB moment when his chain snapped, busted his shoulder and scraped his face up pretty badly.
The 12 speed MTB chain I was looking at last week looked very thin, surely they don't have the strength of the old school 8/9/10 speed chains?
Funnily enough, when I was nearly 30 stone I snapped them regularly, now I'm nearer 20 stone not so often.
There's another big lump near me that rides a road bike and he had an OTB moment when his chain snapped, busted his shoulder and scraped his face up pretty badly.
The 12 speed MTB chain I was looking at last week looked very thin, surely they don't have the strength of the old school 8/9/10 speed chains?
OP here
I have the legs of a sparrow which helps explain why this has never happened before
Whilst Im diligent with my best road kit the commuter only gets a new chain and cassette when the shifting deteriorates which is well past a 1% stretch
Its surely coincidence that this was my first ever 11 speed groupset................
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