Chain Failure

Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I discovered it when the chain dropped under light pedaling.
Thought "geeze, that thing wasn't loose enough to do that...
let's take a look..." and there it was. Not quite as nasty as
the pic bc at that point I figured maybe I could nurse it home
with really light pedaling... but no-go and the pic shows it
after it dropped the second time.

Yeah, the chain overall is pretty nasty - but that's bc I ran out
of ProLink a few months ago and got the bright idea of lubing it
with motor oil. Live and learn....

This chain not unduly worn per the Rohloff chain gauge I put on
it and it has never seen a chain tool... ever.

It was on my SS, so there was no possibility of it's having been
weakened by a der crash and the rear cog is far enough away from
the stay that there's no possibility of it having been wedged.

I've got a theory, but don't want to pollute the answer space
yet.
--
Pete Cresswell

1 )solar wind

2) dirt

3) lack of correct maintenance

On Feb 6, 6:54*am, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I discovered it when the chain dropped under light pedaling.
Thought "geeze, that thing wasn't loose enough to do that...
let's take a look..." * and there it was. *Not quite as nasty as
the pic bc at that point I figured maybe I could nurse it home
with really light pedaling... but no-go and the pic shows it
after it dropped the second time.

Yeah, the chain overall is pretty nasty - but that's bc I ran out
of ProLink a few months ago and got the bright idea of lubing it
with motor oil. * Live and learn....

This chain not unduly worn per the Rohloff chain gauge I put on
it and it has never seen a chain tool... ever.

It was on my SS, so there was no possibility of it's having been
weakened by a der crash and the rear cog is far enough away from
the stay that there's no possibility of it having been wedged.

I've got a theory, but don't want to pollute the answer space
yet.

I doubt it has anything to do with your choice of lubricant -- I use
motor oil, along with whatever slippery substance I have sitting
around, and it has never caused a link plate to break. It looks like
a crack propagated. The crack may have been from a manufacturing flaw
or trauma when the pin was assembled in to the plate (just guessing).
Side loads generally bend the plate off the pin and don't break it, at
least in my experience. You would have to expose the chain to some
nasty life threatening environmental conditions before it would become
brittle. -- Jay Beattie.

On Feb 6, 6:54 am, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c


That one side was busted for a while.

snip

A flaw in the original chain.

Lack of lube and cleaning wears the pins leading to chain stretch, not the side
plates.

I never lube mine unless it's gotten wet, in which case it's wd40 followed by
3-in-1, but any oil works. Typically they last until it's necessary to replace
the chainwheel and cogs, and then I replace them all.

A hardly-oiled chain gets less dirty, for what that's worth.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Feb 6, 9:54*am, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I discovered it when the chain dropped under light pedaling.
Thought "geeze, that thing wasn't loose enough to do that...
let's take a look..." * and there it was. *Not quite as nasty as
the pic bc at that point I figured maybe I could nurse it home
with really light pedaling... but no-go and the pic shows it
after it dropped the second time.

Yeah, the chain overall is pretty nasty - but that's bc I ran out
of ProLink a few months ago and got the bright idea of lubing it
with motor oil. * Live and learn....

This chain not unduly worn per the Rohloff chain gauge I put on
it and it has never seen a chain tool... ever.

It was on my SS, so there was no possibility of it's having been
weakened by a der crash and the rear cog is far enough away from
the stay that there's no possibility of it having been wedged.

I've got a theory, but don't want to pollute the answer space
yet.

Any chance the chain took a hit from the side?

A friend once borrowed my bike, rode into some deep sand (which
brought him to a sudden halt), and managed to stand on the side of the
rear wheel spokes while trying to keep himself upright. If I hadn't
seen it happen, I might not have diagnosed my spoke problems.

- Frank Krygowski

On 07/02/12 01:54, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I discovered it when the chain dropped under light pedaling.
Thought "geeze, that thing wasn't loose enough to do that...
let's take a look..." and there it was. Not quite as nasty as
the pic bc at that point I figured maybe I could nurse it home
with really light pedaling... but no-go and the pic shows it
after it dropped the second time.

Yeah, the chain overall is pretty nasty - but that's bc I ran out
of ProLink a few months ago and got the bright idea of lubing it
with motor oil. Live and learn....

This chain not unduly worn per the Rohloff chain gauge I put on
it and it has never seen a chain tool... ever.

It was on my SS, so there was no possibility of it's having been
weakened by a der crash and the rear cog is far enough away from
the stay that there's no possibility of it having been wedged.

I've got a theory, but don't want to pollute the answer space
yet.

It looks as though the lower half has been broken for a long time,
judging by the black muck over the broken section, where as the top half
is freshly broken, with no black muck on it.

It looks to be a faulty chain.

--
JS.

OIAW I clod the front deray on muh Redline, jamming chain against
teeth....
and are all links created equal ? Off course for Cresswell to have one
is astronomical odds....
If yawl ride long mileages in semi dirt....anything can wear out as
this is non maintenance...

yawl have snow then thaw with grit accumulation ? not good for lungs
either.
terminal spring pnemonia.

did Sesame Street die during spring snow melt ?

On 07/02/12 07:45, Andreas Oehler wrote:
Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:54:46 -0500, (PeteCresswell):

Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I had similar failures in the last Winters. Two middle class Shimano
chains and one from Wippermann:
http://velo.dyndns.eu/bilder/connex-riss.jpg

In all cases the chains had been used on heavily salted roads for weaks
without cleaning. Modern de-icing salts are a nasty high corrosive mixture
- which might induce cracks. The other bikes the family uses with similar
chains on similar roads had no problems with the chain - but they all use
chain cases:
http://velo.dyndns.eu/bilder/chaingl...penherbst1.jpg

Could rust between the pin and side plate swell and cause the side plate
to crack?

Would a stainless steel chain survive better? Or is the grade of
stainless not sufficient to resist that kind of corrosion?

--
JS.

On 6 feb, 15:54, "(PeteCresswell)" wrote:
Anybody want to speculate on the cause of this one?

http://tinyurl.com/6u6qm6c

I discovered it when the chain dropped under light pedaling.
Thought "geeze, that thing wasn't loose enough to do that...
let's take a look..." * and there it was. *Not quite as nasty as
the pic bc at that point I figured maybe I could nurse it home
with really light pedaling... but no-go and the pic shows it
after it dropped the second time.

Yeah, the chain overall is pretty nasty - but that's bc I ran out
of ProLink a few months ago and got the bright idea of lubing it
with motor oil. * Live and learn....

This chain not unduly worn per the Rohloff chain gauge I put on
it and it has never seen a chain tool... ever.

It was on my SS, so there was no possibility of it's having been
weakened by a der crash and the rear cog is far enough away from
the stay that there's no possibility of it having been wedged.

I've got a theory, but don't want to pollute the answer space
yet.
--
Pete Cresswell

Operator error! ;-)

Lou