Carl Walichnowski
Active Member
Ok that was informative as far as proper sizing but what do you think about the quality of the two chains? Basically which one would you choose if you had both readily available? Thanks!
Need a bit of input please!?
- Thread starter Carl Walichnowski
- Start date
Frankenstein
Deceased - Frankenstein 1991 - 2018
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Well... Both are equal in quality, so the thickest chain wins. Both probably come from the same area, right next to the world's only supply of zippers, based in homeland China.
Now in order to prevent flaming micro-analysts of chain qualitys from blowing up our thread, I'll say that you should research on your own what chain you want or need. 410 chain is wider, 415 even more so. Bla bla bla basically there's a billion types of chain and they are all equally a pain in the ass to work with and use.
At the minimum you want 2 things at all times. Alignment and lube. Without those 2 things the night will be a failure and you may as well hit the couch, especially without lube. Lube. Anyways enough of your dirty mindedness, the best and most expensive chains will always fail before the cheap ones if the cheap are aligned and lubricated correctly and the best are lacking on deep penetration of the lube and have to roll all over a wiggly bent unaligned sprocket. Wiggly unlubricated parts. Ha.
So, I've seen all kinds of failures, and seen lots of bikes with next to no chain problems. And I had my own share of each. Make sure the chain has plenty of grease INSIDE the chain, when you put a sprocket on the rear wheel, make sure it's nicely trued, no changing in angle as the wheel spins, if you have thin spokes then you'll probably get flex anyways, look into hub adapters to remedy this. Make sure chain tension is proper. Make sure the sprockets are aligned and in good shape.
That's about it. I can't say I've seen too many failures due to chains being crap quality necessarily, because with further looking into it it's always user error, bad assembly of the chain, no/lacking lube, flexing or badly aligned sprockets, maladjusted tensioners, that stuff.
Also note that chain stretch is a rather sucky term, it leads too many people (including myself at first) to believe that the metal litteraly stretches, which means cheaper metal stretches more. Reality is that a chain doesn't "stretch" as much as it actually wears away. The pins and rollers get worn down and the pin the was 3mm thick is now only 2mm thick where the chain was pressing on it and wearing it away. That means that link becomes 1mm longer because there's 1mm less material holding it back. Across 50 links your looking at 50mm or about 2 inches stretch, so that would be a very badly stretched chain.
Keeping lube inside those places, where chain sides meet the pins will prevent that stretch longer, by keeping the chain from wearing. I like using a special combination of waxes for my chains, and I melt the wax down and dip my chains in it and let them get all hot and bothered, so that way the wax makes its way into all the little spots. You can do the same with grease, but use a double boiler so you don't blow yourself up with hot boiling grease.
That's my 2 cents.
http://www.kartchain.com/kart-chain-reviews/
Now in order to prevent flaming micro-analysts of chain qualitys from blowing up our thread, I'll say that you should research on your own what chain you want or need. 410 chain is wider, 415 even more so. Bla bla bla basically there's a billion types of chain and they are all equally a pain in the ass to work with and use.
At the minimum you want 2 things at all times. Alignment and lube. Without those 2 things the night will be a failure and you may as well hit the couch, especially without lube. Lube. Anyways enough of your dirty mindedness, the best and most expensive chains will always fail before the cheap ones if the cheap are aligned and lubricated correctly and the best are lacking on deep penetration of the lube and have to roll all over a wiggly bent unaligned sprocket. Wiggly unlubricated parts. Ha.
So, I've seen all kinds of failures, and seen lots of bikes with next to no chain problems. And I had my own share of each. Make sure the chain has plenty of grease INSIDE the chain, when you put a sprocket on the rear wheel, make sure it's nicely trued, no changing in angle as the wheel spins, if you have thin spokes then you'll probably get flex anyways, look into hub adapters to remedy this. Make sure chain tension is proper. Make sure the sprockets are aligned and in good shape.
That's about it. I can't say I've seen too many failures due to chains being crap quality necessarily, because with further looking into it it's always user error, bad assembly of the chain, no/lacking lube, flexing or badly aligned sprockets, maladjusted tensioners, that stuff.
Also note that chain stretch is a rather sucky term, it leads too many people (including myself at first) to believe that the metal litteraly stretches, which means cheaper metal stretches more. Reality is that a chain doesn't "stretch" as much as it actually wears away. The pins and rollers get worn down and the pin the was 3mm thick is now only 2mm thick where the chain was pressing on it and wearing it away. That means that link becomes 1mm longer because there's 1mm less material holding it back. Across 50 links your looking at 50mm or about 2 inches stretch, so that would be a very badly stretched chain.
Keeping lube inside those places, where chain sides meet the pins will prevent that stretch longer, by keeping the chain from wearing. I like using a special combination of waxes for my chains, and I melt the wax down and dip my chains in it and let them get all hot and bothered, so that way the wax makes its way into all the little spots. You can do the same with grease, but use a double boiler so you don't blow yourself up with hot boiling grease.
That's my 2 cents.
http://www.kartchain.com/kart-chain-reviews/
Carl Walichnowski
Active Member
Great to know. I have both the 41 & the 415 so I wasn't sure which to use on my build. I also recently got the hub adapter you suggested so I'm thinking the 41 will go on this weekend. Thanks for the input!
