Cassettes & Chains, a greater e-bike consumable than brake pads and tyres?

[Kilham5]

2200 off-road miles on my Whyte, and disappointingly, the third SRAM XG-1150 cassette is done.

So in that nine months and 2200 miles

3 cassettes £300
4 chains £50
1 chainring £25
2 rear tyres £100
1 front tyre £50
4 pairs brake pads £50

Total £575
So 0.26p/mile, or £8 to £10 per average ride.

And that is before we throw in copious amounts of lube, cleaner, tyre sealant, leccy and the depreciation on the bike itself

Since the first chain and cassette replacement I have cleaned and lubed after "every" ride, and in my experience makes only a marginal difference to the longevity of the drivetrain. The wear is unsurprisingly spread in the lower half of the cassette, but not the smallest cogs.
Derailleur, including B gap is spot on.

My average ride is 30 to 40 miles in all weathers on mixed Yorkshire terrain
Mostly in Eco, or Tour, occasionally in EMTB, never in Turbo.

Thoroughly enjoyable, but not cheap.

I will see how this compares to the mileage / wear on the new 1x12 XT hardtail pushbike, that is swiftly raking up miles.

In comparison, I can only remember changing the cassette twice on my old 3x9 XT / XTR equipped hardtail in 18 years and stellar mileage.

In a Terry Wogan voice... "Is it me ?"


The last bit won't mean a thing unless your a UK based old fart like me.

 

[Mteam]

Could you try a smaller front chain ring (or are you saying you're wearing the small cogs, in which case try a bigger Chainring) and see if it spreads the wear across more of the cassette due to the lower overall gearing making you use the higher gears (smaller cogs) more.

Also - you can get 4 sets of brake pads for way less than 50 quid if you go aftermarket, I find uberbike pads decent.

I just finished off my first chain at 400 miles, put a new one in and the cassette still seems to work OK with the new chain, so hoping I can get 2 or 3 chains per new. Cassette.

 

[R120]

No its not you, EMTB's go though components at an accelerated rate, though there is quite a variance between members as to how quickly parts wear out - if you ride the bike in all conditions and throughout the winter then they are definitely heavy on drivetrain IMO, not matter how well you look after it. I put this down in my case to the fact that the EMTB actually makes riding in crap conditions a lot easier and more fun, so I tend to take the bike out on days I wouldnt consider my normal MTB.

 

[Link]

it's a interesting point, clearly the load on the chain etc will be much higher on a Emtb, and it does ask the question if a cheaper 10sp setup for example would be better. @Rob Rides EMTB did a video with a chap with some custom EMTBs and he raised the point that 10speed for example would be enough. I tend to agree, can't say i would ever need the biggest gear, or even the couple below that. Unless of course i have an issue whilst out riding with the motor etc and need to pedal back under my own steam only, in which case the biggest gear might be a god-send.

A 10 speed would offer a wider and more wear resistant chain, also assume the cassette sprockets themselves would be thicker, again more wear resistant

 

[Link]

No its not you, EMTB's go though components at an accelerated rate, though there is quite a variance between members as to how quickly parts wear out - if you ride the bike in all conditions and throughout the winter then they are definitely heavy on drivetrain IMO, not matter how well you look after it. I put this down in my case to the fact that the EMTB actually makes riding in crap conditions a lot easier and more fun, so I tend to take the bike out on days I wouldnt consider my normal MTB.

totally agree with this, the conditions you can power through on a Emtb are totally different from a analogue bike, the sort of conditions you would just not bother with on a anaglue you can power through. I had a muddy ride the other day(only second ride on a emtb) and was blown away with the way i would power up everything even in the gloop. i felt sorry for the chain etc !, i could hear it grinding itself to bits. On my other mtbs i would have not bothered and turned it into a road ride and headed home

 

[Link]

i am not sure about the hub, but def the shifter, i think a derailleur would be ok as the jocky wheels are standard, just depends if the hub/wheel will take 10 speed, maybe there is a way to space it. You def could not go 10sp hub to 12speed cassette, but not sure if there is a way to go the other way

 

[Zimmerframe]

women with hand bags. I just
Like having a pile of them.

You like to have a pile of women with hand bags ? Don't they sell racking or something to keep things tidier or more accessible ?

 

[Gary]

In a Terry Wogan voice... "Is it me ?"

In a Scottish accent "Aye, sortay"

I get around 2800-3000miles per drivetrain. That's
Cassette £25
Chain £10
Chainring £8
Replacing the lot when it starts to slip in the smaller sprockets
Pads last me at least 2200miles rear 3000+ miles front.
2x pairs cost £10
Tyres last me at least 2200miles rear, 3000+ miles front
£25 for a DHF, £20 SS

So less than £100 for greater mileage than you.
I'm not going to work out the cost per ride as it's pointless but I'm spending less than 20% of your running costs.

This may be down to many reasons. Partly the rider and partly your component/parts choices

Rider:

• brake less
• change gear more smoothly
• ride shorter distances per ride
• ride in drier firmer conditions eg. in winter ride more trail centres and well built trails with good drainage and less natural bogs,
• Dig/repair trails
• be more savy with replacement parts purchases and prices
• if you're heavy/unfit. make a change to that

Components

• Choose harder compound tyres - they'll obvoiusly last far longer - You're not racing so you don't need DH race tyre compounds.
• stop using expensive wide ratio cassettes - chain wrap on them is terrible and they slip under load/wear sooner because of it
• you should be able to use a higher gearing range than your normal mtb - you have a motor
• Never use 9 or 10t cassettes
• stop using expensive chainrings - and when worn change chainring with cassette - fitting a new chain on a worn chainring increases chain wear rate
• if you aren't already doing so, use sintered pads

B-Tension position and the resultant smaller chainwrap in the smallest sprockets is one of the reasons for wide range cassettes slipping prematurely when worn, don't blindly set it to the manufacturers guidelines. wind it in for absolute max chainwrap on your smallest sprocket that still allows the chain to freely shift up and down the largest sprocket. and do so when the bike is at sag point. (unless you change gear in the air)

When anyone mentions "depreciation" on a pushbike it makes me sigh. Terry Wogan sighed a lot too. You have to remember your bike is just an expensive toy. You can't even pretend it's a sport like so many deluded middle aged men do with their biking hobby. Either way It's certainly never going to be an investment. So as with all playthings, spend what you can afford, enjoy playing on it, look after it until you're bored of it and don't moan about the cost of it.

FWIW I get through way more Ebike motors than drivetrains. But your yorkshire wallet will be glad to know they're free.

 

[ggx]

Supose we all have diferent experiences. I´ve already change several break pads (and bikes ), but no chain or cassete until now.

 

[Gary]

Shorter rides, so more time cleaning and lubing, relative to riding. mmm

Dude. my entire cleaning and lubing time is 5 minutes.
the process is this
wet whole bike with HOT water hose removing the largest mud deposits (OMG THINK OF THE BILLS!?1!11)
squirt washing up liquid in bucket (Don't worry it's a savers brand at 50p per bottle)
Fill bucket while using soapy brush and sponge on whole bike.
scrub chain/cassette/rings/wheels with stiff brush
rinse.
Dry chain with towel (allen key in the chainring bolt to allow backpedalling.
lube. (£3.99 bottle of wet lube - lasts about 6 wet months of daily riding)
wipe down chain removing excess lube. (I know it'll be tempting but do not rinse out the rag back into the bottle)

*Let the bike dry and occasionally give the frame/forks/rims a wide down with a clean rag sprayed with GT85

Not my bag

I'm eternally saddened at your selfishness
But from a tight Ebiker. what did I expect

Change the XD freehub? and run what?

Yeah. change it to HG, run Deore 10spd
initial cost will include mech/shifter but after that your costs will plummet
Use a SRAM chain though PC1110 are fine

 

[Gary]

I'm just messin wiv ya about the trail building...

 

[Gary]

while you’re at it can you do a cost per ride for women, Please?

I'd struggle to count the number of women. Nevermind how many times or what each of them spent on me.

 

[Rosemount]

Out on a group ride . Rode through sand the other day .
Drive train started making grinding noises . I pulled up at an intersection and started inspecting the chain / cassette / derailleur .
Then another guy pulls up and is doing the same . By the 3rd guy I new it wasn`t just me .

I thought about the grit making its way into the pins and rollers of the chain . Its all good to say clean the chain . How do you release the grit from the pin - roller interface with out a sonic cleaner ?
I used turps in a jar and shook it ...

 

[Gary]

once it's degreadsed and dry you could always use a compressor and airline to try and blow any sand out

Don't have a compressor/airline?

Blow

no... harder

 

[DrStupid]

it's a interesting point, clearly the load on the chain etc will be much higher on a Emtb, and it does ask the question if a cheaper 10sp setup for example would be better. @Rob Rides EMTB did a video with a chap with some custom EMTBs and he raised the point that 10speed for example would be enough. I tend to agree, can't say i would ever need the biggest gear, or even the couple below that. Unless of course i have an issue whilst out riding with the motor etc and need to pedal back under my own steam only, in which case the biggest gear might be a god-send.

A 10 speed would offer a wider and more wear resistant chain, also assume the cassette sprockets themselves would be thicker, again more wear resistant

Unfortunately the 10 speeds I have tested don't last any longer than the 11 speeds.

My experience is the 10 speed works better through adverse conditions, like mud and snow jamming up the cogs, but the cassettes and chains wear maybe even faster than the 11 speeds I've used.

The longest lasting system in my short experience is a 10 speed deore cassette using a Connex-11Se chain. The cassette was shot before the chain stretched to .5% though.

 

[Gary]

You've missed the point.
replacing the cassette from an 11 (or 12) speed drivetrain is TWICE to TEN TIMES the cost of a 10 speed cassette.
and folk moan about having to shell out for drivetrain parts more than once a year

Personally, I only use closer ratio cassettes (11-36 at most) and short cage mechs. because of this shifting is FAR smoother, chain wrap is FAR greater. and cassette life is increased over wider ratio 11 speed cassettes. Add in a stupid 10t or lower sprocket and 11spd is even worse
YMMV

 

[The EMF]

2200 off-road miles on my Whyte, and disappointingly, the third SRAM XG-1150 cassette is done.

So in that nine months and 2200 miles

3 cassettes £300
4 chains £50
1 chainring £25
2 rear tyres £100
1 front tyre £50
4 pairs brake pads £50

Total £575
So 0.26p/mile, or £8 to £10 per average ride.

And that is before we throw in copious amounts of lube, cleaner, tyre sealant, leccy and the depreciation on the bike itself

Since the first chain and cassette replacement I have cleaned and lubed after "every" ride, and in my experience makes only a marginal difference to the longevity of the drivetrain. The wear is unsurprisingly spread in the lower half of the cassette, but not the smallest cogs.
Derailleur, including B gap is spot on.

My average ride is 30 to 40 miles in all weathers on mixed Yorkshire terrain
Mostly in Eco, or Tour, occasionally in EMTB, never in Turbo.

Thoroughly enjoyable, but not cheap.

I will see how this compares to the mileage / wear on the new 1x12 XT hardtail pushbike, that is swiftly raking up miles.

In comparison, I can only remember changing the cassette twice on my old 3x9 XT / XTR equipped hardtail in 18 years and stellar mileage.

In a Terry Wogan voice... "Is it me ?"


The last bit won't mean a thing unless your a UK based old fart like me.

Spend more on ya bike coz in my case it’s less for the care home ?

 

[Zimmerframe]

Wouldn’t be hard to generalize.
18-25 single 2 years. Not single 5 years
Single ride rate - 3 to 5 a month
Not single ride rate 3x a day
So single was 96x
Not single was 5,475x.
cost would have been income x years due to the reality that in early 20s life revolves around that and everything is for that.
So say you made 490k in those 7 years. And had it 5,500 times. That’s about $90 a pop!!!!

OK, so if we extrapolate your information and make some presumptions ..

For the sake of argument and to make the calculations easy, we'll specify you with 21cm's of horizontal decoration.

As a fit bloke who rides an SL, we'll presume you're a bit of a wood pecker, so we'll work on an average of 120 strokes per minute.

Therefore, if we take your 21 cm's, * 120 SPM *2 (in and out), that gives us 50 linear meters a minute.

We'll presume you enjoy your sport but will, after a period of time, have waning concentration and be thinking about a nice cool beer. Leading us to another assumption of 30 minutes and giving us a grand total of 1512 meters of decorative travel or 1.5km's per ride.

Taking @Kilham5's numbers of 26 pence a Mile and converting that to cents and KM's gives us 21c / KM .

Taking @BAMBAMODA's numbers, gives us a final figure of $60 / KM .

In conclusion, if you ride like @Kilham5 and RIDE like @BAMBAMODA then a Lady works out at 286 times more expensive per KM than an EMTB. Proving that EMTB, no matter how you do it, is an incredibly economical hobby for anyone to have.

If any of your figures average out at less than @BAMBAMODA then having an EMTB only becomes even more economical on a comparative basis.

If your numbers are higher than @BAMBAMODA then you're well screwed.

 

[Gary]

'kin amateurs

 

[Zimmerframe]

'kin amateurs

OK, you might be closer to financial parity ... but this just explains why you like your EMTB less than the rest of us !

 

[Gary]

Who says I like it less?
I prefer normal bikes. But I love more types of bike than most. Some would say I'm greedy. And not just with bikes

 

[Gary]

Kin means family here too.
The apostrophe was for the missing "F" and "U"

 

[Gary]

So by chance....... are ‘fat tires’ your most preferred bike? Just wondering. Have a hunch about something.

Nope. I'm really not a fan of riding fat "bikes" ... Its not an ignorant prejudice though.. Had more than enough shots of fatties to know where my own preferences lie ?

 

[Cyclopath1000]

The woman vs ebike comparison needs to in addition consider the comparative value at trade in...for an ebike the final transaction if still running is X x paid price...where X is lest that 1...the cost of the woman though if purchased or equivalent accrues, it's initial price is the cost of a certificate , perhaps a party, and maybe a nice trip..maybe even involving an ebike or even two.. BUT...termination of the purchase agreement will easily demonstrate that said possession has increased in relative value and you will probably be paying to get rid of the non functioning equipment for a major premium! In fact It might easily exceed eye or xx1 etc EXECUTED IN 22K GOLD.

 

[seamarsh]

2200 off-road miles on my Whyte, and disappointingly, the third SRAM XG-1150 cassette is done.

So in that nine months and 2200 miles

3 cassettes £300
4 chains £50
1 chainring £25
2 rear tyres £100
1 front tyre £50
4 pairs brake pads £50

Total £575
So 0.26p/mile, or £8 to £10 per average ride.

And that is before we throw in copious amounts of lube, cleaner, tyre sealant, leccy and the depreciation on the bike itself

Since the first chain and cassette replacement I have cleaned and lubed after "every" ride, and in my experience makes only a marginal difference to the longevity of the drivetrain. The wear is unsurprisingly spread in the lower half of the cassette, but not the smallest cogs.
Derailleur, including B gap is spot on.

My average ride is 30 to 40 miles in all weathers on mixed Yorkshire terrain
Mostly in Eco, or Tour, occasionally in EMTB, never in Turbo.

Thoroughly enjoyable, but not cheap.

I will see how this compares to the mileage / wear on the new 1x12 XT hardtail pushbike, that is swiftly raking up miles.

In comparison, I can only remember changing the cassette twice on my old 3x9 XT / XTR equipped hardtail in 18 years and stellar mileage.

In a Terry Wogan voice... "Is it me ?"


The last bit won't mean a thing unless your a UK based old fart like me.

Post a picture of your cassettes... your idea of done might be very different from others.. by done you mean unridable and skipping gears? Or just looked worn. I’m on same cassette and chain after 1500 miles.. not wearing out any faster vs a normal bike. I did change one chain but that’s it so far.

 

[Cyclopath1000]

2018 Commencal meta power. Second ex1 cassette and chain. The first chain and cassette was changed when it started jumping cogs . That chain was visibly longer by like a half of link of so. I pulled the second chain this week and compared it's length to a new ex1 chain and no growth yet..I found the three smallest cogs on ebay . Next chain will go on with original ex1 cassette and the replacement cogs plus a new front chainring and I will attempt to get another 2k km on the original which is made from tool steel. My guess is that ex1 parts will soon disappear. Everytime I think I should plan on a new drive train Groupo I read things like this post and forget about making a change until I'm left with no other options. And yes it's been relatively dry in Norcal and Northern arizona vs the muck in the UK..was hoping to have already visited your muck but that damn virus.

 

[DrStupid]

The woman vs ebike comparison needs to in addition consider the comparative value at trade in...for an ebike the final transaction if still running is X x paid price...where X is lest that 1...the cost of the woman though if purchased or equivalent accrues, it's initial price is the cost of a certificate , perhaps a party, and maybe a nice trip..maybe even involving an ebike or even two.. BUT...termination of the purchase agreement will easily demonstrate that said possession has increased in relative value and you will probably be paying to get rid of the non functioning equipment for a major premium! In fact It might easily exceed eye or xx1 etc EXECUTED IN 22K GOLD.

Yes. I would be a millionaire!- if it not for that Woman, and her kids!

 

[MACSKI1]

I went Di2 11 speed, Connex Chains (Waxed PTFE) rotated every 300 kls. I now get excellent longevity from my drive train, compared to the 12 speed XT I was running with oil.

 

[brizi2003]

2200 off-road miles on my Whyte, and disappointingly, the third SRAM XG-1150 cassette is done.

So in that nine months and 2200 miles

3 cassettes £300
4 chains £50
1 chainring £25
2 rear tyres £100
1 front tyre £50
4 pairs brake pads £50

Total £575
So 0.26p/mile, or £8 to £10 per average ride.

And that is before we throw in copious amounts of lube, cleaner, tyre sealant, leccy and the depreciation on the bike itself

Since the first chain and cassette replacement I have cleaned and lubed after "every" ride, and in my experience makes only a marginal difference to the longevity of the drivetrain. The wear is unsurprisingly spread in the lower half of the cassette, but not the smallest cogs.
Derailleur, including B gap is spot on.

My average ride is 30 to 40 miles in all weathers on mixed Yorkshire terrain
Mostly in Eco, or Tour, occasionally in EMTB, never in Turbo.

Thoroughly enjoyable, but not cheap.

I will see how this compares to the mileage / wear on the new 1x12 XT hardtail pushbike, that is swiftly raking up miles.

In comparison, I can only remember changing the cassette twice on my old 3x9 XT / XTR equipped hardtail in 18 years and stellar mileage.

In a Terry Wogan voice... "Is it me ?"


The last bit won't mean a thing unless your a UK based old fart like me.

I think you're seeing typical wear for EMTBs used in poor weather conditions. The motor assistance definitely allows you to stress the drivetrain more than a regular bike and of course things like tyres/brakes are dealing with a heavier bike too. Having said that some of what you're seeing is also down to perception, what would have lasted a whole season on an analogue bike wears out half way through the season on an ebike, but in my case the reason for this is I was using my bike twice as much!
I've started using Squirt Wax lube and found the drive chain is lasting much longer. But..what weather conditions you ride in make so much difference, as well as the type of mud/grit your riding in. I've also started rotating chains when they are part worn (0.5% - 1/16" measured over 12") as measured by a ruler and found I can get 3 chains to one cassette, one chain ring & one jockey wheel set. Changing to a new chain when the previous one is only 1/16" means no chain slip on the cassette, then when the 3rd reaches 1/16", go back to the first and run until about 3/32" - 0.75%, rotating as before. By the time the 3rd chain reaches 3/32" it's time to change everything. Chain wear tools with only 2 prongs - do not work - hence the ruler. Use one of those and you'll be throwing away perfectly good chains. While waiting until chains are too worn mean that the new chain will often slip on the worn cassette. How exactly are you evaluating wear?

 

[thebarber]

Put a kindernay hub on and we'll all follow your progress,, (need a test munky)?