Michael said:RonSonic said:
Michael said:The chain on my road bike has reached the magic 1/16-inch "stretch" point, so
last night I Googled appropriately to do some pricing. The first site I hit is
well known to most of you but I won't name it. There I found a pile of likely
candidates, but my attention was almost immediately drawn away from the type of
bike that each chain fits and to the prices. US$300+ ? For a chain?!
US$200+? For a chain?! I seem to recall seeing a US$30-something chain down at
the bottom of the list but I was so sticker-shocked by then that it didn't sink
in until I'd logged off and toddled off to bed.Hey, my 10-speed cost under US$300, new (1979). Someone, *please* tell me how
to get a decent replacement chain without hocking my first-born to pay for it.You went looking for a "ten speed" chain didn't ya? Well, since there is now a
critical mass of bikes with triple chain wheels, the phrase "ten speed" means a
bike with ten cogs in the BACK alone, to be multiplied of course by the number
of chainwheels. It is that number of cogs that tells us what size chain you
need, not the total number of possible combinations.Now this is all guess on my part, so tell me if I'm wrong.
If I'm not, just go visit a bike store and spend the $12 - 14 a SRAM will cost
and be done.You'll dig the master link concept.
Ron
No, actually I went looking for chains in general. That first and only page
that came up listed chains, chain rings, and other "chain" stuff, all listed in
descending order of price. Which is why I was stunned almost immediately by a
$399.99 chain.
They do that, don't they, default to showing most expensive first. Actually
that's one of my tests of a shopping site, if it's got an easy way for me to
resort from least to most expensive.
Quoted message said:Although I bought the bike in 1979, I rode it only two years. Didn't pull it
out again until 2002, but have ridden it a lot since then. So the chain that
needed replacing is the one that was on the bike when I bought it. This old
10-speed with 27 x 1 1/4" wheels and center-pull brakes has given me fits
sometimes when I've needed to replace certain parts; I got quizzical looks and
"They haven't made that for years. Most bikes use [whatever] now." So when I
innocently went looking for chain and was confronted by dear price tags, I
figured I'd hit another "times have changed" situation.
Cool. Lucky bike, most don't survive that sort of premature retirement. Some of
the stuff that's been obsoleted has been for a good reason, others of it just
looks like an excuse to sell what's new. The good news is that someone,
somewhere is supporting just about all the older parts.
Quoted message said:All is fine now. I drove 30 minutes to a bike shop and bought a $10 chain.
Enjoy.
Ron