Many people don't realise that their bike chains wear out. When you think about it it's obvious - moving parts in contact with each other eventually wear.

A badly worn chain - some time incorrectly referred to as a stretched chain - will cause terrible damage to your gears to the point where your drive train will fail. This can sometimes be seen in bikes where the pedals seem to slip when you pedal hard or in other cases when your chain will wrap around your cogs and jamb (chain suck).

For a detailed engineering explanation of chain wear you may enjoy this article by one of the modern legends of the bicycle world Jobst Brandt.

Please note that Bike Ride has no formal relationship with this web site or it's content - but Jobst is a legend.

So if your chain has done a few kilometers especially during winter when chains pick up more road grime then bring it in for a free chain check - if it is "stretched" but not too badly you can save yourself some grief and replace the chain without having to replace your front and rear sprockets.

Remember if the chain is badly worn there's no point just replacing the chain - an unworn chain will not ride correctly on badly worn gears and the new chain will be damaged by the worn gears.