Share the Wisdom Wednesdays (on Thursdays): Part Three

This is only really going to be useful information to single speeders, and amongst them, probably only the really cheap ones.

I ran nickel coated PC-1 chains religiously from 2003 until about 2013.  Cheap, reliable... silver.  In all those years of use, I never broke one while mountain biking, aside from busting a roller clean off at the 2006 Trans Rockies.  Don't know what a roller is?  See below:

Something like $10 at retail, I never felt bad about chucking them when they were worn, but that was the tricky part.  They wore out fast... faster than I could remember to swap to a new one.  A worn out chain causes worn out cogs and rings, making my love for cheap chains quite expensive at times.

In 2013, I swapped to 10 speed chains based mostly on weight savings (close to 100 grams lighter), but found they were a little tight on my Endless Cogs.  They had to "wear in" to the sides of the cogs... annoying at first, like a glove after a few rides.

Early November 2013, I bought an ugly SRAM PC 951 for the DickStickel.

Ugly and cheap, but good enough to get me through the winter...

Or so I thought.

It's only worn to the .25+ mark in the last twelve months.  Sure, I split my ride time between two bikes, but my Vertigo (my main bike) has had a higher end KMC X9SL chain on it since March...

and it's only worn to the .75 mark (basically ready for replacement very soon).

The good news is that although I spent more on these chains than I woulda on multiple PC1 chains, I haven't really needed to keep a close eye on wear.  Because of that, my cogs and rings are still in incredible shape.  I should also mention that I have never dropped a ten or nine speed chain since I started using them... although I've been on narrow/wide rings for the past year as well.  So nice to not drop a chain on a single speed.  It shouldn't happen, but when it does... every single speeder becomes an Angry Singlespeeder™.

I know some of you are thinking, "Your dum."  (I'd like to think they're thinking grammatically incorrect with spelling errors)

Less dumb and more cheap (where I can be) and set in my ways.  Sure, it took me awhile to catch on, but I learned a "thing" and maybe someone out there as their head buried in the sand equally as well.

Of course, as much as I love Shimano things (pedals and brakes), I couldn't go with their chains.  I just can't get over the whole "connector pin" thing.  Just seems like they would get with the times and use a quick/master link.  I know you can use a non-Shimano link on a Shimano chain, but it's a principle thing.  Reminds me of when headsets were all going threadless and Shimano continued to make threaded headsets until they just died altogether.  No more XTR headsets.

But as a sign of my love for Shimano, I finally made a decision on flat pedals.

Saints.  Because...

1. They are Shimano.

2. All my other bikes have Shimano pedals.

3. The pins come with spacers under them to make them a little less deathy, and since I bought these mostly for two reasons (wheelie practice and chutting about town on my chutter bike), I'm not needing a whole lotta pins sticking out and threatening my shins.

4. They were in stock at my local bike shop when I walked in Monday night.

Anyways, if you're being cheap with your chains, stop it... and pay absolutely no attention to what I'm running on my tarck bike, as logic and reason do not apply to The Fastest Bike in the World.