Originally Posted by
atnyc
All my bikes are over 10 years old. But since I have never had any issue of chainrings skipping, I guess my NOT changing chains for less than 3000 miles (more like ~4000 mi between chain change on average) has little negative effect to the longevity of chainrings.
Those of you who change chains every 1000 miles, I hope your bikes last more than 20 years! Better yet, you ride 10,000 a year to justify the "saving" of not needing to change chainrings. Me? I'd rather ride than change chains every other month.
I am not sure why you are directing your opinion to me. I get 4-5K out of a chain on an upright and 10K on a bent and that is at 0.4% wear (1.0% is generally considered a limit). Sometimes, this is a month but usually more like 3-4 months. It cannot be easier to put a new chain on with quicklinks. It is true that poorly maintained cheap chains can go south in under 1,000 miles.
As mentioned in one post, zerofriction has some interesting analysis for the total costs of maintenance or lack of maintenance.
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/