Originally Posted by
vicyclist
They seem to do very little.
Me too. My chains last a long time.
I just lube them every few hundred miles. When I was using the older types of lube that gunked up a chain, I even lubed less and they still lasted longer than those that wash their chains and care for them.
One of the other things that I don't think was mentioned is the torque you put into the cranks. If you pedal in higher gears with more torque (mashing) then I'd think you'd get more wear than someone that uses lower gear ratios and spinning.
Maybe not, because that person using the lower ratios will be spinning the chain more. But I lean toward the masher wearing the chain out first. Never seen any studies on it though.