Why do so many people ignore rusty chains on ebike ? Does it actually matter?

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UncommonSenseApplier@reddit

Few eBikers have experience with bike maintenance.

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Fryphax@reddit

I know all about bike maintenance, you should see my chain. 1,000 miles a year since 2021, rusted to fuck. Only so much you can do when you ride in the winter when they salt the roads.

I'll put the new one on eventually.

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Hungry_Orange666@reddit

You can use nickel plated chains and grease it thick with lithium grease.

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Or you can ride with it rusty, probably for years. Bikes run better well tuned, but you can ride with a rusty chain or bearings that are shot. It's like driving around with your check engine light on. The only component I would not ride without is working brakes. If a chain fails, you start walking. If you don't have brakes you could end up under a bus.

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Ok-Many4195@reddit

I think its more like halfway between check oil pressure and check engine.

My experience is that a rusty chain has a butterfly effect wearing down your hub derailleur rings way faster

If a chain fails, you start walking.

Or it fails on a turn and the whiplash of the tension being released throws you off the bike

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pterencephalon@reddit

I splurged on a belt drive E-Bike in Lage part so I wouldn't have to deal with the rusty winter chains. I guess it was the reward to myself for getting to age 30 without ever having to drive to work. (2½ years with this thing and I love it.)

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robob3ar@reddit

A bottle of Water Displacement 47 spray a month might help?

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ExtremeProfession113@reddit

But at least they have full face helmets on for their sidewalk riding.

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OBLIVIATER@reddit

A lot of people posting in this have little experience with using their pedals too

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iregreteverything15@reddit

"Wait? You actually turn those? With your legs? And they make the bike go? ...Weird..."

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PickleAlly@reddit

Story of this subreddit.

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PatrickGSR94@reddit

I've never had a rusty chain, but my bikes never sit out in the weather, either. I typically lube the chain as soon as possible when I notice it making excessive noise or any sort of squeaking sounds. I don't follow any specific schedule, just lube them as needed.

I told my dad once about lubricating my bike chain, and he was like "I used to ride all over the place as a kid and never lubed a bike chain!" and I was like yeah well, times change, dad. You probably didn't put 20,000 miles on a bike, either.

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milee30@reddit

You don't know their circumstances.

We're a family that's big on bike maintenance. Our bikes look and run well. All except for my youngest son's bike - looks like a rusty chained disaster. Is he lazy? Is he ignorant? Nope. He's just a college student who for the past three years has lived in housing that is strict about not allowing bikes indoors - bikes have to be stored on outdoor racks. In Florida. Those bikes see some things...

He does the best he can, but there is no practical way to keep the chain rust free if it's outdoors 24/7 in a rainy, salty environment.

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Cargobiker530@reddit

Get a new chain, soak it in paraffin wax and use a heat gun & brown paper to scrape off the excess. Give it to him next time he visits to install when he's back in school. That should last a year even stored outside.

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beagles4ever@reddit

Actually, there is. A well lubed chain shouldn’t rust, even outdoors.

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Personal_Mode8792@reddit

I daily commute by ebike in Toronto even through the winter. Im not really set up to clean it while it's sitting at work potentially full of salt and slush until I get back home and clean it. By the end of the season no matter how hard I try, rusty chain. Not sure if there's much I can do about it, but feels like I'll just replace the chain every once in a while and call it a day.

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DonnPT@reddit

It's possible the bike will still go without any chain at all.

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stormdelta@reddit

That's one of the reasons I use a hub motor - I have redundancy between the human drivetrain and motor if something goes wrong with either one.

But I still use both normally and keep the chain maintained. The only thing I really neglect is the derailleur tuning but there aren't many hills where I live and so I rarely use more than the first 2-3 gears.

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DonnPT@reddit

Yeah, I sure don't shift as much as I would without the motor, even though plenty of hills here. If I'm headed up hill, I don't slow down a lot anyway, on the theory that the motor is better off maintaining some RPMs. Same speed, same gear.

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ArmchairPancakeChef@reddit

Sure. If you want to charge the battery more frequently than normal. Which gets you to the end of the battery's life more quickly.

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BoringBob84@reddit

This is what I was thinking. A hub drive motor with a throttle or a cadence sensor technically doesn't need a chain for someone who doesn't want to exert any effort.

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Internal_Farm8150@reddit

But light rusts kinda like that vibe of forgotten laundry fr

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hannahejensen@reddit

omg i literally just cleaned my rusty chain yesterday after ignoring it for months 😭 it was making this weird grinding noise and now it's so much smoother, definitely worth the 10 min fix.

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Get_Fuckin_Dabbed_On@reddit

bot

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Vivid_Ad_1458@reddit

In my many years of working in bikeshops. You just dont see correctly lubricated chains. It is either a thick slippery mess full of bird feathers and pedestrian hair. Or bright orange.

You will see attempts. A full on orange rear wheel from emptying a can of lube onto a chain thats already gone

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beagles4ever@reddit

It matters for efficiency. If it’s a mid drive, a lot. If it’s a hub drive probably not a lot because the chain isn’t doing much work. But relative to rider effort it matter less on e-bikes.

Let’s say a lightly rusted chain costs 10w of power over a new and properly lubed chain. Let’s also assume our rider isn’t a world tour cyclist. Max sustained effort is going to be about 25O watts. Take 10 watts off that and it’s a minor but non insignificant hit. Now put same rider on a mid-drive with 750 watts of power. You now have 1000 watts of power total (rider and motor). Take 10 watts off the top for chain efficient and it’s like a 1% hit to power output. Not very much.

But a badly lubed, chain filled with grit and heavily rusted - totally different story. You’ll have a lot more inefficiency on that.

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fletch101e@reddit

I have 2 ebikes and 2 scooters and keep them all inside for this very reason. Yes it can be a pain but keeps them like brand new.

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m2keo@reddit

I mean u can still technically ride until it breaks. And if you're not exerting too much like mtb riding or a lot of uphills, it'll be hard to break especially cadence sensored bikes.

It just ain't gonna be smooth obviously and creaky.

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geekroick@reddit

The more rust on the chain (and freewheel/cassette), the higher the chance of structural disintegration. Either the chain will snap, or multiple teeth on the gear wheels will come off. A worn chain will also wear down the gears faster, so what could have been a chain swap after 2k miles is now a chain and freewheel/cassette swap after 4k

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LoneSocialRetard@reddit

Chain rust is rarely bad enough to be structural, it typically is just a surface issue which will increase wear and friction but unlikely to quickly catastrophically fail, cause chains are built with significant safety factor

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geekroick@reddit

True, but total failure is the worst case scenario isn't it. And like I say, the more rust, the higher that chance of occurrence...

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Tight-War-8013@reddit

If your chain has rusted all the way through, your sprocket will also have been rusted through. The chains are typically a more resilient alloy. The only way you get a catastrophic failure like that is if you pull the bike out from a lake after ten years, or left outside for thirty. If the chain is that bad, the other stuff will be worse.(tires, brakes, bearings, steering, suspension)

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dont_remember_eatin@reddit

Probably because the chain is ornamental only and the pedals are only used as footrests.

In other words, they're using throttle everywhere.

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onlyTryingtoBeNice@reddit

hub drive bike = no need for drivetrain to work

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classaceairspace@reddit

When cadence sensor or throttle yes, torque sensor no.

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Humble_Key_4259@reddit

I feel like Google would provide this information within 5 seconds.

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jupzuz@reddit

Superficial rust = nothing

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ArmchairPancakeChef@reddit

If you don't keep the drive-train reasonably cleaned and lubed, you're wearing out your Cassette/Freewheel prematurely and every other part of the drive-train, including the chain itself.

You paid good money for the bike, get the most out of your dollars.

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godzillabobber@reddit

The thing about bikes is you can leave them laying out in the yard for a year of neglect and as long as the tires hold air, you can hose them off and ride them. You ain't gonna win the Tour de France on it, but you can still ride it. Bikes are pretty tough.

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Falcon_Flyin_High@reddit

When chains are not cleaned regularly dust gets inside and wears away at the joints of the chain, resulting in the chain getting longer. When the chain gets longer it wears on the cassette and the ring in front and ends up with the gear skipping or the chain skipping and falling off and wearing out your cassette sooner.

There is a tool that actually measures if your chain is getting longer or not. It's a simple inexpensive tool and when the chain has become stretched you need to change the chain.

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godver3@reddit

People who are saying it’s not a big deal are insane to me. Losing all power is a big fucking deal and could be extremely dangerous depending where you’re riding if the chain snaps. And chains DO snap.

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Hashtag_Labotomy@reddit

Heck yeah it matters. Even if ya got hub motors and can propel your bum without a chain ...what happens when it gets too rusty, ya have no dork disk or spokes that can possibly bend and the chain messes up and gets caught between the hub motor and the cassette? Nothing good, that's for sure. A lot of ebikes, mopeda, motorcycles (looking at you cfmoto) come with crappy chains. People get the impression that on an ebike, their kids 100 dollar huffy and such is not really that important. That "20 years ago their chain lasted forever"..well that's not today, it can potentially be a severe problem with death being the prize. Especially for all these 600 volt warp speed Tesla rockets pretending to be an ebike and the 5k dollar carbon fiber bike with an internal battery and a 250w motor cause you WILL have to pedal. And if you CANT or your DEAD then you will regret not paying attention to that chain.

Tldr, I'm not yanking your chain, chain maintenance matters.

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slacknsurf420@reddit

enough rust can cause the chain to skip or not flex, garages here if not cooled will rust just about anything and it's expensive to have a finished garage, at least here with AC etc

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RichGuarantee7482@reddit

good thing that I live next to the sun (in arizona) and havent seen rusty chains on other people's bikes.... for now

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Rattlingplates@reddit

Surface rust has very little effect. I lived on an island and my chain never gave issue pedal assisted for 10k miles. Chains are tough.

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reynhaim@reddit

Not that big of a deal in most cases when a cheaper ebike is driven. It will cause extra wear on both front and rear sprockets but that's hardly an issue if the drivetrain is simple. Spares cost next to nothing and tolerances are so big that the components will last multiple years anyway.

Especially with hub motors the wear on the drivetrain is very minimal if heavy assistance is used.

On a high end mid drive e-bike I would not drive with a rusted chain. That 12spd cassette is expensive and it can't be abused the same way as a 7spd legacy Shimano. Also the chain will wear faster.

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RipOk3600@reddit

So I noticed my chain had gone rusty (had been waiting for a jack for my bike and it didn’t come before I should have lubed the chain again), it was a couple of days before the bike was going in for a service anyway so I left it to wait and see what the mechanic said.

He said “it might be ok but the risk is that the rust could weaken the chain and it could snap”. He was really of 2 minds if to replace it or not even when I asked him if he would replace it if it was his bike, in the end given chains are cheep and I didn’t want to suddenly find I had a broken chain and crash it was replaced.

So that’s apparently the risk, it may be fine or it may weaken the chain. Probably also wears the bearings and is a risk of seizing but that wasn’t the case in my case because it was going to be cleaned and lubed as part of the service anyway

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