Replace these chainrings?

Equipment
21

He said so above:

22

Nevertheless worth asking and their checking again. It’s surprising what you miss when you convince yourself the problem is elsewhere.

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23

I agree that 14K miles is not a great deal of miles on a chainring. Chainrings can go tens of thousands of miles. I did not see this mentioned but it is possible that new chain is defective. I have had a KMC X10SL bad out of the box that was noisy and shifting poorly. Replacing it cured the problems. Do keep in mind that chainring debris would not be magnetic and a chainring is not going to grind metal flakes off of a chain. My thought is your problem exists elsewhere than the big ring, yours looks serviceable from the photos.

24

I’ve just been through the process of eliminating bad shifting and noise

  1. New Cassette
  2. New waxed chain
  3. Learning di2 inside out ….
  4. Checking RD hanger with DAG tool
  5. Physically straightening RD cage …(biggest dif so far)
  6. Replaced rusting BB90 bearings and using a retaining compound to keep them snug
  7. Replacing RD-6870-SS with a RD-8050-GS to work better with 11-30T cassette
  8. Noticed Chain Rings still not turning evenly post BB90 replacement… must be warped
  9. New Chain Rings (cheapest change$$) and now have a very smooth efficient drive chain :ok_hand:
    ……
25

On the road, maybe. Off-road, you will have much faster wear. This is a gravel crank, and while it looks impeccably clean, use in wet, sandy or muddy conditions will greatly accelerate wear.

On my mountain bikes chain rings haven’t lasted 10k (km).

26
  • Yes, but it’s installed on a road bike per his OP. Perhaps this is in poor conditions as far as road is concerned, but I doubt it ranks up there with more demanding gravel use from the info.
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27

Is the trim setting on your front derailleur set up properly? It’s a bit finicky to get it perfect.

This is particularly important with these new gravel groupsets since the chain line is further outboard as @AldridgePrior mentioned.

I found myself trimming the FD much more often on my bike with GRX than I did with any others…

1 Like
28

Yes and his crank is cleaner than that of my road bike which spends 90 % on the trainer these days. Truly impressive.

Still, since it is a GRX crank, I inferred it might be an Allroad/Groad/gravel bike that he might also take offroad (and then clean very well, no doubt). Grimy roads may lead to accelerated wear (again, his clean cranks would indicate he doesn’t use his bike in adverse conditions).

PS @AldridgePrior How do you clean your cranks and drivetrain? :smiley:

29

Update on this noise I had…

Short: noise went away :+1:

Long:
NB couldn’t try the road bike on the turbo as suggested, since the dedicated turbo setup is waxed vs this road bike being wet lubed

  1. The heavy re-lubing of the new X11-SL chain had no immediate effect.
  2. Swapped the new SL chain for a new X11-EL chain and lubed plentifully → No major effect.
  3. Heavily re-lubed the EL chain; lubed every single thing I could think of; revisited the Di2 micro-adjustment and made a slight change to the RD → Much better, but now got a squeak in bottom gear when climbing at full gas (never heard anything like this before!).
  4. Re-lubed for next ride → Silence!

I’m not sure what aspect (or combo) of chain bedding in / lubrication / micro-adjustment did the trick, but it’s now all golden for several hundred miles. I subsequently altered the micro-adjustment for the FD (which I’d not touched for 3 years) and overall the transmission changes, front & rear, have never worked better than currently. I assume the new SL chain will be fine too after a bit of bedding in riding when I eventually swap that in.

Thanks for all the input :+1:
⠀

GRX groupset but only ever used for road - it was chosen purely for lower climbing gearing when I specced the bike 3 1/2 years ago than a compact 50/34 offered. NB I use the bottom gear (31/34 = 0.91 ratio way more than I ever imagined, whether on very long steep climbs or to help flatten some of the daft roads I ride on when doing easy endurance rides. Shame about the chainline, plus the lower top gear is an occasional annoyance, pedalling out earlier on descents, but on balance a reasonable trade for me. :person_shrugging:

How so clean you ask? I’m in the cycling mecca of the United Kingdom, where as everyone knows it never rains, the roads are immaculate & spotless etc etc, so keeping the bike super clean is child’s play :wink:

2 Likes
30

IMHO most road gearing is too hard for most, even fit riders. Climbing gears are much more important than top gears. You made a very wise choice and in most situations it’ll make you faster, not slower. It’d be nice if Shimano offered a 46/30ish road crank as well as more chainring options for GRX 1x.

That makes it even more impressive. Please teach me, sensei. :slight_smile:

I’m glad you solved your problem. Silent bike, happy rider.

1 Like
31

100% agree. Friends who I ride with - and mostly climb better than - jokingly accuse me of cheating with my super low gears, aka “having the appropriate equipment” as I point out :laughing:

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