How does this sprocket look?

[robertbarr]

This is on the 'new' Bandit. The bike has about 18K on it, and I'm not finding any serious chain wear. I know this bike has seen a lot of heavy-duty usage. This is only my 2nd chain-driven bike, and the first had only about 9K on it, so I never did much besides oil its chain.

The top-most tooth on the 2nd photo looks deformed, but all the teeth are identical. It's something to do with the photo itself. I don't see any appreciable wear here:





I'll also measure the 20-pitch length, but at the back of the sprocket, if I pull really hard, I can pull about 1mm of slack at the rearmost link. The chain remains uniformly tight when rotating it around a complete lap.

I pretty much figured the cost of a chain and sprockets into the purchase price, but it looks to me like this chain might be OK for another few thousand miles. Opinions?

[TheCafeKid]

Looks pretty good to me Robert. I dont really even see any pitting on the "pull" side of it. Usually thats where you'll start to see the first signs of wear. High, twisted or hooked, and its time to change it out. But that one looks pretty darn good.

[chef1366]

Nice and squared off on the top and no wear in the center. Looks great!

[duaneage]

When the flats on the top of the teeth turn into points and then fishhooks it is time to pony up for a chain and sprocket set.

[tkent02]

Agreed, if you can only pull 1 mm off the back of the sprockets it's not worn much, doing well for that mileage.

Another good test is to see in there's much variation in the chain tension as you turn the wheel around by hand, if there's not much change as the whole chain goes around it's fine for a while yet.

[rphillips]

I wish mine looked that good !!!