I was under the impression that chain will exhibit more elongation on the trainer since there's no freewheeling. Chain is in motion 100% of the training ride/race on Zwift or whatever you are using.TobinHatesYou wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 7:31 am
Yep, I fluctuate between 132-145lbs and ride decently hard. I expect 6000mi out of a chain and sometimes eked out 8000mi while using dry drip lubes like RnR Gold. It's harder for me to track chain-life now that I use hot-melt wax and rotate between 5 chains.
Contamination plays a huge role. I use the smart trainer a lot and I have a spare bike that hasn't seen an outdoor ride in 3.5 years. That's also how old the chain is and it's got the equivalent of 16000mi or more on it at ~220W average. It still hasn't elongated past .4% let alone .5%. In fact the link plates themselves are becoming visibly scalloped and that may be what finally drives me to replace the chain.
It's clear now that contamination is a real enemy. Some reported mere 0.5mm elongation with ~15000 km (~9000 miles) on the chain using exclusively Molten Speed Wax https://cyclingtips.com/2018/03/fast-ch ... -you-money