How long does a drivetrain last ??

[ton]

just wondering how many miles a modern 1 x drivetrain would last........ with not too much maintenance ??

reason i am asking is, i have been mulling over selling my rohloff set up ( again ). i would love to try my fargo with normal gears, 1x or 2 x with some nice ergo brake/gear levers and some wide drops.
mentioned it to the wide, who called me a fool for thinking about it. she said you have had it for 2 years and not had to do anything to it at all. which i agreed on.
i then went onto my strava thing to see how many miles i had done on it in the time i have owned it. pleasantly surprised when the total was 10,000 miles. with zero issues.

question is then how long would normal 1 x gears do ?

[voodoo_simon]

Have the basic sram 12 speed, not touched it in three years since I’ve had it fitted. I’ll happily ride my drivetrains into the ground before replacing, none of this replacing chains every month lark

Edit - this bike is rotation with another bike

[Lazarus]

Depend on if its road or off road but you would be changing chain and indexing a few times in 10k miles ; rings and cassette would possibly/probably survive

[PaulE]

I tend to just run a 1*10 system until one chain is dead, and then swap in a new chain then run the whole lot into the ground, rather than messing about with changing chains too often. Commuting bike is at about 6000km so far, and going strong. Mountain bikes are tinkered with too often to really tell, but similarly run 1*10 without any particular chain changing going on.

[Alpinum]

question is then how long would normal 1 x gears do ?

I've had issues with chains on ssp due to using a ssp chain on n/w chainring, despite correct chainline and must've gone through 1 chain in 1000 km.
On 1 by but before Eagle (or sticking within the Eagle ecosystem) I went through chains at about 1000 km too, at 1500 km it'd be too late for the cassette. 2 x 10 was worse, about 700 - 900 km.
With Eagle stuff I switch the (same) chain back to front after about 1500 km and ride another 500 - 1000, then a new chain. Some cassettes will have seen 6000 km and were still running smoothly, so sold them for good value and got the 10 - 52 t versions.
I once (as a test) rode an Eagle chain, chainring and cassette until the chain jumped on the two most used cogs. Must have been about 7000 km, would need to look it up. (Edit: looked it up, was 5500 km, some of which on jumping chain under hard loading as sprinting).
Drivetrains on my trail bikes show way more use/wear with same mileage as on my gravel bike. I rekon nearly a factor 2. Experience from above is from my trail bikes. Mostly used in Switzerland, all sorts of weather but very likely drier than UK and probably not as hard on drivetrains.

If used to it and if you keep on riding stuff/terrain which goes well with a Rohloff, stick with it.

Then on the other hand... SRAM Eagle AXS is the tits! Both versions (MTB as drop bar mullet AXS). Proper tits. Just don't go GX.

[firestarter]

Rohloff is the bees knees and you know it

[substandard]

got almost 10,000 miles from an absolute black oval on my commuter bike

Its now rolled over to around 14,000 miles, probably had 6 or 7 chains (whenever the chain checker says its time), still running the original rival rear mech (2nd or 3rd set of jockey wheels), shifter etc. Still running the second cassette, not skipping yet so on she goes. This is year round road/sedate bridleway use.

cant complain

[padonbike]

question is then how long would normal 1 x gears do ?

I've had issues with chains on ssp due to using a ssp chain on n/w chainring, despite correct chainline and must've gone through 1 chain in 1000 km.
On 1 by but before Eagle (or sticking within the Eagle ecosystem) I went through chains at about 1000 km too, at 1500 km it'd be too late for the cassette. 2 x 10 was worse, about 700 - 900 km.
With Eagle stuff I switch the (same) chain back to front after about 1500 km and ride another 500 - 1000, then a new chain. Some cassettes will have seen 6000 km and were still running smoothly, so sold them for good value and got the 10 - 52 t versions.
I once (as a test) rode an Eagle chain, chainring and cassette until the chain jumped on the two most used cogs. Must have been about 7000 km, would need to look it up. (Edit: looked it up, was 5500 km, some of which on jumping chain under hard loading as sprinting).
Drivetrains on my trail bikes show way more use/wear with same mileage as on my gravel bike. I rekon nearly a factor 2. Experience from above is from my trail bikes. Mostly used in Switzerland, all sorts of weather but very likely drier than UK and probably not as hard on drivetrains.

If used to it and if you keep on riding stuff/terrain which goes well with a Rohloff, stick with it.

Then on the other hand... SRAM Eagle AXS is the tits! Both versions (MTB as drop bar mullet AXS). Proper tits. Just don't go GX.

I agree with this pretty much: call me pedantic, but I can't afford to let a chain become excessively worn such that it wears the block. You can use strava to create a new bike for each chain you put on, allowing you to log the kms on "chain 1" and "chain 2" that you are rotating on the same bike.
Even pre covid a 12 speed GX Eagle block was £135; post covid I believe they went to £170ish.
In short with sram gx 12 speed chain you get 1200km before the chain exhibits the first indication of wear on a chain wear tool.
I've managed to get 4 chains across an original GX block, so 4 x 1200kms = 4800km. Not very much for such expensive consumables - I've often wondered what would happen if cars consumed components at such a rate.
I'm now running an ebay imitation 9-50 (presumably the 9, instead of 10t allows them to evade patent infringement). The benefit of the 9t is that I changed the 32t chain ring to 30t and actually have a higher high gear and lower low gear than the original Eagle 32 with 10-50t.
I can't see how anyone can be rich enough to neglect monitoring chain wear; I don't do it because I particularly like doing it!
As a final word the quality of KMC 12 speed chains is atrocious and, while I don't particularly like sram, their GX chain doesn't actually snap during its short 1200km life.

[thenorthwind]

As a final word the quality of KMC 12 speed chains is atrocious

I've just bought a KMC X12 for my full-sus - first time I've replaced that chain. KMC chains on all my other bikes.

[Hamish]

As a final word the quality of KMC 12 speed chains is atrocious
I've just bought a KMC X12 for my full-sus - first time I've replaced that chain. KMC chains on all my other bikes.

I have found KMC 10 speed chains to be excellent - not tried the 12 speed

[rivers]

I replace the chain on my 11 speed drive train once/year-18 months (on each bike, my gravel bike is yearly as its also my winter bike so sees a lot of abuse). I just replaced the chain rings on my gravel bike (after about 4 years of abuse), and maybe swap cassettes out once every 3 years maybe...

[johnnystorm]

XT 11 speed cassette, Ab black Oval ring and KMC gold chain lasted the Tour Divide, so 2800ish miles with just having more oil dumped on it and being left outside for 3 weeks.

The block and chain were knackered but the chainring is still perfectly fine. Obviously if it had been 25 day rides with a proper clean in-between they'd have lasted even longer.

[woodsmith]

However long it is its only going to be a fraction of the longevity of a Rohloff. Plus Rohloff sprockets are cheap and reversible. I've only worn out a couple in getting on for 20,000 miles and only reversed the stainless chainring after about 15,000. The greatest improvement I got was switching from Prolink oil chainlube to Smoove wax based lube. Approx doubled the chain life.