Bike Chains, Part 2

Table of Contents

Preliminary

Revised

This is Part 2 of a series of 9 posts organized as a single article. There are 8 parts, individually published as posts on this blog, and a table of contents of the series in the 9th post. The series is organized into sections, numbered for reference, in the series table of contents and in the table of contents for each post. In March 2024 I began to reorganize and revise the long article. The project took several months.

Scope

This post mainly discusses the bicycle chain, an adaptation of industrial roller chain technology, usually made of steel 1an alloy of iron and small amounts of carbon and of other metals, made by melting mineral ores in furnaces.

The chain is a part of a group of components called the drive train, which takes force from the rider’s effort pushing down on the pedals, and turns it into force driving the drive wheel to rotate which pushes the bike. The drive train includes the pedals, the crank arms, the chain wheels, the chain, the rear hub, the cassette of gear wheels on the drive wheel (normally the rear wheel) and the derailleur mechanisms. The drive train must be aligned properly, maintained, cleaned and lubricated to operate efficiently.

Chains are vulnerable to wear if and when they allow contaminated oil and water to carry microscopic abrasive particles into spaces that are supposed to be clean and lubricated. Chain wear elongates a chain, which affects performance and causes damage to other drive train components. Lack of lubrication or contamination of bearings in other drive train components (e.g. hubs, jockey pulleys) can affect performance.

A few new or modern bikes have bushed chain. Many new bikes have flexible bushingless chains. Bushingless chains may be more prone to this than bushed chains, and chains that maintain a direct chainline.

Bicycle chains can break. Usually this happens when a chain comes off the cogs – commonly during shifts with derailleurs – and is caught between components. In this situation the chain is seized, and the rider is applying force to links that are not traveling in the normal direction of travel.

4. Chain Drive

Industrial chain drives

The manufacturing and maintenance of roller chains, bicycles and lubricants was based on trial and error, experimentation and the concepts used by artisans, mechanics, engineers and riders. Chain drives were used in industrial machines before they were adopted by the bike industry late in the 19th century. Chain drives are designed for classes of machine, in some instances, for individual machines. A bicycle chain is made of links connected by pins in a continuous loop. The links must pivot rapidly at the pins as the links move in the loop.

Until modern optics and electronics provided better tools, people affected by wear had theories or mental models for what happens in a lubricated roller chain. With modern optics and electronics it is possible to view components of stationary disassembled chains. Josh Poertner of Silca Velo 2noted in the post Part 4 in this series discusses chain wear as the cause of elongation in the video on the Silca Velo YouTube channel Microscopic Magic: Save Your Chain from Wearing Out! (July 30, 2024).

Bushed Roller Chain

The links in a bicycle chain drive overlap, alternating as inner and outer. Links are made of plates and “pins”. Plates form alternating outer and inner links. Pins attached to the outside plates; the pins also fit into holes in adjacent inner links. Hollow pins made of tubular steel are common. The pins are riveted to the outer plates. The pins connect the links to adjacent links; the links pivot on the pins. On modern chains these are tubular rivets flared at each end, installed as flush rivets. Tubular “bushings” between the inner link plates keep the inner links of a bushed chain separate. The half bushings of a bushingless chain (see below) have the same effect.

Rollers were a late 19th century industrial innovation, adopted by bicycle and component builders when chain drives were adapted for bicycles. Rollers contact the cogs (teeth”) of the gears from which and to which force is transmitted. Rollers are the journals of plain bearings. (the bushing and/or the pins rotate inside the rollers. A chain drive has several dozen open plain bearings. In a bushed chain, rollers revolve on bushings around the “pins” holding the sides of the roller chain together. On a bushingless chain, the bushings are stamped shapes on the inner plates. Most bicycle drive trains from the late 1890s until the 1970s or 1980s were have been chain drives using “bushed” roller chains. Wikipedia notes:

There are … many chains that have to operate in dirty conditions,
and for size or operational reasons cannot be sealed. Examples include chains on farm equipment, bicycles, and chain saws. These chains will necessarily have relatively high rates of wear.

Many oil-based lubricants attract dirt and other particles, eventually forming an abrasive paste that will compound wear on chains. This problem can be reduced by use of a “dry” PTFE spray, which forms a solid film after application and repels both particles and moisture

Wikipedia, Roller Chain

Bushed bicycle roller chain, invented by the Swiss-English entrepreneur Hans Renold in 1880, was common on the bicycles made in the late 19th century, and on single speed and utility bicycles manufactured and sold in the first several decades of the 20th century. The invention of bush roller chain has been attibuted to others:

… the Nevoigt brothers, of the German Diamant Bicycle Company, designed the roller chain in 1898 which uses bushings.

There are two types of links alternating in the bush roller chain. The first type is inner links, having two inner plates held together by two sleeves or bushings upon which rotate two rollers. Inner links alternate with the second type, the outer links, consisting of two outer plates held together by pins passing through the bushings of the inner links. The “bushingless” roller chain is similar in operation though not in construction; instead of separate bushings or sleeves holding the inner plates together, the plate has a tube stamped into it protruding from the hole which serves the same purpose. This has the advantage of removing one step in assembly of the chain.

The roller chain design reduces friction compared to simpler designs, resulting in higher efficiency and less wear. The original power transmission chain varieties lacked rollers and bushings, with both the inner and outer plates held by pins which directly contacted the sprocket teeth; however this configuration exhibited extremely rapid wear of both the sprocket teeth, and the plates where they pivoted on the pins. This problem was partially solved by the development of bushed chains, with the pins holding the outer plates passing through bushings or sleeves connecting the inner plates. This distributed the wear over a greater area; however the teeth of the sprockets still wore more rapidly than is desirable, from the sliding friction against the bushings. The addition of rollers surrounding the bushing sleeves of the chain and provided rolling contact with the teeth of the sprockets resulting in excellent resistance to wear of both sprockets and chain as well. There is even very low friction, as long as the chain is sufficiently lubricated. Continuous, clean, lubrication of roller chains is of primary importance for efficient operation as well as correct tensioning.

Wikipedia on Roller chain, July 2021

Bushed chain is being used for some e-bikes, and some mass-produced bikes without derailleurs, as of 2021-24. On a bushed roller chain the rollers rotate on bushings around pins.

Plain bearings need lubrication, according to the experience and opinions of builders, engineers, and mechanics and riders/users. Lubrication reduces the co-efficient of friction when steel surfaces in contact with each other:

Lubrication is required for correct operation of mechanical systems such as pistons, pumps, cams, bearings, turbines, gears, roller chains, cutting tools etc. where without lubrication the pressure between the surfaces in close proximity would generate enough heat for rapid surface damage … .

Wikipedia on Lubrication

If lubrication is applied often enough, and if the chain is properly cleaned and maintained, rotational friction and chain wear are reduced. On a bicycle chain, the lubrication is directed at reducing the friction of the rotation of the rollers on the bushings, and the bushing on the pins. When the lubrication fails, the rotation fails, and the direction of friction become intermittently linear which produces audible squeaks as the chain metal of the bushing and the pin wears.

“Factory lubrication” of bike chains by the chain manufacturers seems to have become a common practice when bushed roller chains were common.

Parts 3 and 4 this series, on lubrication, lubricants, and testing, will discuss the researched and tested fact that oil based lubricants work by creating a film across metal surfaces, and how lubricants behave when contaminated with water and dirt.

Material & Manufacturing

Chain link plates for modern bike chains are punched out of steel sheet metal made with carbon steel. Steel is an alloy of iron, carbon, and other elements. Carbon steel is more susceptible to oxidation (rust), corrosion and wear than other steels. Chromium makes steel harder and more resistant to oxidation and wear. Alloys harder or more resistant to corrosion than carbon steel would cost more and would require retooling by the chain manufacturers. On some chains link plates and other chain parts are plated with metal less susceptible to corrosion, or case hardened.

Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling provides 3mentioned and discussed in Part # 4 in this series an overview of materials at pp. 9-11 of his chain longevity testing brief:

The most common hardness ratings are Rockwell D and Vickers.

… the Vickers hardness test is generally regarded as the most suitable. Mild steel/stainless steel will typically have a Vickers hardness rating of around 150 to 200. Quality hardened steel will be 200 to 400, or even 500, and the highest level tool steels / high speed steels can be up to 700.

However – the harder you make steel, the less ductile and more brittle it becomes. Steel can be made with very high “toughness” – combination of hardness and ductility – but this is very expensive requiring alloying with multiple other metals plus quite exacting heating/cooling cycles. For bicycle chains … different manufacturers use a different level or grade of steel. Campagnolo for instance claim their chains are made of “special steel”. What grade of steel is used is unlikely to be advertised or even disclosed by manufacturers. But in summary for bicycle chains, you can expect the steel will be hardened for wear longevity but there is limit as to how hard they can make this steel without the chain becoming too brittle and snapping on the first poor shift – especially the more economical grade of steel that is used.

Adam Kerin, Zero Friction Cycling site, Chain longevity testing brief, 2018

There is no industry standard for the necessary hardness and tensile strength of the steel. Chain manufacturers order sheet steel by thickness – they trust the steel mills to supply steel that meets the chain maker’s specified standards. Chain manufacturers will market some chains as having been hardened more and better, or coated. Some chains are better than others. Bike manufacturers and bike shops disclose the name of the chain manufacturer; a high value chain may be a marketing point. Even cheap chains work for hundreds of hours.

Modern chains are as light as feasible. Some materials and manufacturing methods make some chains last longer than others in a perceptible way. Some of the issues will be discussed in Part 6 in this series, on durability

Bicycle manufacturers acquire chains (supplied with new bikes) from specialty manufacturers including Renold, Campagnolo, Rohloff, Wipperman, Shimano, YBN, KMC, SRAM and others. Some chains are still manufactured by German, French, English and Italian firms. A few chains are made in Japan. Bike chain manufacturing in 2022 (and 2023 and 2024) is largely an Asian industry. The manufacturers all make chains out of the same raw stocks, but have different suppliers, machinery and workforces. Some chain manufacturers subcontract to each other. A few chains are made in Europe and the US. (The packages of chain sold by the US brand SRAM indicates those chains are manufactured, or at least assembled and packaged, in Portugal).

The Japanese firm Shimano is a dominant force in manufacturing bicycle components, including cranks, derailleurs, and chains. It outsources a portion of production of its branded chains to manufacturers in Asia, e.g. KMC of Taiwan or YBN, a Taiwanese firm that makes chains in a plant in Vietnam. SRAM brand chains are manufactured in Portugal. Many European manufacturers have subcontracted to Asian firms or built Asian plants.As of the early years of the 2020s, most chains are manufactured in Asia.

Many chains are made in Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China and other Asian countries with steel, and other industrial supplies and with manufacturing capabilities. The steel in chains machined in Asia will normally have been sourced from Asian foundries – it will have been smelted and forged from iron ore and carbon, rather than from recycled steel. Pins are steel too. The pins are fabricated from steel stock according to the methods used by manufacturers. The steel mills decide how to forge, roll and process the steel. The chain manufacturer can choose the thickness and some of the performance characteristics of the steel. The options depend on what the steel manufacturers are selling, and price. The shortage or unavailability of chains for purchase in 2020. 2021 and 2022 was attributed to delays in production and transportation of materials.

Bushingless Chains

The bushingless chain was developed by Sachs under the Sedis brand and introduced in 1981. It was adopted by SRAM, which was a mountain bike component manufacturer at that time. The innovation was widely adopted by other designers and manufacturers:

More recently, the “bushingless roller chain” design has superseded the bushed chain. This design incorporates the bearing surface of the bushing into the inner side plate, with each plate creating half of the bushing. This reduces the number of parts needed to assemble the chain and reduces cost. The chain is also more flexible sideways, which is needed for modern derailleur gearing, because the chainline is not always straight in all gear selections.

Wikipedia article on Bicycle Chain

The holes in outer link plates are smaller than the holes in inner link plates. The holes in inner link plates are punched to create the protruding shoulders which serve as partial or “half” bushings. The lateral flexibility of chains (necessary for shifting to different gear wheels or cogs) was engineered by swaging (shaping the pins into barrels rather than perfect cylinders).

The side plates of the inner links are formed into half bushings or shoulders. The roller rides on the half bushings. The pins go through holes in the outer side plates and the half bushings and hold the links together. The outer plates overlap and turn against the inner plates. The plates turn on the pins where the pins go through the plates. My photo of an outer and inner link (left over after I had shortened my new bushingless SRAM chain for installation) shows these features. The hollow pins used in this chain connect the outer links – an outer link on the left. The pin on the left is still partially displaced by the chain breaker tool (there is no roller on that pin – the roller stayed in inner link which was used to close the chain with a master link). The inner link on the right has been pried open to release its roller and show the bevels. The (small) magnification of my smart phone camera shows what the surface, which appears to be perfectly smooth and shiny, are actually rougher. The roughness does not affect the travel of the chain over the cogs. Lubrication is supposed to affect the articulation of the plates, rollers and pins at the ends of the links.

Modern bushingless chain is more vulnerable to wear than other designs:

The inner side plates of a bushingless chain are three-dimensional. Instead of having a simple hole at each end with a bushing pressed through it, each inner side plate hole has a protruding shoulder that amounts to half of a bushing. Since the side plates have an inside and an outside determined by the existence of the shoulders, they can also have bevels on the inside edges without further complicating the manufacturing process. These bevels permit the chain to run more smoothly when it is not perfectly lined up with the sprocket than a conventional chain with flat inner plates. They probably also improve shifting performance.

Since the “bushing” of a bushingless chain is made up of two halves that don’t connect directly with each other, this type of chain is more flexible sideways than a conventional chain. This is because the two halves of the “bushing” have a bit of “wiggle room” with respect to each other.

BTI (Sheldon Brown site), Chain Maintenance

The bushingless chain is more vulnerable to some kinds of failure. Sheldon Brown and John Allen said:

The lightweight chain of a bicycle with derailleur gears can snap (or rather, come apart at the side-plates, since it is normal for the “riveting” to fail first) because the pins inside are not cylindrical, they are barrel-shaped. Contact between the pin and the bushing is not the regular line, but a point which allows the chain’s pins to work its way through the bushing, and finally the roller, ultimately causing the chain to snap. This form of construction is necessary because the gear-changing action of this form of transmission requires the chain to both bend sideways and to twist, but this can occur with the flexibility of such a narrow chain and relatively large free lengths on a bicycle.

Chain failure is much less of a problem on hub-geared systems (e.g. Bendix 2-speed, Sturmey-Archer AW) since the parallel pins have a much bigger wearing surface in contact with the bush. The hub-gear system also allows complete enclosure, a great aid to lubrication and protection from grit.

Wikipedia on Roller chain, July 2021

Bushingless chains have tiny internal voids around the middles of pins where the half rollers on each side end. Lubricants applied to the outside of a bushingless chain flow differently than lubricants applied to bushed chains. The lateral flexibility of bushingless chains, and the effects of lateral movement on fluid on the chain appear in a video on YouTube posted in the Silca Velo channel 4See Part 4 for information on Silca Velo in April 2024 called Stop Wasting Your CHAIN LUBE! Know the BEST Way to Apply It. The wiggling action is shown in a segment about 8 minutes long, starting about 7 minutes after the beginning.

Chain Sizes

Pitch is the length of any link, outer or inner; pitch (length) is the distance between pins, measured from the centers of pins. It can be expressed as an ANSI number, or a fraction of an inch, or in millimeters. See:

The standard pitch for modern bicycle chains is ANSI 40 (designating 4/8 inch) = 1/2 inch = 12.7 mm. On the assumption that all links are counted (as opposed to counting pairs of inner and outer links) , a chain will normally be more than 100 links long. A road chain may have 108 links or more. A gravel or mountain bike chain will be longer. A chain for a compact road crankset with a 46 tooth large ring and a cassette with a 36 tooth large cog will be about 112 or 114 links long. Chain length depends on the length of the chain stays and the diameters of the largest chain rings and cogs.

The chain must be long enough to go around the largest front ring, around the derailleur pulleys, and around the largest cog on the cassette. The derailleur must be left in a position to shift the chain effectively. On measuring a chain, see:

The BTI method of sizing a chain is to break a chain (remove links with a chain breaker tool) to fit the largest rings. A chain breaker tool pushes pins (the rivets that hold the chain together) out. Another key measurement considers how the chain is tensioned when the chain is on the smallest gear wheels on cassette of drive wheel. This makes sure the chain does not fold and rub on itself.

The rear derailleur, which is found on almost all geared bicycles, imposes a total system limit, which affects the length of the chain. Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling discusses the system limit in his video, on the ZFC YouTube channel March, 2023, “When 1X goes wrong“. The system limit can be calculated as the sum of the number of teeth on the front ring (or the largest front ring) and the largest cog on the drive wheel (usually the rear wheel) cassette. The system limit varies. Rear derailleurs for road (and gravel) bikes have a limit of about 84 teeth. If the front ring is 50 teeth, the largest rear cog must be under 34 teeth. “Compact” front rings on many road and gravel bikes are from 48 teeth, down to 36 teeth. The system limit for some rear derailleurs for mountain bikes is about 90 teeth – they will run a 45 tooth cog with a front ring of 45 teeth or less.

A 108 link chain is 1371.6 mm long; elongation by .5% is a fraction more than 6.8 mm. A drop-in chain checker gauge measuring about 170 to 199 mm. is used to indicate if the elongation in a span exceeds .5%. In a span of 1/8 of the length of chain, the gauge has to detect the difference in that span to a tolerance of .5 mm.

Pitch is standardized. The width of chain links varies. It is generally proportional to the number of cogs on the cassette on the drive wheel. The spaces between cogs in modern systems are so narrow that shifting is only feasible carefully adjusted rear derailleurs. Bike component makers have claimed the benefit of indexed shifters which are the components on almost all new bikes, and bikes made in the last 40 years. (Some riders still prefer friction shifters).

Cleaning the paste of lube and dirt out from between cogs requires narrow tools. Older tools for cleaning a cassette may not fit. It isn’t necessary to resort to butchers twine to floss debris out of the spaces. The changing number of cogs has made wider tools obsolete.

Bicycle chains for derailleur systems with 11 or 12 cogs on the cassette, measured by internal or external width:

  • internal – 11/128 inches = 2.2 mm;
  • external
    • 11 cog – 7/32 inches; 5.5 to 5.62 mm;
    • 12 cog – 13/64 inches = 5.3 mm.

Bike manufacturers buy chains and install the chains on new bikes. Even where the bike manufacturer uses a Shimano or other brand name drive train component set (crank arms, chain rings, derailleurs, rear cassette), the chain may be by another manufacturer. Bike manufacturers have begun to change their “current” models almost annually.

Most chains have standard dimensions. Some chains have specific features and limitations, requiring that the gears have specific dimensions and features. Component manufacturers and bike shops may suggest a chain should be made by the same brand as the rest of the drive train. This seems to be a myth.

Directions

Some chains are supposed to be installed to run in one direction. The “flat” side of a SRAM flat top chain is on the outside of the chain as it passes over the the teeth of the cogwheels of the cassette and of the chainwheel.

If a chain’s links are etched or stamped on one side, that side should be installed so that the arrow or text is visible and/or the arrow points forward as the link goes forward on the top side of the loop on the side of the bike from which the chain is accessible – the side:

  • with the cassette and the chain rings and
  • the chain passes over the chainstay moving from the driving wheel to the chainwheel.

Many chains are not etched or stamped. Some mechanics maintain that there are other ways that can determine which side of the chain should face the persons installing a chain.

Chain Gauges

The bike chain and bike tool industries developed tools to measure wear, called chain gauges (or chain checkers). Articles by the Australian cycling tech writer Dave Rome on checking for wear, based on discussions with Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling (“ZFC”), and on other sources):

  • Dave Rome at Bike Radar, 2016, How to know when it’s time to replace your bicycle chain;
  • Dave Rome at CyclingTips, August 2019 How to check for chain wear: The easy way, the best way, and why (no longer on line – Outside has dropped it as of late 2023 and early 2024) The ZFC measurement methods were explained in this article). (Dave Rome left CyclingTips in 2022. He contributes to the EscapeCollective media as of 2023 and early 2024).

There are videos on chain gauges and other chain tools, and online instructions on using them. There are several inexpensive drop-in checkers by previously unknown vendors for sale online; several claim to be laser cut. Adam Kerin of ZFC has published articles and videos on checking chains. There are videos and podcasts of his interviews. Adam Kerin’s advice on chain gauges, and some of his related advice on maintaining chains, can be summarized:

  • get a simple drop-in gauge;
  • make sure it is an accurate one;
  • know how to use your chain checker and use it regularly;
  • lubricate the chain regularly and clean it frequently. The cleaning will depend on conditions and which lubricant has been used;
  • consider checking chains on long rides and the possibility of replacement along the route;

For his ZFC chain wear (elongation) tests, discussed in Part 4, Adam Kerin used the (expensive) KMC digital caliper chain checker. Adam Kerin says a drop-in metal gauge is a sufficient tool for the rider/home mechanic, but”

  • cautions that drop-in gauges must be precisely made in video episode 5 of the ZFC YouTube series;
  • recommended the Shimano TL-CN42 because it is cut to the exact tolerance, and reliably free of manufacturing errors. The tool was not on Shimano’s US sites in early 2022 (or in 2023). Some dealers advertised at that time. It was out of stock at ZFC as of February, March and April 2022 but in stock at ZFC in late 2023 and early 2024. It was selling for nearly $90 (Canadian) on Amazon at times 2023-24.
  • said that many drop-in gauges are cast and finished poorly, and do not measure the short span to the tolerance required.

In his YouTube Video of February 2, 2024 on his ZFC channel, he discussed the drop in gauges which were known to accurate enough, without any reports of varying measurements between individual products of the same model.

He published his findings in a chain wear checker table. He said a few of the drop in gauges were accurate:

  • Shimano TL-CN42
  • Park Tools CC-4
  • Pedro’s
  • Abbey Bike Tools LL Chain Wear Tool 5Abbey Tools in advertising this tool in 2024 says “Most chain wear tools currently on the market are laser cut metal. This is a pretty cool process that’s great for making sheet metal parts, problem is the accuracy of this process isn’t great at +/-.010″ (.254mm). If you add the error of the tool itself to the roller variable it’s possible to double the error of the tool”.

Adam Kerin did not recommend the KMC digital caliper chain checker, on the basis that it is not a drop-in gauge, and is not inexpensive.

Dave Rome, the CyclingTips tech editor and correspondent in Australia described the subject of measuring chain wear as “murky” on the Ask the Mechanic segment in the NerdAlert podcast episode recorded February 21, 2022 6no longer on line – owner of the Outside family of content unpublished it as of late 2023. He noted the Park Tool CC-2 gauge is capable of some precision but is vulnerable to bending of the pins affecting the accuracy of measurement. He thought the Park Tool CC-3.2 drop-in gauge was reliable for most chains except some SRAM 12 speed chains. But Adam Kerin had reservations about it.

I had a ParkTool CC-3.2. It sold for about $12 US from US online bicycle supply stores (and for $18 or $35 from vendors in the Amazon market jungle) in 2022. I had no context or background on how often to use this or any chain checker. In 2022, I was wondering if it was accurate. I had a new chain available. My kludge to confirm my gauge was good enough: I tried it on a new chain (making sure the chain was taut). The tip did not drop in, and the tip did not pass the midline of the pin inside the roller the tip was touching.

The CC-3.2 measures total elongation – it does not “isolate” the rollers. It has hooks at one end, on each side, to fit against a roller. One side is machined to detect .75% wear. One side is machined to detect .50% wear in chains for 11 and 12 speed cassettes.

SideChainDistance
Hook to Tip
.75%7-8-9-10 speed≪172 mm
.50%11-12 speed≅171 mm

The manufacturer’s instructions recommend dropping a hook end into an inside link. The user should ensure the chain is taut and the hook is held against the roller. Park Tool says the device can be used at the top or the bottom of the loop (between chain ring and rear cog) – the derailleur spring should be pushing the chain taut at the bottom. This gauge spans nearly 14 pins; the tip can touch or fall short of the 14th roller. A chain is elongated when the tip falls does not rest on the roller at the other end (it is falling short) and drops into the inside of the link. The Park Tool CC-3.2 chain gauge measures a span just over 170 mm. to indicate if the elongation in a span exceeds .50%. In a span of 1/8 of the length of the chain the gauge has to detect the difference to a tolerance of .5 mm.

I started to use a Park Tool CC-4 and the Abbey Tools device in 2024.

Wear

How/Why

Open bearings are vulnerable to contamination. Roller chains have to be cleaned and re-lubricated. Even well maintained roller bearings will wear. A metal roller chain wears. This makes chain get longer. The plates and pins do not stretch, compress or deform.

The cause of elongation is believed by some riders to be “stretching” of the chain. Josh Poertner of Silca Velo 7noted in Part 4 of this series discusses wear as the cause of elongation, using a digital microscope device, to produce the video Microscopic Magic: Save Your Chain from Wearing Out! (July 30, 2024) to look at a badly worn chain (a SRAM PC 1051)

Some count 1 link as a set of 1 inner half-link and 1 outer half-link; others count all links.

Microscopic wear on individual links adds up. One of the consequences of wear is elongation. An elongated chain fails to fit the gears (cog wheels) – the chain wheel and the toothed wheel on the cassette on the rear wheel, cause wear on the gears.

With modern 11 and 12 speed bushingless chains, elongation of .5% (half of one percent) of the length of the chain leads to replacement. A chain may show almost no elongation wear for several hundred Km., and then wear rapidly. Chain wear is not linear.

Consumables

Bike, component and chain manufacturers expect consumers to accept chains which have limited durability. Purchasers of new bikes may have to replace or upgrade the chain frequently. The bike, component and chain manufacturing industries expect bike chains have have a short service life, which is defined as a short mean time before failure. Failure can mean breaking but it usually means elongation by wear.

They sell bikes with chains they expect to fail within a few thousand Km. of use.Whether bike and component manufacturers follow a strategy of planned obsolescence might be debated. The inspection and replacement methods used for industrial machines and motor vehicles – e.g. days or hours of operation or distance – do not work for most bikes and chains.

Few modern chains are good for more than a few thousand Km before becoming measurably worn – durability varies with chain material, riding conditions, lubrication and cleaning practices. Bike manufacturers trust the chain manufacturers. Consumers trust the manufacturers and the market.

Importance & Origins

Master links, devices that replace a single outer link, were noted in the BTI (Sheldon Brown) glossary. Master links for chains for single speed drive train chains were once rare. A few custom metal fabricators made and sold universal master links for derailleur shifting chains by any manufacturer on the market by the 1990’s – e.g. the Craig Super Link. Before master links, removing a chain involved pushing a pin out with a chain breaker tool, Installing a chain involve peening8some chainbreaker tools have peening anvils, and are capable a pin with a tool.

The master link makes removing a chain for cleaning, maintenance and replacement easier. Chain manufacturers developed proprietary master links for some of their chains. One of Shimano’s systems secured the master link with a special pin. Some manufacturers had three part links – 2 link plates and a spring plate to slide over the pins and clip the links. Connex/Wipperman still sells this kind of link. A few other universal links came on the market. The manufacturers were small or fabricated the devices in limited quantities. Some non-proprietary or univeral links are on market or in use. Some master links can be used by any chain of a given size, by any manufacturer. Master links can be used on chains are built to the standards of the pitch and width for compatibility with the number of cogs on the cassette on the drive wheel (i.e. links are machine to work on “11 speed” chains exclusively). Some manufacturers market links as compatible with other manufacturers’ chains of the same size – e.g. YBN. Others insist on branded links for their branded chains.

Many master links involve two parts. Each part is one link plate with one solid pin riveted to the plate. The pins are machined with a groove or slot at the free end that fits into a machined slot and hole in the opposite plate. Connex Wipperman uses curved slots for some models, and straight slots for others. Many manufacturers have one straight slot model in each size. For instance see the YBN product. Two part systems depend on getting both pins into the opposite slots and locking the link. Two part master links are made by Shimano, SRAM, YBN, KMC and others. The manufacturers’ names for their master links may cause some confusion.

Most two part master links are sold as “single use”. YBN’s 2 part master links, labelled Safe Sections and QRS (Quick Release-Safety) are sold by YBN and by vendors who (re)sell them as safe for five uses.

Josh Poertner, of Silca Velo shows how two part master links work in the June 26, 2024 Silca Velo video Chain QUICK LINKS: Are they keeping you from waxing?

Removal and Locking

Riders commonly reuse master links. Some users only remove a master link to replace a chain.

A master link may fail. The finely machined slots are vulnerable to microscopic, nearly invisible wear, fatigue and stress. The risk of the failure is real.Often failure is caused by improper installation. It is sometimes caused by wear of the finely machined slots in the pins and plates – which can be caused by removing and locking the link too often or damaging the locking slots.

Needle nosed pliers are too wide to close or open a master link on modern narrow chains. There are special pliers that can open and/or lock a link. Locking the master link without a locking tool depends getting the pins into the slots, holding the bike steady and stepping on a pedal.

A master link can be removed with master link pliers, like the Park Tool MLP-1.2, which is sold in bike shops and online for about $17 to $25 US. The Park Tool pliers can be used to lock or remove a master link, and can fit a chain as narrow as a 12 speed chain. There are other master link pliers on the market. Most are bulky or heavy enough that they will not fit in a seat pack. Light compact travel tools are available. Some of the compact tools store replacement links. The parts of a master link can be easily lost.

Master links are durable but vulnerable to wear and stress in places – the slots that hold and lock the pins. Immersive waxing requires removing the chain at intervals of a few hundred Km.

A user trying to remove a link from a chain on a bike will need to address the tension in the chain caused by the rear derailleur spring. When the link is released and pins are clear of the slots, the chain can snap, flinging the parts into space. Putting the chain on the smallest rear cog and the smallest chain ring (in 2x or 3x systems) reduces the tension. The user has to keep a grip on the chain which may be dirty and greasy. Some chain breaker tools have a wire accessory – the thickness of spoke – bent just less than 90 degrees at each end. This can be detached from the tool body and slipped over rollers of links beyond the master link. Some users make such an item with a piece of scrap spoke (a coat hanger may fit into outer plate links but not inner plate links in 10 speed or narrower chains). Some will shift to the smallest chain wheel and the smallest cogwheel on the cassette and manual take the chain off the chainwheel to remove the tension.

Bike Chains, Part 1

Preliminary

Revised

This is Part 1 of a series of 9 posts organized as a single article. There are 8 parts, individually published as posts on this blog, and a table of contents of the series in the 9th post. The series is organized into sections, numbered for reference, in the series table of contents and in the table of contents for each post. In March 2024 I began to reorganize and revise the long article. The project took several months.

Scope

I am not an engineer or mechanic. I have done basic home maintenance on my bikes. Until 2021, I had not read any information resources about chain wear online, or in any cycling magazines or books. My knowledge of bike tech was out of date, and my knowledge of maintenance was low.

This post explains:

  • when and how I became interested in bicycle drive chains,
  • the limitations of internet search as a tool for understanding a subject,
  • the safety bicycle,
  • basics of the roller chain drive train.

Finding Chain Wear

In April 2021, I thought I had less than 2,000 Km on the KMC X11 (11 speed) chain on my Cannondale Topstone gravel bike since August 2019 1 It was over 4,000 Km. I made changes to the drive train in 2021 during the Covid-19 lockdown:

  • Swapped the factory FSA crankset on the bike when I bought it in 2019, including the chain wheels (172.5 mm crank arms on the FSA crankset on a medium sized Topstone) for an FSA crankset with 165 mm crank arms, and
  • Had the Shimano rear cassette replaced with a SRAM cassette with some bigger cogwheels (“low gears”).

I had followed what I thought was normal practice in trying to clean the chain. I had been washing the chain every two or three weeks in a clamshell tool – a Park Tools CM-5.3 Cyclone chain cleaner – with a few ounces of Mountain Equipment Cooperative’s Bio-Cycle liquid cleaner. Immediately after the wash, I applied clean, (unused) drip lubes. I lubricated with brand name bicycle chain drip lube products: ProGold Pro-Link and Muc-Off’s retail “dry” lube product.

In April 2021, I still had problems: the chain did not respond to shifts, or skipped, or rubbed the front derailleur cage. I had thought the KMC X11 chain was a durable product. It is a comparatively good chain. I did not understand that bike and component manufacturers, and bike mechanics, regard chains as consumable. I had not known the industry standard for 11 speed chain elongation wear and chain replacement. I had a chain checker but I had not known how to use it or if it was reliable. In April 2021 my Park Tool CC-3.2 chain checker was reading that the chain was worn and should be replaced.

I located a SRAM PC 1130 chain and a supply of SRAM Powerlinks (SRAM proprietary master links). SRAM’s Canadian web site describes the PC 1130 chain as “an affordable, lightweight and precise option for all 11-speed groupsets” and the PC 1170 with these comments: “features more heavily chamfered outer plates for improved shifting and quieter running. The chrome hardened pin construction provides longer chain life.” SRAM and the store did not say anything about the steel used to make the chain, and did not claim that the model of chain was plated or treated with SRAM’s hard chromium steel.

I tried various lubrication products in 2021. I found by early 2022 that the SRAM PC 1130 chain was wearing fast too. SRAM made (and still makes) some high quality durable chains with the hard chromium treatment or plating. The SRAM PC1130 was a relatively inexpensive retail product, and not particularly durable.

Selling and Maintaining Bikes

Bikes have become more expensive and more complicated. Bikes are sold through bike shops. The bikes are built by a few “manufacturers” and sold through bike shops. The manufacturing of the components is done by many contractors. The modern manufacturer is a brand manager and a distributor. It may play a role in designing the bike and may control the manufacturing frames and some components. One of the modern manufacturer’s main risks is not getting paid. The modern manager manages that risk by demanding adequate security for orders. Another risk is not selling bikes. The modern manager manages that risk by marketing the brand and the model to the public (while actually wholesaling the bikes to bike shops).

Bike shops depend on manufacturers to publicize a bike model, and are subject to controls on pricing – subject to the competition laws (called anti-trust in the USA), in the countries where the bikes are offered for sale. Some brands have built or rented brand stores, or acquired and started to operate local bike stores. Bike stores depend on selling bikes for much of their income.

Bike shops charge customers for mechanics’ services and for repair parts. Bike shops, by the early 21st century, were setting rates and suggesting that customers bring bikes in for regular tune-ups. Customers familiar with the practices of automotive service industries are suspicious of advice about maintenance of bikes that seem to have been working fine for years. The amount of service provided in a regular tune-up may be minimal. It has become difficult for mechanics to get parts from bike and component firms, and mechanics may not be familiar with the right practices to repair some bikes and components.

Bike shops and mechanics are not necessarily supported by bike and component manufacturers. The brand managers do not set service schedules and do not enforce them, unless they provide warranty programs.

It is not possible to ignore return on investment, shareholder value, corporate governance, planned obsolescence, marketing, consumerism and other aspects of asset management and financial management practices by the managers of bicycle manufacturing firms. However, it not useful for me to use moral words like “avarice” in this article. Things that are not manufactured cannot be bought or used. Bikes, parts, accessories and other products are consumer products, built to standards of functionality, durability, cost and other economic factors. Bikes require the attention of mechanics and regular maintenance that most customers do not have the knowledge or experience to provide. In that context, I have wondered about:

  • What is “quality” in a bicycle chain?
  • What is a good lubricant?
  • How much knowledge does a user need about cleaning and maintenance?
  • What amount of time and effort should go into
    • bike maintenance,
    • drive train maintenance,
    • chain lubrication, cleaning and maintenance?

1. The History of the Bicycle

Safety Bicycle

The wooden-framed draisines and “velocipedes” of the early 19th century, which lacked drive trains, were precursors of the safety bicycle. A rider sat on a wheeled frame, propelled by the rider’s pushing against the ground. When such vehicles was introduced to cities on the eastern coast of the USA, they were banned in New York City in 18192The ban is discussed by Evan Friss in his 2019 book On Bicycles. Examples of these device:

  • the Laufmaschine designed by Karl von Drais, patented in Germany in 1818.
  • the pedestrian curricle patented in England by Denis Johnson.)

Metal bicycles, propelled by pedals attached by some mechanism to the hub of the driving wheel, also called velocipedes, were manufactured in France in the 1850s and ’60s. Most of the middle 19th century “Boneshaker” velocipedes were made of wrought iron. These did not, generally, have chain drives. Several American businesses were making metal velocipedes by the end of the 1860’s3Evan Friss addressed this in his book, noted above. Thomas Pickering had an American patent for a velocipede in 1869. The high mount bicycles (e.g. the pennyfarthing) of the 1880s were powered with pedals connected to crankshaft arms converting linear force on the pedals to rotate a driving wheel, which converted rotational force to linear forward force on the bicycle.

The use of a drive chain to connect pedals revolving in one location to the driving wheel was introduced by Harry John Lawson in England in the 1870s. Most other features of the safety bicycle were present in John Kemp Starley’s Rover, which was introduced in England in 1886, and regarded as the first safety bicycle. The features of the Rover, and other innovations (pneumatic tires, roller chains) were copied by European and American manufacturers. The safety bicycle was developed in the United States and in Europe by inventors, mechanics and industrial manufacturers in late 19th century. It is the “original” bicycle. It was developed in spite of the fact that most roads were suited to horses and horse-drawn carriages, and few roads were paved. The safety bicycle was a product of industry of the late 19th century, made of steel tubes, steel components and rubber. The safety bicycle involves several elements:

  • two wheels, in line, each with hubs allowing the wheels to rotate in the direction the bike is moving, usually with a power wheel in the back and a steering wheel in the front;
  • a frame to hold the wheels, support the rider, and allow the rider to push the pedals down, to rotate a driving gearwheel – i.e. to connect a drive train. Safety bicycles mainly had steel frames. By 1890 hollow steel tubes were available;
  • a drive train – pedals pushed vertically by the rider revolving driving gears (chain wheel(s)) powering a drive chain (comprised of link plates and bearings) powering a driven gear(s) attached to the drive wheel;
  • an assembly attaching the steering wheel to the frame;
  • a steering device (handlebar) with devices to control brakes outside the wheel and, for many bikes, to shift the drive chain between gears.
  • the use of many bearings (to allow the wheels, the pedals and the crank arms to revolve and to allow the steering wheel to be turned);
  • pneumatic tires;
  • brakes, either inside the wheel hubs (coaster brakes), or on the outside of the wheel (rim brakes and disc brakes).

Most bicycles manufactured since 1890 are variations of the safety bicycle, industrial products, manufactured from manufactured components. The frame, wheels and most components other than tires were, made of steel 4an alloy of iron and small amounts of carbon and of other metals made by melting mineral ores in furnaces forged using the most modern methods known at the time. The bicycle became possible after industries developed efficient methods for the production of steel and the machining of steel into

  • tubes,
  • bearings,
  • sheets,
  • pins and
  • shaped forms of thin steel (e.g. wire spokes, the rims of wire wheels, bolts, screws and threaded fittings)

The technology and industry of the “invention” and manufacturing of the first safety bicycles is discussed in several Wikipedia articles:

Orville and Wilbur Wright had a bike shop in Dayton Ohio and manufactured bicycles from 1896 until they gave up when cheaper mass produced safety bicycles became available, and turned to inventing airplanes. See:

Cycling fell out of fashion among inhabitants of the large American cities, and the American bicycle boom of the 1890s ended. There were several factors:

  • the inexpensive, durable single speed utility bicycle lacked other marketable selling qualities;
  • lack of roads and infrastructure in the early 20th century;
  • the lower demand for bicycles and lower prices of industrially mass produced bicycles affected bike shops;
  • the planning of transportation infrastructure around the automobile, and the lack of resources for bike paths, bike lanes and bike trails;
  • the limitations on cycling as means of commuting to work, traveling to shop and transporting purchased goods.

Features

Drive and Frames

The process for making seamless steel tubes was first patented in Germany in the 1880s. The thin walled steel tube was an important component in building the frames the safety bicycle in the 1890s and the first several decades of 20th century. Later, frames have been made with

  • wood and bamboo,
  • other metals – aluminum and titanium,
  • plastics and carbon fiber (a form of fiberglass, a plastic composite).
Wheels

Bicycle wheels, since the safety bicycle, have mainly been wire wheels, although to solid wheels have been used on some track and time trial racing bikes. Wire wheels were invented in 1808 by George Cayley. The rims have been steel but other materials are used. The spokes have been steel, but other materials have been used. The majority of hubs have been steel, but other materials have been used.

The drive wheel usually has a mechanism that allows the rider to propel the bike by pressing the pedals down and rotating the pedals forward and to coast by not pedaling. (With derailleurs and external gears the rider can also pedal backward; with coaster brakes pedaling backwards engages the brakes) The pedals are attached to crank arms attached to a spindle held by an assembly of bearings in the bottom bracket, at the bottom of the frame at the middle of the bike.

Bearings

The original safety bicycle had hundreds of individual bearings in several assemblies:

  • in the the hubs, bearings allowing the wheels to rotate;
  • in the bottom bracket, bearings for the rotation of the crankarms;
  • in the headset, bearing for the rotation of the handlebars and the steering.

A 21st century bicycle’s bearing sets are discussed in an article in BikeRadar dated in 2018.

Drive Trains

The drive train involves:

  • The rider who provides work, pushing on pedals;
  • Pedals revolve at the ends of crankshafts (crank arms) that rotate around a spindle in a bearing (the bottom bracket) in a structure in the frame of the bicycle (the bottom bracket shell);
  • A driving gear called a chainwheel on a bicycle;
  • A roller chain which fits between the cogs (i.e. the teeth) of the driving gear wheel and the cogs of the driven gear wheel(s);
  • Driven gear(s) on the drive wheel.

The drive train is a feature of single-speed bikes, utility bikes, most “road”, “mountain”, “hybrid”, “gravel”. “all-road” and other kinds of bikes. Chain drives became and remain the main kind of drive train used by manufacturers. There has been a Wikipedia article on bicycle drivetrain systems since 2010.

A toothed wheel is called a sprocket (technically, a gear or gear wheel that meshes with a chain and not directly with another gear). The sprockets stacked on a cassette on the drive wheel of a bicycle are often called cogs (technically the cogs are the teeth).

Variety

Examples

The safety bicycle has been incrementally redesigned. An article in Bicycle Times in 2017 5online in 2024 without illustrations in Bicycling, an online publication or “magazine service” operated or owned by Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. or its affiliates was illustrated with images of 25 “influential” bicycle designs, including 19th century proto-bicycles, a couple of high mounts, Lawson’s design with a chain drive, the Rover (an English design believed to be the most successful early safety bicycle), a few other historical styles including the 1897 Spalding 6which then made bikes, as well as balls and other sporting gear Military (used by the US Army 25th Bicycle Infantry Corps; the article states incorrectly it was a 1986 design) and several 20th century styles. The article includes some single speed utility bikes but does not include:

  • designs since about 1993, except a 2005 fat tire bike;
  • cargo bikes;
  • rickshaws;
  • recumbent bicycles and tricycles;
  • tricycles;
  • tandems; and
  • e-bikes.
Single Speed Bicycles

Utility bicycles and other single speed bicycles were popular in Europe and North America as inexpensive durable vehicles for transportation over short distances, until the 1970s. These bicycles typically had bushed roller chain drive trains.

Racing

Bicycle racing on tracks, in velodromes and on roads became a popular entertainment in the United States and Europe. It became the source of innovations in bicycle design, components, the organization of racing events and the organization of sports. Some track racing bikes had a single gear, and did not have freewheels or brakes. Road racing led to the developments such as the derailleur mechanism for shifting gears, which influenced design and manufacturing of drive chains. There is a misconception (I have seen in a video on Global Cycling Networks YouTube channel in 2024) that derailleurs were invented by Tullio Campagnolo in about 1940. Derailleurs were in use since the early 20th century soon after road racing on racing bicycles in Europe became popular. There a hundreds of regional annual road racing events contested by teams of professional cyclists, including the 3 western European Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España). Other events for specialized racing bicycles:

  • Cyclo-cross races on variants of road racing bikes with special tires on unpaved courses.
  • Completing a long course in a fixed time, riding at night, and using unpaved roads (e.g. in Randonneuring).

The parallelogram rear derailleur was developed in the 1930s and adopted by road racing teams. Gentullio Campagnolo invented the quick-release skewer in 1930, the Cambia Corsa rear derailleur in 1933, and introduced the Gran Sport parallelogram rear derailleur in 1949.

Derailleurs did not become common road racing equipment until 1938 when Simplex introduced a cable-shifted derailleur.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur#History
Off-road

Mountain Bicycles for off-road use were developed in the 1970s in the USA and were immediately put to use in racing events. The mountain bike brought many innovations in how bicycles were designed and built. New entrepreneurs began to manufacture new bikes and components and accessories. The derailleur was adopted as the preferred gear changing system for mountain bikes

Industry

Motor Vehicles

The motor vehicle industries were more successful in attracting financial resources, technical resources, consumer interest and political support than bicycle manufacturers, dealers, and shops. Motor vehicle manufacturing produced complex expensive machines and supported research on materials, tools and products.

Infrastructure (paved roads and bridges)

Motor vehicle use affected infrastructure in ways that improved public resources and affected the safety of cyclists. There were many paved roads in some parts of the world in the late 19th century. Many roads were paved or graded and surfaced with gravel to support the use of motor vehicles in the transportation of passengers and freight. Many roads are not safe for cyclists.

Globalized Bicycle Industry

Information on the development of bicycle manufacturing is not a popular Internet topic. At one time, after World War II, Americans imported many bicycles from Europe. There are fragments of information about the competition between French and Italian manufacturers in selling bikes to American distributors that discuss currency and trade issues before parts of Europe adopted common currency and before European and American manufacturers outsourced manufacturing to Asian factories. Italian bicycles, manufactured in Italy were attractive to American wholesale distributors because of the comparative currencies, and the impression of some Americans that Italian products were high value luxury products making Italian bicycles look like bargains.

David Edgerton counted bicycles as an old technology that was adapted in Asia in his 2007 book The Shock of the Old: Technology in Global History Since 1900. There is not a great deal of information about bicycle production in Asia on the Web. Bike manufacturing in Asia up to the 1970s was mainly devoted making bicycles for riders in Asia. The manufacturing capacity of Asian countries increased as American and European bike brands, then Asian component brands globalized (i.e. off-shored) their production. Several countries in Asia became manufacturing locations. Part of the Asian production was commissioned by bike manufacturers elsewhere in the world. Asian manufacturers became proficient in producing new bicycles and components for the world market. The ownership of bicycles increased in Asia as Asian production increased in the 1970s.

Shifts in consumer tastes in Europe and North America spread to other parts of the world. Consumers in Asia began to purchase bicycles similar to bicycles popular in other parts of the world. As they have become more affluent, Asian consumers have purchased more motor vehicles.

Bike shops

Factories

In the late 19th century bikes were still made in shops. The bike shop was, in that era, in a transition from the blacksmith shop where metal metal was worked for horse-powered transport. The problems solved by the artisans and mechanics who built safety bicycles in ” bike shops” at the end of the 19th century were probably recorded by journalists and published, but the information is not easily located on the internet.

For several decades in the 20th century, bike shops were machine shops with the machinery and mechanics to weld, cut and drill metal. Some shops evolved into manufacturers of bike tools or supplies – e.g. Park Tool of St. Paul Minnesota.

Journalists have visited some of the American, European and Japanese makers of customer bicycles and reviewed the way bikes were being manufactured at points in the 20th century. Jan Heine, the publisher of Bicycle Quarterly magazine, has studied

  • the way steel framed bicycles were made in France in the 1940s and 1950s,
  • the way Japanese artisans made
    • specialized steel framed bicycles for racing, and
    • specialized bicycles to ride into accessible mountain passes (“pass hunting”).
Bike Brand Shops

The industrial production of bicycles requires access to manufactured materials, energy, labor and knowledge. Investors want a return on investment. Bike brands developed networks for distributing and selling bikes as the industry evolved.The modern bike brand generates profit by reducing the costs of “raw” materials and labor, and by selling new bikes.

A few bike brands manufacture and sell department store bikes to general retail stores. General retail stores generally do not provide repair and service bicycles, or employ mechanics.

Many bike brands sell bikes to affiliated bike shops on credit at “wholesale” price, and make sure dealers pay for bikes delivered on time, and try to hold shops to selling bikes at the brand’s list prices. Affiliated bike shops have become sales outlets for bike brands – bike stores. Some brands tried to reduce cost and risks by opening brand stores. Locally, in Victoria BC, Trek bought an existing store and made it a Trek store, and Giant opened a downtown brand store.

Mechanics

The Wikipedia page about bike mechanics notes that this trade is sometimes recognized as a profession, or a skilled trade. In some areas of the world, a bike mechanic must be licensed and trained. In the USA and Canada, there is no licencing. Some bike mechanics have taken a formal course offered by a tool manufacturer (Park Tools, for example, offers some courses in person and many online resources such as YouTube videos. Most bike mechanics learn by serving a sort of apprenticeship. Many mechanics work for bike shops. A successful mechanic may expect to work for a successful competitive team’s sponsors and investors.

Wikipedia pages about mechanics discusses mainly the trade or profession of repairing and maintaining automobiles, trucks, “heavy” construction and farming machines, marine engines, and industrial machines. Mechanics built and maintained the industrial machines of the industrial revolution. Many machines must be operated by trained and skilled machinists.

Bike shops are expected to find ways to sell repair and upgrade services on a sustainable basis – which means selling bundles of annual or periodic “tune-ups”. Consumers familiar with the predatory practices of automobile service shops are unable to tell when mechanics are recommending necessary service or sowing fear, uncertainty and doubt about the conditions of bicycles.

2. Knowledge about Bicycles

Published Information

The bicycle was marketed and maintained in cultures with established methods of publishing information in print on paper. Information about materials, designs, mass production and marketing was not necessarily written down, or published. It required someone who was ready to write and publish information. The knowledge, skills and resources to publish and distribute newspapers, magazines and books were governed by technical and economic factors.

Some papers and books about the history and uses of bicycles have been written by historians, social scientist and engineers. These can be found in the archives of academic journals and in academic libraries, with effort

Some books about bicycle repair and maintenance were published and available from book stores and libraries. Some were written by mechanics or journalists who had established themselves in cycling magazines. Many books went out of print; few were added to library collections and many were removed from library collections. Few were digitized and published online.

Only a fraction of the knowledge of designers, makers, mechanics, professional riders, cycling fans and non-professional riders was published. Much that was published was published by journalists in periodicals. Much was transient information, of little use even within days. Journalism recorded some knowledge about building and maintaining bicycles.

Tom Nichols, in his 2017 book, The Death of Expertise (noted below) applied Sturgeon’s Law 7SF writer Ted Sturgeon, 1956 “90% of everything is crap” to journalism in 2017:

… many people do not seeks information as much as confirmation, and when they receive information they do not like, they will gravitate to sources they prefer … Today, hundreds of media outlets cater to even the narrowest agendas and biases.

This mindset and the market that services it, creates … a combination of groundless confidence and deep cynicism …

Americans increasingly don’t trust anyone anymore. They view all institutions, including the media, with disdain.

Nichols, The Death of Expertise, cited below, pp. 157-158

Jan Heine, the proprietor of René Herse Cycles (formerly Compass Cycles) and Bicycle Quarterly is a fan of French bikes made 1935-1970 and regarded French bikes including Rene Herse bikes as good examples of all-road bicycles. He has published several books on 20th century bike building in France and Japan, most recently, The All-Road Bicycle Revolution (2021) which discusses “how all-road bikes work and what is important when choosing one. A must-read for cyclists interested in the technology of their bikes, and for every cyclist contemplating his or her next bike purchase.” It discussed elements of 20th century bike building techniques, and ideas about bikes. It notes that mid-20th century French randonneuse bikes demonstrate that the most recent technology is not necessary to make an efficient bicycle. Jan Heine also writes about modern bikes and gear. His company produces and sells modern tires and repair parts.

Some journalists and writers have produced books about cycling that may circulate in public library collections. For instance, in 2019 Evan Friss’s On Bicycles, A 200 Year History of Cycling in New York City was published by the Columbia University Press.

Some printed books and e-books about maintenance are available. In some instances, the book accompanies or summarizes advice delivered in other media. Examples:

  • Lennard Zinn, an experienced mechanic and journalist wrote successful books that are reasonably current, summarizing advice delivered in magazine columns:
    • Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance (VeloPress, 4th edition), was published in 2013. The 5th edition was published October 2023 (distributed by Simon and Schuster). The 6th edition is expected to be published in June 2024;
    • The 6th edition, (2018) of Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance is the most recent edition of that book;
  • Park Tools, the manufacturer of bike tools, publishes The Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair. The current 4th edition was published in 2019. It is available as a print book from on line bookstores and bicycle supply stores, and as an ebook for the Amazon Kindle device;
  • The producers of the Global Cycling Network web products published GCN’s Essential Road Bike Maintenance in 2024 (sold by direct Web sales from GCN sites).

Science

Memory, common sense, consensus, evidence

Most people are aware of a particular cultural consensus reality which is based in part on observation and other sensory experience as recalled in memory and partly on the words of other people as recited in oral and written evidence, and in stories about the causes of things and events.

Many people are aware that some kinds of facts are based on evidence of things that few or no human beings have experienced or perceived without tools. The British Royal Society’s motto, adopted in the 17th century, Nullius in Verba, The society’s motto, Nullius in verba, is Latin for “Take nobody’s word for it”.8 It comes from the Roman historian Horace’s Epistles where he compares himself to a gladiator who, having retired, is free from control. reflecting the view of 17th century pioneers in science that common sense, common knowledge, religious belief and other ways of evaluating evidence were inferior to the most reliable physical evidence.

There has been an ongoing discussion in philosophy about what science can prove or disprove. According to Karl Popper (1934) a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can (and should) be scrutinized with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical account of knowledge, which he replaced with critical rationalism. According to Thomas Kuhn (1962) scientific fields undergo periodic “paradigm shifts” rather than solely progressing in a linear and continuous way, and that these paradigm shifts open up new approaches to understanding what scientists would never have considered valid before; and that the notion of scientific truth, at any given moment, cannot be established solely by objective criteria but is defined by a consensus of a scientific community.

There has been tension between the ideas of science and knowledge and political and social ideas about freedom and democracy in the 20th and 21st centuries. This has played out in real conflicts about decisions about science – the 21st century attacks by populists on “elitists” over vaccinations and other measures to control the transmission of the Covid-19 viruses are an example. In 2024 the effects of the internet were discussed in a public-facing article by Brian Leiter, “Free Speech on the Internet: The Crisis of Epistemic Authority” in the journal Daedelus.

Some expressions became popular with American workers and journalists, and many consumers:

“Wise Crowds”

Professional and competitive riders, working people who use bikes, commuters, people who ride for physical exercise, recreational riders, mechanics, business people, engineers, chemists and physicists have different ideas about what is good or useful.

The concept of a “wise crowd” is a statistical fact, but it does not mean that the opinions of a majority of people with opinions can be condensed to a crowd view of the facts about a technical idea. Is there a scientific consensus about bicycle chains? People who sell, fix, buy or ride bicycles do not assess facts the same way. Can a consensus be found using internet searching? Published material on the internet on the subject disagrees about a lot.

The Internet

Content

In commenting on material on the Internet, Tom Nichols, in his book, The Death of Expertise 10witty and quotable, which makes up for flaws. But not a book about cycling.. Tom Nichols refers to SF writer Ted Sturgeon’s 1956 Law, “ninety percent of everything is crap” to make a point about search services:

The sheer size and volume of the Internet, and the inability to separate meaningful knowledge from random noise, means that good information will always be swamped by lousy data and weird detours. Worse, there’s no way of keeping up with it all …

….

… finding [good] information means plowing through a blizzard of useless or misleading information posted by everyone from …

Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise, Oxford University Press, New York, 2017, at pp. 107-108

The book does not deal with bicycles. Nichols was complaining about the “death” of deference to his kind of expertise – the political discipline of international relations – a specialized area, but an unruly area for discussion. Nichols complains that the internet undermines the epistemic authority of persons who have expertise, but does not discuss analyze why the internet has facilitated the publication of falsehoods and unfounded beliefs as well as others have done.

The internet and Web came into being near the end of the 20th century, a century after mass production of safety bicycles and components began. The information about bicycle drive trains published on the internet reflects the knowledge and interests of cyclists and mechanics from 1980 to the early 2020s. The internet does not “know” about things that no one has tried to publish on the internet.

In the early days of the Internet, text had to be typed in to be published online. How much information was ever digitized? What publications were scanned or subjected to OCR with good character recognition? Were copyright issues negotiated? Much scientific and engineering material on internet and the web on materials like steel and lubricants has been copyrighted or is protected by some form of Intellectual Property laws; on the internet it may be gated or pay-walled.

Search Engines

A web search engine sifts content looking for text strings. Searches depend on searchable lines of text, an item title, or the organization of the resource (the identity of an author or publisher, channels, tags, indices etc.). Searches generate lists of links. Some search engine hits are still (in 2024) predominantly text or text with static images. Many pages and videos:

  • are direct advertisements for products, or endorsements;
  • are low value “reviews”.

Search engines can, with luck or careful queries, find articles that illustrate or explain the history of a technical idea, or adoption of technology by designers, manufacturers, investors, journalists and people who can afford to buy bicycles (and high speed internet), but cannot construct the history.

Search engines may show hits for videos, including YouTube videos but usually not podcasts. For podcasts, a user needs to search for podcast in an podcast index. After getting a good hit, a user needs luck and time to find the moments when a subject will be explained. Searches often miss recorded audio and video material (podcasts, YouTube) .

Reviews can be useful in finding products, but have limited value in evaluating products. It is not possible to find out how the author or publisher has influenced, or has preconceptions. Many reviews reflect personal experience in conditions that are not clearly explained, or quick reactions. The comparisons are between the products which the author or publisher mentions i.e. are limited to as to what is available or known to the writer. The testing, if any, is not scientific and does not assess the actual conditions of use. Many reviews or overviews are catalogues of methods, sometimes narrow, sometimes overly broad. Many make improbable claims about products.

Wikipedia

There are criticisms about whether and when Wikipedia provides accurate information on all topics. Wikipedia is reasonably fulsome on several relevant topics. The Wikipedia page for bicycle chain notes that chain cleaning and lubrication are complicated and controversial:

How best to lubricate a bicycle chain is a commonly debated question among cyclists. Liquid lubricants penetrate to the inside of the links and are not easily displaced, but quickly attract dirt. “Dry” lubricants, often containing wax or Teflon, are transported by an evaporating solvent, and stay cleaner in use. The cardinal rule for long chain life is never to lubricate a dirty chain, as this washes abrasive particles into the rollers. Chains should be cleaned before lubrication. The chain should be wiped dry after the lubricant has had enough time to penetrate the links. An alternative approach is to change the (relatively cheap) chain very frequently; then proper care is less important. Some utility bicycles have fully enclosing chain guards, which virtually eliminate chain wear and maintenance. On recumbent bicycles the chain is often run through tubes to prevent it from picking up dirt, and to keep the cyclist’s leg free from oil and dirt.

Wikipedia (October 2021) on Bicycle Chain

There are many resources reflecting many opinions. Comments in forums often reflect experience, but the amount of experience with the products is not clear. Some comments reflect frustration that the bike industry keeps selling more expensive new bikes and components while bikes are harder to maintain without tools, supplies and knowledge.

Large Platforms

Cory Doctorow writes some SF, and some non-fiction about the internet, information technology and business. He has written about the business practices of the large tech companies including The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (2023) and Chokepoint Capitalism (2022). He identifies Google search as a leading example of a business strategy, which he names in an unflattering way:

… let’s examine how enshittification works. It’s a three-stage process: first, platforms are good to their users. Then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers. Finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, there is a fourth stage: they die

Cory Doctorow, ‘Enshittification’ is coming for absolutely everything, Financial Times, February 7, 2024

Google Search was once the best Web search service. Users believed the Google company when it said it was against evil (self-serving, greedy tricks?). The modern Google search tool is full of advertising. Search returns now promote “sponsored” content. Cory Doctorow on Google search:

Google’s search results are terrible. The top of the page is dominated by spam, scams, and ads. A surprising number of those ads are scams. Sometimes, these are high-stakes scams played out by well-resourced adversaries who stand to make a fortune by tricking Google …

But often these scams are perpetrated by petty grifters who are making a couple bucks at this. These aren’t hyper-resourced, sophisticated attackers. They’re the SEO [search engine optimization] equivalent of script kiddies, and they’re running circles around Google …

Google search is empirically worsening. The SEO industry spends every hour that god sends trying to figure out how to sleaze their way to the top of the search results, and even if Google defeats 99% of these attempts, the 1% that squeak through end up dominating the results page for any consequential query …

….

… Google’s algorithmic failures, which send the worst sites to the top of the heap, have made it impossible for high-quality review sites to compete …

You’ve doubtless encountered these bad review sites. Search for “Best ______ 2024” and the results are a series of near-identical lists, strewn with Amazon affiliate links. Google has endlessly tinkered with its guidelines and algorithmic weights for review sites, and none of it has made a difference. For example, when Google instituted a policy that reviewers should “discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research,” sites that had previously regurgitated the same lists of the same top ten Amazon bestsellers “peppered their pages with references to a ‘rigorous testing process,’ their ‘lab team,’ subject matter experts ‘they collaborated with,’ and complicated methodologies that seem impressive at a cursory look.”

But … grandiose claims … result in zero in-depth reviews and no published data. Moreover, these claims to rigorous testing materialized within a few days of Google changing its search ranking and said that high rankings would be reserved for sites that did testing.

Cory Doctorow, Pluralisic Blog, February 21,2024

Bruce Schneier and Judith Donath made a similiar point discussing search using “AI” tools built with Large-Language Model (“LLM”) technology:

… [publishing’s] core task is to connect writers to an audience. Publishers work as gatekeepers, filtering candidates and then amplifying the chosen ones. Hoping to be selected, writers shape their work in various ways. This article might be written very differently in an academic publication, for example, and publishing it here entailed pitching an editor, revising multiple drafts for style and focus, and so on.

The internet initially promised to change this process. Anyone could publish anything! But so much was published that finding anything useful grew challenging. It quickly became apparent that the deluge of media made many of the functions that traditional publishers supplied even more necessary.

Technology companies developed automated models to take on this massive task of filtering content, ushering in the era of the algorithmic publisher. The most familiar, and powerful, of these publishers is Google. Its search algorithm is now the web’s omnipotent filter and its most influential amplifier, able to bring millions of eyes to pages it ranks highly, and dooming to obscurity those it ranks low.

In response, a multibillion-dollar industry—search-engine optimization, or SEO—has emerged to cater to Google’s shifting preferences, strategizing new ways for websites to rank higher on search-results pages and thus attain more traffic and lucrative ad impressions.

Unlike human publishers, Google cannot read. It uses proxies, such as incoming links or relevant keywords, to assess the meaning and quality of the billions of pages it indexes. Ideally, Google’s interests align with those of human creators and audiences: People want to find high-quality, relevant material, and the tech giant wants its search engine to be the go-to destination for finding such material. Yet SEO is also used by bad actors who manipulate the system to place undeserving material—often spammy or deceptive—high in search-result rankings. Early search engines relied on keywords; soon, scammers figured out how to invisibly stuff deceptive ones into content, causing their undesirable sites to surface in seemingly unrelated searches. Then Google developed PageRank, which assesses websites based on the number and quality of other sites that link to it. In response, scammers built link farms and spammed comment sections, falsely presenting their trashy pages as authoritative.

Google’s ever-evolving solutions to filter out these deceptions have sometimes warped the style and substance of even legitimate writing. When it was rumored that time spent on a page was a factor in the algorithm’s assessment, writers responded by padding their material, forcing readers to click multiple times to reach the information they wanted. This may be one reason every online recipe seems to feature pages of meandering reminiscences before arriving at the ingredient list.

The arrival of generative-AI tools has introduced a voracious new consumer of writing. Large language models, or LLMs, are trained on massive troves of material—nearly the entire internet in some cases. They digest these data into an immeasurably complex network of probabilities, which enables them to synthesize seemingly new and intelligently created material; to write code, summarize documents, and answer direct questions in ways that can appear human.

These LLMs have begun to disrupt the traditional relationship between writer and reader. Type how to fix broken headlight into a search engine, and it returns a list of links to websites and videos that explain the process. Ask an LLM the same thing and it will just tell you how to do it. Some consumers may see this as an improvement: Why wade through the process of following multiple links to find the answer you seek, when an LLM will neatly summarize the various relevant answers to your query? Tech companies have proposed that these conversational, personalized answers are the future of information-seeking. But this supposed convenience will ultimately come at a huge cost for all of us web users.

Bruce Schneier, Judith Donath, The Rise of Large-Language Model Optimization, April 25, 2024, Schneier on Security

Another factor has been a change in Google’s vision of the scope of its mission in response to the use of AI generated content. An SEO consultant complained in 2024:

You’re facing a future where AI can generate infinite amounts of human-like content. What do you do?

Google’s response was twofold:

  1. Promote the vague concept of E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). In practice, this translates to favoring well-known brands and established websites.
  2. Abandon the mission of indexing everything. Instead, become selective. Very selective.

… Google is no longer trying to index the entire web. … it’s become extremely selective, refusing to index most content. This isn’t about content creators failing to meet some arbitrary standard of quality. … it’s a fundamental change in how Google approaches its role as a search engine.

… Google now seems to operate on a “default to not index” basis. It only includes content in its index when it perceives a genuine need. This decision appears to be based on various factors:

  • Extreme content uniqueness: It’s not enough to write about something that isn’t extensively covered. Google seems to require content to be genuinely novel or fill a significant gap in its index.
  • Perceived authority: Sites that Google considers highly authoritative in their niche may have more content indexed, but even then, it’s not guaranteed.
  • Brand recognition: Well-known brands often see most of their content indexed, while small or unknown bloggers face much stricter selectivity.
  • Temporary indexing and de-indexing: In practice, Google often indexes new content quite quickly, likely to avoid missing out on breaking news or important updates. Soon after, Google may de-index the content, and it remains de-indexed thereafter. So getting initially indexed isn’t necessarily a sign that Google considers your content valuable.
Vincent Schmalbach, July 15, 2024 Google Now Defaults to Not Indexing Your Content

This was noted by other commentators:

If this is indeed what Google is up to, then you have to wonder what its leaders have been smoking. Among other things, they’re proposing to build machines that can sensibly assess qualities such as expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness in an online world where just about anything goes. Could someone please take them aside and remind them that a tech company tried something like this way back in 1995 and came unstuck. It was called Yahoo! Remember it?

John Naughton, The Guardian (Observer magazine), Joly 20, 2024, Google’s wrong answer to the threat of AI – stop indexing content

Other Google “services” e.g. YouTube, and most other commercial search platforms share the problems.

Web Sites

Mechanics and Journalists

Web sites discuss aspects of cycling, bicycle maintenance etc. Many have articles or pages on maintaining drive chains. For instance: BikeRadar, June 26, 2022 , Bicycle chains explained

Sheldon Brown, a bike mechanic in Boston, and a modern polymath, started writing on the Web by the early 1990s. He had contacts among local riders and shops, and participated in Usenet news groups and other online forums on cycling. Sheldon Brown and his original contributors wrote extensively and collected internet material. The Bicycle Technical Information pages (“BTI”) were a leading online source of information about bicycle repair and bicycles. The pages captured parts of the histories of bicycles and components, manufacturing, repair, touring and riding. Sheldon Brown admired and promoted Sutherlands Handbook for Bicycle Mechanics by Howard Sutherland, (the 6th and 7th editions are available as of 2022-2024 from Sutherland’s Bicycle Shop Aids in California), and published articles by several authors on technical bicycle repair and maintenance matters. His web wages on cycling were hosted by his employer, Harris Cyclery, until it closed in 2021. The BTI pages have been updated since his death in 2008, and continued to be published after Harris Cyclery closed in June 2021 by a community of friends and fans; some topics have been updated or added. The BTI pages that mention chains, lubrication and maintenance include:

Some of the contributors to the BTI pages were engineers and mechanics. Some read speculative (science) fiction, and used folk sayings that had been used in SF (e.g. TANSTAFL, kludge) to describe the experience the realities of riding and fixing bicycles and the results of the financial, organizational and decision making processes of bicycle manufacturers, politicians and traffic engineers.

The BTI pages reflect a perspective on innovations in the bicycle building and selling industries in the 1990s. Some comments on maintaining and lubricating chains on the BTI pages do not hold up (for instance, that riders should not try to remove factory grease from a chain). The BTI pages do not address many maintenance issues arising from innovations, since then, although some pages have been updated.

Other sources – for example Park Tools books and social media (YouTube videos) have become useful.

This comment in a BTI page still rings true:

Chain maintenance is one of the most controversial aspects of bicycle mechanics. Chain durability is affected by riding style, gear choice, whether the bicycle is ridden in rain or snow, type of soil in the local terrain, type of lubricant, lubrication techniques, and the sizes and condition of the bicycle’s sprockets. Because there are so many variables, it has not been possible to do controlled experiments under real-world conditions. As a result, everybody’s advice about chain maintenance is based on anecdotal “evidence” and experience. Experts disagree on this subject, sometimes bitterly. This is sometimes considered a “religious” matter in the bicycle community, and much vituperative invective has been uttered in this regard between different schismatic cults.

Bicycle Technical Information, Chain Maintenance by Sheldon Brown and John Allen. See the heading “A Religious Question”

Some scientific research and publications are summarized in Bike Chains, Part 3 in this series, under the headings and subheadings Lubricants: Scientists, Lubricants: Paraffin, and Lubricating a Chain: Academic Research.

Online Magazines, Journals & Cycling Sites

Sheldon Brown & John Allen, Bicycle Technical Information, Chain Maintenance

BikeGremlin take the range of views and experiences of riders and mechanics into account. It addressed lubrication in the article Bicycle Chain Lubricants explained, apparently written in 2016 and updated in 2018 and 2021.

BikeRadar ran its Complete Guide to Bike Gears in April 2020, an introduction and overview of drive trains.

CyclingTips was an online cycling magazine with strong technical coverage. CyclingTips covered chain maintenance, cleaning, lubrication and wear and modern pioneers of testing lubricants and chains in text articles and audio media. CyclingTips published some “endless FAQ” articles (detailed articles, periodically revised) on some components and issues of maintaining modern bicycle, but these are not online after the new publisher deleted content:

Title,
or Component or issue		DateEndless,
Revised
Seeking the holy grail: A fast chain lube that saves you moneyMarch 2018
Disc BrakesMay 2018August 2019
Tubeless Tires2019October 2021
Finding the best bicycle chain: What over 3,000 hours of testing revealedDecember 2019
Waxing ChainsAugust 2020March 2021

Most CyclingTips text material was removed from the Internet – when the new publisher (the hedge fund that controlled the “Outside” family of magazines and online content) made changes in 2022 . CyclingTips NerdAlert podcast discussed technical and repair issues. The panelists often mentioned the cycling industry’s history of selling products that have drawbacks and flaws. Most of this content, also, was unpublished under the new management; or move behind the “Outside” app paywall. Discussions of chain maintenance:

  • The podcast in Nerd Alert series in August 2021 on chain lube testing;[Updated; March 16, 2022, “Finding the best chain lube for your needs”]

Escape Collective began to produce content in March 2023. Many of the writers and podcast panelists who had produced content for CyclingTips joined Escape Collective.

Discussions of chain wear on the internet often address readers and viewers interested in other issues:

  • speed in races
    • on different kinds of bicycles
    • under different conditions, and
  • durability and value of bicycles and components.

I am not able to keep the themes, separate and to separate the credible scientists, engineers, manufacturers, marketers, and journalists from the herd of misinformed noise. I will flag a few events and people I thought were credible as I discuss chain wear in this series of posts.

When an internet source or a published book or magazine mentions a person, a company, a product or an idea, internet search can lead to material that can be read and followed up on. This can be an effective way of researching.

The Wikipedia article failed, at the time, to explain wet and dry lubricants.

3. Chains

Introduction

The basics of drive chain are alternating inner and outer links, pins holding the links, and the ability to bend at the ends of links. Rollers and bushings over the pins have been used since the first decades after safety bicycles appeared. Gearing and gear shifting are important factors. There have been other gear and shifting systems, including gear systems installed inside the hub of the drive wheel. The chain drive with external gears and derailleur shifting has dominated.

The discussion of roller chain will be continued in Part 2 of this series. Part 7 will discuss the durability of the modern steel bushingless chain required for effective shifting of gears with derailleur mechanisms. In the early 21st century, the focus has been on elongation wear.

Chain Line and the Bike Frame

The most efficient line from the chain wheel to the gear on the drive wheel for single speed bicycles was parallel to the bicycle.

The chain almost always has to run over and under a chain stay – usually on the right side of a conventional two wheeled safety bicycle. The chain stays are welded or attached to the bottom of seat tube near the bottom bracket shell, and to the seat stay. The chain stay is one side of a closed triangle. It was necessary to use a chain “breaker” tool to displace a pin to remove the chain before the development of master links. By the early 20th century the bike industry used bushed steel roller chain on most bicycles.

Chains do not move laterally on single speed bikes, or on gear systems inside the hub.

Competitive riders and bicycle designers favored systems that allowed the rider to shift gears to use power effectively and respond to changes in conditions and the goals of rider – e.g. going faster with the same effort. Road racing brought the development of derailleurs to shift the chain onto other gears – and a flexible chain that could operate at a slight deviation from a straight chainline. Chains are designed to flex to displace far enough to change gears when pushed by the pulleys (jockey wheels) of a derailleur. Innovators altered the design of chains to get lighter, more efficient chains. At the end of the 1970s, a road bike might have 5 or even 6 cogs on a rear cassette. Mountain bikes adopted derailleurs, flexing roller chain, and other technology from road racing. Mountain biking became competitive and mountain bikes became popular. For a time, drive train components were specialized: road or mountain/hybrid. Some innovations made in road chains or mountain bike chains became common or dominant in chain manufacturing. time.

The laterally flexible bushingless chain became the dominant design by the end of the 20th century. By 2021, many, perhaps most new bikes, other than e-bikes, sold in Canada and the USA had rear wheel gear cassettes with 11 or 12 gears, and laterally flexible bushingless chains.

The laterally flexible bushingless chain with derailleur shifting is capable of “dropping” the chain while the chain is being shifted between gear wheels and while the chain is being powered. The chain can be jammed by the crank arms or other moving parts against the frame. A chain stressed when the power ceases to be applied in the primary direction can fail:

  • chain link plates may fracture,
  • rivets may fracture, and
  • rivets may pull out of the plates.

Material and Wear

Steel has the tensile strength for the purpose of transmitting human effort to drive a bicycle, and could be produced with smooth surfaces when the safety bicycle became common. Manufacturers have used various steels; 0ther metals have been considered. Few are strong without becoming brittle. Manufacturers use other metals to make alloys to coat or plate over roller chain components.

The parts that connect the links are made with tight tolerances, for transmission of force. There are microscopic gaps between pins and rollers and/or bushings, which allow the links to pivot to rotate on the chain rings and the cogs of the driving wheel transmission apparatus.

Bicycle roller chains become longer by a small amount as the chain is used. Microscopic wear on individual links adds up. The elongation of chain by wear being wear is well known to bicycle mechanics and to engineers:

Cyclists often speak of chain “stretch”, as if the side plates of an old chain were pulled out of shape by the repeated stresses of pedaling. This is not actually how chains elongate. The major cause of chain “stretch” is wearing away of the metal where the link pin rotates inside of the bushing (or the “bushing” part of the inside plate) as the chain goes onto and off of the sprockets. If you take apart an old, worn-out chain, you can easily see the little notches worn into the sides of the link pins by the inside edges of the bushings, or the formed side plates of a bushingless chain.

Bicycle Technical Information, Chain and Sprocket Wear, see section “How Chains Elongate”

The experience of many industries with steel bearings demonstrates that steel wears, even when lubricated. Riders assume, correctly, that steel is a very durable material. But chains, even when lubricated well and maintained, wear. An elongated worn chain does not fit the gears – the chain wheels and cassette cogwheels – and abrades those components of the drive train.

Some chains with hard steel plating and good maintenance and lubrication resist longitudinal wear and elongation.

Specifications, Standards and Gauges

Elongation of 11 and 12 speed bushingless chains by .5 – one half of one percent – of the length of a chain is the replacement point. It is implicit in the design of chain gauges (chain checker tools), and has been known to the employees of bike shops and to some some users for decades. 11 speed chains and rear cassettes were introduced by Campagnolo in 2008, and by Shimano in 2013. 11 speed cassettes and chains became a common feature of new bikes. By 2024, some drive trains for 13 gears on the rear cassette are being made and marketed

The length of a chain varies, depending on the length of the chain stays, the sizes of the largest chain ring and the largest rear gear, and the rear derailleur shape and size. A chain may have 55 to 59 links (counting a pair of 1 Outer link plus 1 Inner as 1 link) which can also be counted as 110 to 118 links. A chain may be 1397 mm. to 1473 mm. long

Chain gauges checking for elongation started to be distributed and sold in the 1980s. They were noted:

There … also special tools made to measure chain wear; these are a bit more convenient, though by no means necessary, and most — except for the Shimano TL-CN40 and TL-CN41 — are inaccurate

Gauges are more important than BTI said. The problem of the accuracy of most gauges is still present in 2024. A chain gauge checks for elongation in a span of 12-14 links. The gauge has to precisely cut (machined) and precisely used to detect elongation of .5 mm. It is useful to put the gauge on different places on the chain to look for wear.

Sheldon Brown & John S. Allen, about 1990, Bicycle Technical Information pages, Measuring Chain Wear section in Chain and Sprocket Wear

The existence and marketing of chain gauges suggests the modern cycling component, tool, and maintenance industries regard chains as consumable,and expect riders to replace chains.

Many mechanics support replacing chains that shift badly, and posit the concept of lateral wear as the cause of poor shifting. In 2024 a new tool was marketed to measure elongation wear more precisely, and also to quantify the lateral flexibility of bushingless drive trains. There are opinions, there is no data and there are no standards on when laterally worn chains should be replaced.

Master links, devices that replace a single outer link, became common in the 1980s and 1990s. Master links make it easier to remove a chain for cleaning, maintenance and replacement. They were noted in the BTI glossary (see Sheldon Brown and BTI under Cycling Knowledge, below). Even with master links, removing a chain is an operation which many cyclists do not have the time, tools or knowledge to attempt.

Friction & Lubrication

Lubricants are materials that are applied to the surfaces of other materials to reduce friction when force applied to the materials and the surfaces move against each other. A lubricant reduces kinetic friction by changing static friction to lubricated friction, allowing metal surfaces to slide or turn without getting hot and making noise.

For much of the 20th century, most bike chains were lubricated with oils manufactured by refining petroleum and processing the refined product into useful material. Motor oil was and is a product to lubricate parts of an internal combustion engine. At the end of the 19th century, industry settled on the internal combustion engine as the device that could be used to power passenger cars, motorcycles, transport trucks, farm machinery and industrial machines. Motor oil was commonly available in the places bikes were used, and it was a popular lubricant for decades.

Safety bicycles were once almost inconsequential for the use of energy, or as a means of transportation.

Academics and industry researched and developed many specialized lubricants. Bike chain lube has become a specialty market. Bike shops sell what they can get from suppliers; bike owners/users have limited help in finding and choosing the best lubricants. Manufacturers and distributors will make all kinds of claims for their products. The best chain lubricants are not easily found and applied. Many are not effective at avoiding chain wear.

There is more on chains in Bike Chains, Part 2 and on lubrication in Bike Chains, Part 3 .

Cycling in 2021

Active outdoors through another year of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21.

I moved to Victoria West in November 2020. I had a few months transition before I vacated the house in James Bay. I was busy moving in the early months of 2021.

I learned the most efficient routes to places to meet Mike or make local trips in Vic West and Esquimalt. I retired effective April. I rode through the heat dome in the summer by riding early in the day. I was able to ride into the fall and winter by finding dry days or mornings between days of drizzle and rain, until a week of cold temperature with several days when snow fell, at the end of the year.

My ride were on my Cannondale Topstone. I logged 4,373.8 Km.

I became interested in chain life and lubrication.. I considered how to maintain cycling as my main exercise and recreational activity.

Bikes; Wider tires

Table of Contents

All Kinds

The modern safety bicycle was first manufactured and sold at the end of the 19th century. Most sources recognize John Kemp Starley, the manufacturer of the Rover bicyles in the late 1880s, as the inventor. The Engineering Sport website provides a concise overview of the evolution of the bicycle. Earlier in the late 1800s some French developers tried to assert a priority to the intellectual property in the concept of the two wheeled human powered vehicle. According to David Herlihy’s the Bicycle – the History (2004) for a time in the 19th century some developers paid some royalties to avoid lawsuits for a few years.

The household/commuting/utiliity single speed bike was familiar in Europe and North America for several decades in the 20th century. The handlebars facilitated for an upright riding position. Most had horizontal top tubes; some were step-through. Most had coaster brakes. Many were manufactured with integral fenders. Some had cargo baskets or racks. Many people owned these bikes and had the knowledge and skill to inflate tires, repair a flat tire, and lubricate the drive train. The Chinese Flying Pigeon was/is a safety bicycle.

The bicycle has become more a concept or idea than a new, useful and non-obvious article of trade. The elements of the safety bicycle:

  • Two (nearly) equal sized wheels, in a frame;
  • Pedals, crank arms and a roller chain drive;
  • One wheel, usually the rear, is turned by the power of the rider pressing on pedals;
  • The front wheel can be turned on a pivot with handlebars;
  • Pneumatic tires

Bicycle manufacturing depended on industrially produced materials and components. In the the early 20th century frames were build by cutting, bending and brazing industrial steel tubing. The early safety bikes experimented with heavier ferrous metal materials, but steel tubing was lighter, easily worked and even repairable. Bike builders began to have frames and other components fabricated. Bicycles for racing on tracks or roads were custom built. Manufacturers began to offer road racing bikes, a higher value product. Then mountain bikes. Innovations multiplied. In modern times, components may be protected from imitation by patents,

Buying, riding and maintaining bicycles became more complicated. Some categories:

  • City or utility bicyles;
  • Road bikes emulate the design elements of racing bicycles used in road races. Racing was the inspiration and source of design innovations that were adopted and adapted for mass production consumer use. Design innovation has been restricted by rules of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)the main competive sporting body. A few people buy ultra light or otherwise non-compliant road bikes. Characteristics of road bikes:
    • drop handlebars;
    • a light and aerodynamic frame. At one time, horizontal top tubes were favoured. Top tubes slope from the head tube to the seat tube;
    • narrow wheels and tires;
    • a drivetrain that produces high RPM for strong riders;
    • drop handlebars;
    • almost no capability to carrying anything but the rider;
  • Touring bikes and cargo bikes are designed to carry a load;
  • Cyclo-cross bikes are designed for cyclocross (CX) racing (as opposed to cross-country racing, a competion for mountain bikes). They have drop bars and resemble road bikes, but have slightly wider tires and other design variations;
  • Mountain bikes are designed for use on trails. The frames are different from other standard designs. These bike has to be stable and under control at lower speeds and during faster descents to manouver around rocks, roots and obstacles. Flat or straight handlebars are the rule. Front wheel and whole frame suspensionss are the rule. The tires are wider and run at lower pressure. Wide tires call for wheels with wider rims. Mountain bikes can be used on paved and gravel roads, but not comfortably or efficiently. They may be used to carry cargo – but do not normally have attachment points for racks. Instead, many mountain bikes have drilled and tapped fittings to hold bikepacking bags;
  • Hybrid bicycles: multi-purpose bikes designed to used on paved roads and on some unpaved surfaces. Most hybrids are upright handlebar bikes, with tires in the cyclocross range and without suspension systems. They have some capability to be fitted with racks to carry some cargo, and to be fitted with fenders;
  • BMX bikes are specialized racing bikes for special courses;
  • Children’s bikes;
  • All-road and Gravel bikes are hybrids or customized bikes blending design elements and components.

Many web pages and services discuss design, maintenance and tech in the cycling world. For instance Bike Insights discusses “geometry” (frame dimensions/sizing/ fit) – one of the ways to deduce if a bike might work for a given purpose. (Russ Roca of Path Less Pedalled inteviews the site founders in a PLP video).

Many handlebars are for the upright position. These bars are flat or straight. There is diversity in the variations of upright bars. Upright bars:

  • encourage an upright riding position,
  • support balance and control at lower speeds,
  • support a front basket or bag,
  • provide a surface area where users can bolt on bells, electronics and other accessories, and
  • provide several locations to mount a rear view mirror.

The other main category is drop handlebars. Drop bars with long hoods (brake lever assemblies) provide a comfortable fairly upright riding position with good steering control and access to brakes and shifters. As the “tops” and ramps of the bars are taped, they provide upright riding positions. Drop bars provide less space for carriers and accessories, and less locations to mount a mirror. There are alternative handlebars. Russ Roca of Path Less Paddled, the all-road, touring, gravel and bikepacking site has a video about the Velo Orange Granola Bar; and a review on the new Alternative Cycling Network of the new model flat bar Specialized Diverge. Alt-bars revive old styles like the North Road Bend.

Tires and Wheels

The dominant way of containing air is an inner tube, within a bead clincher tire. The wheel has rim or a bead channel, and tire has a bead. The tubeless tire emerged late in the 20th century. Some modern bikes are tubeless ready : tubeless wheels and tires, installed with an inner tube. Wheel manufacturers have refined the bead hook at the outer edge of the rim into a channel – to make the bead fit tightly, to let a user install tubeless tires. Bike mechanics know how to break the bead from a wheel with tubeless tire bead channel without using tools that might mar the bead or the rim. Fixing a flat at the roadside by dismounting a tubeless ready tire and replacing an inner tube may be a challenge.

Pressure affects performance on different surfaces. The conventional advice for road bikes has been, for the last few decades, to inflate tires with inner tubes to the pressure as stamped on the tire. The marked pressure is a maximum and a safety warning – it is half the pressure at which a tire will fail predictably, such as by the bead of the tire not holding to the rim of the wheel. It is not a recommended pressure to reduce the risk of pinch flats or other damage to tires, inner tubes or wheels. It is not a recommended optimal pressure. Optimal pressure depends on road, rider, and load. Sheldon Brown’s approach to tire pressure was nuanced. (The link to a Bicycling Quarterly article on the Sheldon Brown site page has gone stale – the useful equivalent is “Tire Pressure Take Home” (2016)). Russ Roca of Path Less Pedalled published an interview with Jan Heine of Bicycling Quarterly about wide tires and lower pressure, and an interview of Josh Poertner “Your Tires are Lying to You“. Wider softer tires have been becoming more popular

Tire pressure affects the accuracy of (older) cycling computers that count wheel revolutions – e.g. Cateye Mity 8 – which need to be programmed with the circumference of the wheel, usually in 1 cm increments from 170-225 cm. The circumference of a tire mounted on a wheel is affected by the actual pressure by up to 1-2 centimeters. The tire will flex under load; the distance travelled is a little less than the circumference of the inflated tire measured at the label pressure, unloaded. The difference between running wider (e.g. 700 x 38c tires) at 45, 60 or the maximum 75 psi affects how these devices record distance. Where the distance travelled on the ground is about 50 km, the effect is several hundred meters. This inaccuracy is only about .5-1%, which should not affect navigation or trip planning.

Randonneuse and All-Road

Some endurance events required that the bike should carry some cargo, and be capable of riding on rougher roads including cobbles and gravel. Sheldon Brown’s 2008 Bicycle Glossary. (His blog is maintained, and the site is updated, with many modern contributions from John Allen and other friends of cycling) has entries for randonée, randoneur and the French designer René Herse. The René Herse name is now associated with the Seattle manufacturer/shop René Herse Cycles (formerly Compass Cycles).

The randonneuse was usually a custom built bike, although some manufacturers mass produced a randonnuese model- e.g. Peugot. A randonneusse was a hybrid with road and touring features for riders in long-distance rides over mixed roads – pavement, cobbles, grave and even dirt. It was also kind of gravel bike for bike camping – bikepacking is a modern version of bike camping. A feature found on many bikes was the demi-porteur front rack which supported by a stay from the fork crown and cantilever stays above the midpoints of the blades. The load stabilized the front wheel and permitted other design variations. Another feature was that the frames had enough clearance between the fork blades and chain stays to mount wider tires and rim brakes for the rims that support those tires.

Jan Heine of René Herse and Cycling Quarterly, a student of design, writes about long rides in the Pacific Northwest, the randonneuse, and supple tires (wide and inflated moderately). Jan Heine identifies wide tire drop bar bikes – mainly the randonneuses – as the all-road bicycle. There has been a revival of interest. Several custom builders will repair or restore/rebuild such bikes. A few build new bikes to such designs.

Jan Heine regards all-road as a collective term describing randonneusses, and the monster-cross variety of gravel bike used in endurance events on routes that have gravel roads and tracks. Others use the term as including wide tired endurance road bikes.

Breadboxes

Most bread is made of grain that has been harvested and milled, to be hydrated, kneaded, and baked. Agricultural, industrial and culinary art have extended the usefulness of grain, but have not created a product to compare to the lembas bread of the elves in The Lord of the Rings. Bread is edible and palatable for a few days.

Bread is … an intermediate-moisture food product that is prone to mould spoilage. Normally bread is eaten fresh or preserved using additives or modified atmosphere packaging.

Stanley P. Cauvain, Breadmaking, 2nd ed. 2012

There are some breads that are baked hard and last longer – crackers and hardtack. Commercial bakers use additives and packaging – plastic – to extend the period of time that ordinary soft bread remains safe and palatable; there are some uses for stale bread.

Bread is porous and moist; it is vulnerable to mould (mold in the American spelling). Moulds reproduce by releasing microscopic spores. There are hundreds or thousands of spores in every cubic meter of household air. Most household filtration devices do not trap or control these spores. Mould spores will get on bread. Not all moulds thrive on bread, but several do. A mould, like a mushroom, has a mycelium of thread-like “roots”. Mould has health effects. Many moulds produce toxins. The antibiotic penicillin was derived from a common mould, that is popularly said to have been a bread mould. That is not a reason to eat mouldy bread.

Breadboxes are a convenient way of storing bread, and largely effective at protecting bread from most household animal and insect pests. Most people have a storage system for bread. Some kitchens have bread drawers in counters and cabinets. Modern breadboxes are often vented or have loose doors and lids or some mechanism to allow air flow that lets bread dry a bit – which delays mould, although it exposes the bread to some risks. Packaging can keep loaves from drying out for a few days. A consumer can combine a ventilated bread box with paper or bread bags or other wrapping. Many modern breadboxes use plastic or silicon seals to maintain the bread in an airtight chamber. This retains moisure and creates a humid storage space for bread. This delays bread drying out, and protects against some pests. This kind of box needs to be washed and disinfected regularly.

Refrigeration does not delay drying and staling. Some moulds grow in/on refrigerated foods. Some people use the refrigerator to store sandwich breads. Bread can be frozen and thawed. There is the practice, said to popular among the Dutch, of freezing and thawing bread.

Home bakers, bread machine bakers and internet advice sites have suggestions on inhibiting mould:

I have tried storage options:

  • Vented breadboxes;
  • A Tupperware 23 cup (5.5 liter) plastic box with a hinged sealed lid. It is large enough to hold large (2 lb.) bread machine loaves. It seems to be airtight. Bread picks up mould spores which grow into mould on anything in the box, even crumbs. After a week or so it starts to become a petrie dish;
  • Metal tins with lids. Old cookie tins are too small, I have a manufacturer’s container for potato chips as sold in the 1950s and early 1960s. My mother had a few, used to store flour, rolled oats and sugar. This can hold a loaf or two. It may not do well with humid contents – I don’t want to see if the interior metal rusts, or find out what rust does for bread.

There are plastic food storage boxes on the market that will hold a loaf of bread. These keep a loaf from drying out, but are humid. These. like my Tupperware, have to be regularly washed to remove crumbs and prevent mould. I don’t want a new ceramic bread storage container, an accessory suggested on some sites, or another airtight container.

My answer is a ventilated bread box, with some packaging, in a clean kitchen. Housework, more housework.

Chiles and Chillies

Chile (Chili) Peppers

The chile is the fruit of a plant in the genus capsicum, cultivars of capsicum annuum, a South American plant that travelled to Mexico before the common era. The plant grew in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America and was introduced to Europe and Asia in the 16th century in the Columbian “exchange”. It is used in cuisine that is considered, in modern terms, to be traditional or indigenous to those areas.

Fresh and dried capsicum cultivars were used in the indigenous cooking of Mexico and Central America for centuries before the Spanish conquest. Mexican cooking uses chiles in moles and other sauces, chiles rellenos (chiles stuffed with a filling and cooked), and other dishes.

Most cultivars produce the alkaloid capsaicin. Most capsicums, including jalapenos, serranos, cayennes and Thai (Bird’s Eye) peppers are “hot”; new spicier cultivars have been developed. Capsaicin is an irritant which makes some peppers “red hot”. Capsaicin is not found in the seeds; little is found in the flesh of the capsicum fruit. It is in the white pith of the seed pod and the ribs of the fruit. The 1912 Scoville scale, based on detection of the diluted substance by tasters, is still used to assess the concentration of capsaicin although chemical analysis has superceded the 1912 method.

Many sources write chile for the capsicum fruit, and chili for stews made with chile. The English speaking inhabitants of South Asia (India) and Southeast Asia spelled the name as chillies. That spelling is still used.

Sweet or bell peppers are chiles. The bell pepper cultivar was developed in Europe early in 20th century and is widely grown and sold. The gene for production of capsaicin is recessive – bell peppers are not “hot” or spicy. Banana peppers and pimentos are mild too. Mild chiles add a sweet fruity flavour.

In pre-industrial practice, chiles could be used fresh, or dried. In the 18th and 19th centuries, processsors established methods of grinding dried chiles and storing and using chile powders and sauces made from dried chiles or chile powder. Ground spice powders made food safer and food preparation in kitchens more efficient. Powders of ground single cultivar chiles – e.g. ancho (dried ripe poblano) are available in some markets in the 21st century. In Mexican traditional cooking, a cook needed a supply of fresh or dried chiles, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and Mexican oregano (as opposed to the Mediterranean Origanum vulgare).

Black, green and white peppercorns are the fruit of the Asian piper negrum. The East Asian Sichuan pepper is neither capsicum or piper.

Allergies to bell peppers and other capsicum chiles are common, yet not well known or understood by the public. Many websites offer or share advice based on theories, some of which are or appear medical. The medical foundation of such theories is that allergies are immune responses to toxic glyco-alkaloids, or other alkaloids or proteins that may contact the skin or internal organs of humans. The theories blame substances in capsicum plants or in related plants in the nightshade family.

Con Carne

Chile con carne is a popular American stew:

Chili con carne (also spelled chilli con carne or chile con carne and shortened to chili or chilli; … meaning “chili with meat”, is a spicy stew containing chili peppers (sometimes in the form of chili powder), meat (usually beef), tomatoes and optionally kidney beans. Other seasonings may include garlic, onions, and cumin. The dish originated in northern Mexico or southern Texas.

Wikipedia (November 2021) Chili con carne

Amercan Chili is based on meat. Pork and beef are traditional choices. The meat can be ground or cut to bit sized stewing pieces. There are recipes with other meats. It is customary to brown the meat to flavour the dish. Some make chili without beans. Many use beans. The beans used in chili (pinto, black turtle, red kidney, cranberry) are the dry seeds of cultivars or varietals of the central American wild bean, phaseolus vulgaris. The beans dry naturally and are harvested as a dry grain. The dry beans are hard and have to be cooked until they are tender and “creamy”. Dry beans can vary by age and other factors, making cooking times a matter of judgment or luck. Beans can be booked in boiling water or simmered in water near the boiling point. The slow cooker was developed to simmer beans, but is losing popularity.

Meat cooked in a chile sauce – carne con chile – is/was a north Mexican dish. Rick Bayless has established restaurants offering Mexican cooking, as an advance on American regional cooking, including “Tex-Mex” Western and Southwestern cooking. Bayless provided a recipe for carne con chile colorado from the state of Chihuahua in his first book, Authentic Mexican (1987). He has chile con carne on the menu in Frontera, a restraurant chain, and has published a version of the Frontera Uptown Texas Chili. By mentioning the question about whether chili con carne was invented in Texas and ny publishing the following comment he suggested that chili con carne is not an authentic Mexican dish.

Chile con carne: detestable food that under the false Mexican title is sold in the United States from Texas to New York

Rick Bayless, in Authentic Mexican (1987), quoting and translating Diccionario de Mejicanismos

Carne con chile was adopted by non Hispanic/indigenous consumers in the southwest US as American settlers migrated into the land annexed by the US from Mexico in the wars of annexation in the 1840s. It can be prepared and presented in thousands of way. It is often served with cornbread, a baked “cake” associated with the Southern states of the US. A “Tamale pie” is chili with a cornbread topping, baked in an oven.

In the early 20th century, food scientists at the New Mexico State University recovered “heritage” peppers from indigenous peoples and started the lines of New Mexico cultivars of capsicum annuum for agricultural use.

Proprietary chili powder spice blends and sauces became popular in the late 19th century. A few brand names endured; the idea of a blended powder became dominant in the American market. The chile in chili con carne is usually a blend of powdered dried chile with other dried ground spices including cumin, oregano (often not Mexican oregano), garlic powder, onion powder and coriander In modern (late 20th and 21st century) chili competitions, cooks may use multiple branded chili powders and sauces to get a unique and pleasing effect.

The origins and authenticity of chile con carne are, on the internet, a vast cavern. There are many web pages and videos of methods, recipes, festivals and competitions. In modern times it is a stew of meat and other ingredients in a tomato sauce flavour by onion, aromatics and spices including chile.

For several years I made stews, including chili, in a slow cooker with a ceramic insert (a crockpot). I used the methods suggested by cookbooks including the America’s Test Kitchen book Slow Cooker Revolution (2011). The ATK approach was to use canned beans, drained of the can fluid, which is not appealing and assumed to be unpalatable, Considering the use of salt in canning, salty broth is normally a health concern. I have been using an Instant Pot to prepare or cook beans for the last few years, and have given up using a crockpot.

Parapsychology

Rupert Sheldrake still believes in and writes about parapsychology. Mr. Sheldrake had an experience in the late 1970s and became convinced that he had recognized something important about the relationship between ideas and reality. At points, Sheldrake takes the posture of a pragmatist like William James. But where James was soft on conversion experiences and mysticism, Sheldrake maintains that he is right because no one has proved (and no one can ever can logically prove) him to be wrong. In promoting his 2012 book The Science Delusion he complained that other scientists were making him a pariah and a heretic. See: Tim Adams “Rupert Sheldrake: the ‘heretic’ at odds with scientific dogma” in the Guardian February 5, 2012.

The evidence for parapsychology is anecdotes by people who postulate and believe in unknown natural or supernatural forces and and events. These people have theories about why supernatural events happen. In 2009 Adam Rutherford dismissed Sheldrake’s book A New Science of Life:

In it, Sheldrake describes “morphic resonance“, which is the notion that there is a supernatural memory that is created, reinforced and inherited by repeated action. This, he claims, explains many phenomena including how newly synthesised chemicals become easier to make elsewhere in the world, how puzzles become easier once they have been done once, and paranormal powers, such as psychokinesis and telepathy. Alas, there is no evidence for morphic resonance. And as the phenomena listed are not real, no matter how real they may seem to people, there is no requirement for it.

Sheldrake is a sort of “God of the gaps” scientist. He sees gaps in knowledge, and inserts supernature as an explanation. There are three basic flaws with use of this tool. First is that it’s just not scientific. To invoke an unfalsifiable concept to fill a knowledge gap is not parsimonious. It’s much better and more scientific to simply say “We don’t know” and move on.

Second, history has shown us that it would be even better to say “we don’t know yet”, as invariably those gaps are filled in time with genuine testable explanations.

Finally, more often than not, the gaps invoked actually have perfectly good, scientific explanations, which are ignored because the protagonist is not disinterested. Thus, proponents of intelligent design, that pseudoscientific form of creationism, invoke a designer where evolution will happily suffice, because they wish to promote God. It’s impossible to establish exactly what Rupert Sheldrake is promoting, but one guess is that it’s Rupert Sheldrake.

Jung gave us a pleasant maxim which sceptics should always bear in mind: “I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud”. Indeed, speculation is a key part of formulating an hypothesis, which then can be tested to destruction. Much of Sheldrake’s work can be explained with just a bit more rigour than he employs.

Adam Rutherford, “A Book for Ignoring”, The Guardian, Feb. 6, 2009

In late 2021 Mr. Sheldrake claimed in an article “Rationalists are wrong about telepathy” published by the online site unHerd on November 22, 2021, that scientists, including Stephen Pinker, label Sheldrake’s beliefs as pseudoscience on the basis of scientism which he considers to be an illogical or irrational belief. Most of unHerd’s contributors refer to science with more concern over verifiable evidence, but unHerd has an institutional commitment to freedom of speech, particularly in matters of “faith and meaning”?

Liberal principles accepted in “Western” countries have disestablished official religions and removed government support for particular religions, and allow freedom of worship and religious practice by allowing citizens to engage in worship and religious practices without government coercion or interference. Freedom of religion allows persons to refrain from following any religious practice and to be agnostic or atheist. Freedom of religion is the formal legal framework for religious tolerance or the institutional principle of religious pluralism.

Tolerance does not satify all believers and beliefs. Some suspect tolerance as condescenging or patronizing. They want equal economic opportunities and actual respect or recognition for their opinions. Modern thinking in political philosophy attempts to rationalize and reconcile tolerance and respect for diverse opinions and needs.

Cultish

I put a hold on Amanda Montell’s 2021 book Cultish when the local library acquired it, and read it when an ebook copy was available.

AuthorAmanda MontellWikipedia entryPersonal siteSounds Like a Cult Podcast
BookCultishHarperCollins
(Publisher) Book Page		Amazon listing

The focus in on modern cults as understood in the modern vernacular:

In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial, having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia, and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. The word “cult” is usually considered pejorative.

An older sense of the word cult involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, are related to a particular figure, and are often associated with a particular place.

….

Sociological classifications of religious movements may identify a cult as a social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices, although this is often unclear. Other researchers present a less-organized picture of cults, saying that they arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices. Groups labelled as “cults” range in size from local groups with a few followers to international organizations with millions of adherents.

Wikipedia entry “Cults” October 2021

This short book covers a lot of material. It discusses several 20th century cults that involved odd beliefs, exploitation and harm to members: the Peoples Temple (Jonestown), Heaven’s Gate, David Koresh (the Waco compound of Branch Davidian cult), Scientology, and the Childen of God commune(s) (later named the Family International organization). There are sections on Synanon and the bullying and sexual abuse in the NXIVM movement. It mentions the problems of Shambalha International based on the author’s conversations with a person involved in the movement in Vermont. It does not mention the coverage of the story by the Canadian magazine The Walrus, Canadian CBC coverage, or internet reports by concerned Buddhists. There is discussion of glossolalia in Pentecostal, Chrisian fundamentalist, and Christian evangelical religions.

It is a book by a well educated person on the young and affluent side of the age gap in the digital divide written for persons similarly situated. It explains well publicized recent events to persons who may be unaware of them. It uses terms like stan (a rhyming and disrespectful contraction of stalker and fan) as if this word had been published in a dictionary.

The book notes correctly that new teachings and groups within religious movements are viewed mildly by scholars of new religious movements, while cults can be seen as sinister in the popular imagination and in stories, or a desireably rare sources of resources or personal approval. Itrefers to a number of sources on new religious movements:

  • Sociologist – Eileen Barker in the Guardian May 29, 2009;
  • Culture Journalist – Jane Borden in Vanity Fair September 3, 2020;
  • Writer – Elizabeth Woollett in the Guardian November 18, 2018; and
  • Religion writer – Tara Elizabeth Burton in Vox April 19, 2018 and What is a Cult in the Aeon magazine. The book attibutes a statement in quotation marks to the academic and writer Megan Goodwin in a passage at ebook page 24. The (end)note attributes the words to Burton.

It isn’t a deep discussion – the book is not a dissertation or treatise. There is a discussion, based on the ideas of the behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman of impulsive and deliberately rational decision making (Thinking Fast and Slow). In the podcast, the author and the co-host conclude discussion of individual cultish groups with an assessment of “Watch your Back” or “Get the F&%* Out” which is prone to the optimism bias. Tthe podcasters identify LuLaRoe as a harmful cult and the media personality and self help speaker Tony Robbins as a cult leader. However, the podcasts tend call out cults after there has been public criticism of the cult or person. They do not lead the story.

The book rejects the idea that cults appeal to only to persons with low cognitive ability or social skills. It points out that cults recruit persons with capabilities, appeal to normal aspirations and overcome the caution and skepticism or many persons with above average cognitive ability.

One line of discussion is the cult-like or cultish features of the organization and operation of:

MLMs recruit individuals to make direct sales on commission, and to recruit and administer a sales force. This system has drawbacks:

  • Direct selling is not a reliable way for an individual to earn income;
  • The responsibilities, costs and risk of the downline (sales force) fall on the earlier or “higher level” recruits;
  • Depending on the MLM, a recruit may face pressure to purchase unnecessary inventory;
  • Depending on the MLM, a recruit may be dumped or displaced if the recruit and the downline failed to produce sales;
  • The income of a new recruit is unlikely to progress and is often low or nil.

The cultish features of MLMs and the fitness businesses are said to be the uses of language and social techniques to persuade people to make irrational decisions about money, time, reputation, relationships and health. Some MLMs exploit existing social networks including churches, clubs and political organizations. The book discusses, tangentially, the way in which many sellers of goods and services use cultish methods to maintain their brands and influence workers and customers. Amanda Montel develops and explains in the episodes on SoulCycle, MLMs, LuLaRue and others in the Sounds Like a Cult podcast (link above). The podcast episode on LuLaRoe may have been inspired by the documentary series LuLaRich on Amazon Prime.

The arguments about MLMs are collectively persuasive. This isn’t the first book to consider MLMs to be exploitative. Robert L. Fitzpatrick has published the PyramidSchemeAlert web page and several books including Ponzinomics.

Other interesting lines of discussion in Cultish:

  1. the penetration of business language into social media and other internet channels,
  2. the role of social media in allowing grifters to become influencers,
  3. monied interests generating profits through cultish influencer marketing. The book discusses the promotion of personal advice and wellness services in the final chapter called Follow for Follow which addresses influencers exercising influence, and
  4. social media users to being influenced to their detriment.

Bread

Table of Contents

Introduction

Bread is made by mixing flour and water into a dough, introducing a rising agent (historically, yeast), kneading the dough, and baking the dough:

Bread is a combination of flour and water that has been baked. Over the years, its production has become increasingly more complex. Bread is a staple food in many countries, with cultural significance. With common sayings such as “the bread winner,” it has become one of the most important parts of the world’s diet.

Bakerpedia.com, Specialties, Bread

Flour is the product of grinding and milling cereal (grain). The point of harvesting and milling grain is to preserve the starches, to be eaten and metabolized into glucose. When flour is mixed with water, starches dissolve. The starches are rearrranged by mixing flour with water, kneading dough and baking bread.

Grain and flour are NOVA class 1 unprocessed or mininally processed foods.

Unpackaged bread is a NOVA class 3 processed food, if

Processes include various preservation or cooking methods, and, in the case of breads and cheese, non-alcoholic fermentation. Most processed foods have two or three ingredients, and are recognizable as modified versions of Group 1 foods. They are edible by themselves or, more usually, in combination with other foods. The purpose of processing here is to increase the durability of Group 1 foods, or to modify or enhance their sensory qualities.

https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova

Packaged industrially baked bread is considered to be a NOVA class 4 ultraprocessed food due to the additives and the processing of ingredients:

Additives in ultra-processed foods include some also used in processed foods, such as preservatives, antioxidants and stabilizers. Classes of additives found only in ultra-processed products include those used to imitate or enhance the sensory qualities of foods or to disguise unpalatable aspects of the final product. These additives include dyes and other colours, colour stabilizers; flavours, flavour enhancers, non-sugar sweeteners; and processing aids such as carbonating, firming, bulking and anti-bulking, de-foaming, anti-caking and glazing agents, emulsifiers, sequestrants and humectants.

A multitude of sequences of processes is used to combine the usually many ingredients and to create the final product (hence ‘ultra-processed’). The processes include several with no domestic equivalents, such as hydrogenation and hydrolysation, extrusion and moulding, and pre-processing for frying.

The overall purpose of ultra-processing is to create branded, convenient (durable, ready to consume), attractive (hyper-palatable) and highly profitable (low-cost ingredients) food products designed to displace all other food groups. Ultra-processed food products are usually packaged attractively and marketed intensively.

https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova

Resources

Basic Technique and Science

Most people purchase bread made by industrial bakers from grocery stores. Some shop at bakeries.

Many people have kitchens and oven and could bake bread if they purchased flour and other ingredients and had time, and knowledge of technique and science. It isn’t rocket science but it is a specialized activity. Bread baking may have been a part of the education of students in home economics courses. Persons who work in bakeries may have taken courses in vocational educational institutions or learned from experienced bakers in work experience.

Publishers have published some texts and educational aids and many recipe books, but few books that can assist a beginner with basic technique. A useful book, in the Amazon Kindle store: Bread Science, by Emily Jane Buehler, published by Ms. Buehler, as Two Blue Books in 2006 and as a Kindle e-book in 2014, republished in 2021 in a 2nd edition. Ms. Buehler worked in a coop bakery, and taught community courses before she wrote this book. She researched the science of grain, milling, dough and baking in the professional journal collections of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She presents the science of gluten and fermentation, the practical technique of handling dough, an explanation of bakers’ percentage, and a discussion of the techniques of making and using preferments – sponges and starters.

Web

YouTube has videos that demonstrate technique and what dough looks like as it is worked. Finding them is not easy, as search tools drive users to sift through many search returns.

Lesaffre’s Red Star brand has some useful videos on its channel:

Ingredients

Flour Milling Standards

Whole wheat and bread flour weigh the same amount per unit of volume. Whole wheat flour, pastry flour and American all-purpose flour have proteins to make gluten but not quite enough. Bread flour milled to US and European standards (and Canadian All-Purpose) at 12.5% has more of the proteins that bond to form gluten. Gliadin and glutenin are insoluble proteins in grain and in flour. The proteins are found in wheat flour, and also can be extracted by milling, processed as vital wheat gluten (“VWG”) powder, and mixed into bread dough:

Consisting of mainly gliadin and glutenin, wheat gluten is unique among cereal proteins based on its ability to form a cohesive and viscoelastic mass. This rheological property makes it a dynamic material that is able to grow and keep the gasses within the dough during extended fermentation periods. The viscoelastic nature also provides the oven spring (increase in height due to the expansion of gasses) that we see in the oven.

….

The addition of VWG generally increases the dough mixing time and fermentation time. As more protein solids are added, more water is needed for complete flour hydration.

Due to its cohesive and viscoelastic properties, its main function is a dough strengthener. It is also a film former, binder, texturizer, fat emulsifying agent, processing aid, stabilizer, water absorption and retention agent, thermosetting agent, and a flavor and color binder.

Vital gluten can absorb almost twice its weight in water (140–180% water). The quality of dry vital gluten is estimated with the Brabender farinograph or Chopin Alveograph. The breadmaking quality of VWG is also assessed through standardized baking tests.

Bakerpedia.com, Articles, Vital Wheat Gluten

When water is added to flour, these proteins bond into strands and sheets of gluten “a composite of storage proteins … found in wheat, barley, rye, oats, related species and hybrids … “. Gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it keep its shape and often gives the final product a chewy texture.  Gluten relaxes in time which lets the dough flow and rise.

Gluten forms when water is added to wheat flour. Bakers knead dough, stretching and folding it on itself, repeating the motion for several minutes. This structures the gluten. A baker can pause after mixing or start kneading, or pause during kneading. Kneading structures or pulls the gluten into a network of micro balloons. The dough should be viscous (tenacious and elastic) to hold together, but extensible to stretch, and to flow. A professional baker will probably use a mechanical mixer; many home bakers may have one. A mechanical mixer or stand mixer uses mixing arms, a paddle or a spiral dough hook in a circular or elleptical motion. A mixer has a range of speeds.  The baker uses a slow speed to mix the ingredients and a higher speed to knead.

Rising Agents

A rising agent (leavening) creates bubbles in the dough that create the bubbled texture of the “crumb” inside the crust of the baked loaf. Until chemical leavening agents were developed, bread was leavened by adding baker’s yeast. Yeast consumes some of the starches – it ferments, creating gas, which is trapped in gluten in the dough, which makes the bread rise, after the dough has been kneaded. Bakerpedia explains, condensing a number of complex biochemical processes:

When yeasted dough ferments rises and increases in volume, and flavor is developed.  Yeast converts starch in flour into sugar, carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol. CO2 gas is trapped by gluten proteins in the flour which causes dough to rise. Fermentation results in a light and airy crumb.

Bakerpedia.com, Vital Wheat Gluten

The yeast propogates.  Propogation and fermentation accelerate until the yeast cells run out of starch, or are killed off by high temperature. The dough rises in 2 or 3 stages: bulk fermentation, and intermediate and final proof. Dough is knocked or punched down to release gas at the end of the bulk fermentation, and folded when the loaf is shaped. The dough rises again in the baking pan and springs when yeast warms up after the pan goes in the hot oven, before the heat warms the dough and kills the yeast.

Commercial bakers use chemical leaveners for some bread.  Home bakers use baking powder and baking soda for corn bread, soda bread, cakes and other baking.  Baking powder is baking soda mixed with cream of tartar. Kraft Foods Magic Baking Powder does not provide Food Facts on the labels of small jars in Canada.  The published information is that 1 tsp has 300 mg. of sodium.  Substitutions for baking powder involve 1/4 tsp of baking soda plus some acid (e.g. vinegar, cream of tartar) for each tsp baking powder. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate.  It has 1,259 mg. of sodium per teaspoon, which explains the food facts for baking powder. The science of substitution for baking soda and baking powder is to use potassium bicarbonate, which is the key ingredient of Featheweight – not an widely available (i.e. in grocery stores) product.  It is available as a supplement but has a list of side effects and do not use if taking medication warnings. Please Don’t Pass the Salt has recipes for quick breads, and suggestions on low sodium “baking mixes”. “Natural” products that that might trap CO2. Some recipes for some baked goods suggest that some natural products may trap CO₂ e.g. whipped egg whites.

Salt

Mark Kurlansky’s excellent book Salt: a World History (2002) tells of the use of salt to bake bread in Egypt (3,000 BCE),  The production of salt may have started about 8,000 years ago. The right ratio of flour to salt and yeast, among other things, means a loaf that will rise on time, and not overproof or balloon. The loaf should spring in the oven and crown to form a dome.

Salt is part of the process for most bread sold by grocery stores and bakeries large and small. Bread is high in sodium, as an effect of the baking process. 

Salt is a standard and necessary ingredient in most formulas and recipes. Salt:

  • has a chemical effect on the taste buds (Lallamand Baking Update, Volume 2, No. 6);
  • affects the development of gluten. It affects chemical bonds in amino acids in proteins in flour that has been exposed to mixed with water. It makes the gluten more tenacious and elastic;
  • controls yeast which affects fermentation. Fermentation affects flavour but it also affects rise, which affects the size of the loaf and the production line.

A few bread styles, such as Tuscan bread, are made without salt. 

Salt can be reduced, with a reduction in the amount of yeast. Some books and internet pages eliminating salt but incorrectly list the same amount of yeast that would be used if there was salt in the recipe! This will may bake or collapse. In a bread machine, the dough will balloon and may or collapse before it overflows the pan.

Every reduction in salt has to be balanced with a reduction of yeast. Please Don’t Pass the Salt has recipes for yeasted breads and a note on the general adjustment for yeasted bread recipes. Artisan bread baking writers suggest that adjusting the salt in formulas leads to unsatifactory results  – e.g. Peter Reinhart, Artisan Bread Every Day (Ten Speed Press, 2009) at p. 15 suggests not reducing by more than 10%.  Salt and kneading affect gluten.  It is easy to get to reduce salt to 50% and 33% reduce the salt added to the mixing machine when dough is mixed. These reductions are difficult for industrial bakers. Changes in salt will affect the gluten, affecting texture, and storage of bread, as well as fermentation and taste.

The most precise way of measuring is by weight.

GoalReductionUse SaltUse Yeast
50%50%50%50%
33%67%33%33%
The accepted rule of thumb is reducing proportionately by weight to maintain the same percentage

Mixing and Kneading

Machines

Modern professional bakers work with hundred of kilograms of flour and water. Professional bakers have control over how long to mix/knead, rise (ferment/proof), bake, and over oven temperature. Ingredients are mixed and kneaded in large industrial mixers, fermented, put into pans and put into ovens, baked, turned out and packaged. The dough goes into pans in small irregular lumps. It has to rise and flow to fill the pan, spring when pans go in the oven, but not spring above the limited headspace of the pan. Professional bakers may use 10-15 minutes of “intensive mixing” – the mechanical mixing of yeasted white flour dough was dominant in professional bakeries for French loaves until Raymond Calvel devised the hybid style in the 1960s. Intensive mixing develops gluten in white flour rapidly. Home bakers with stand mixers use slower speeds due to limitations of machinery (see the stand mixer review by America’s Test Kitchen in print and YouTube) or to use a hybrid, modified or improved mixing method. Overmixing is a risk for professional bakers using industrial mixers. Machine mixing can stretch dough too much or too often, breaking the gluten strands. An overmixed dough cannot hold the gases, and will not rise.  Intensive mixing may affect a loaf with effects short of the complete failure caused by overmixing. Home bakers can have the same problem. A variety of mixers are available to the home baker:

  • Food processors can mix dough, although a food processor might only handle 3 cups of flour, and has one speed – very fast.  The mixing time may be less than a minute.  Some food processors have a dough speed and/or special blade to mix dough. The risk of overmixing dough in a food processor is well recognized. 
  • A home stand mixer can handle several cups of flour, at low-medium speed settings.  The power output of a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a 5 quart bowl may be 325 watts.  Larger stand mixers may output 800 watts.  A Bosch Compact Kitchen Machine may output 400 watts into its dough hook in its stand mixer configuration. They have to be used at the right settings and for a short time.

Baker’s Percentage

Professional bakers and some home bakers express ingredient lists or recipes in baker’s percentage (B%) to use consistent processes to manufacture a consistent product. Professional bakers may use 2 pounds of salt and .77 pound of instant yeast per 100 pounds of flour.  The B% for salt is 2%; the B% for instant yeast with most loaves made with bread flour is .7% but B% can vary. It may be over 1%. A yeast B% of .7% in one loaf works out to .3 ounces = 8.5 grams = 8,500 mg. salt per 3 cups (15 ounces) of flour.  A normal loaf of bread weighing 1 ½ lbs. (a bread machine medium loaf) has 3,400 milligrams of sodium per loaf – several hundred milligams per slice or serving. Home bakers work with small amounts of salt and yeast. Bread machines use very small amounts for single loaves.

Measurement of salt and yeast by weight is desireable for home bakers and bread machine bakers. Few home bakers have scales precise enough.

Conversion? The great majority of recipes refer to standard ground table salt. For table salt: 1 tsp = 5.7 grams or .20 oz.  Some fine crystal table salt on the market in the US weighs 7 grams per teaspoon.  I do not pay attention to this information unless the recipe I am referring to has used a coarse or fine salt:

  • America’s Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated The Science of Good Cooking (2012) lists several brands of kosher salt and sea salt and compares them to table salt, suggesting that Morton’s brand is the standard for table salt at 1 tsp = 7.15 g.
  • Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (Ten Speed Press, 2001) says on p. 28 that 1 tsp of table salt = .25 oz which converts to 7 grams. 

The size of the salt crystals affects solubility, which can affect the distribution of salt in the dough, and effect of salt on yeast.  However  a gram of kosher salt works as well as a gram of table salt for baking bread.

Some sources say for instant yeast: 1 tsp  = 3.15 grams. Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (Ten Speed Press, 2001) says on p. 28 that 1 tsp instant yeast = .11 oz which converts to 3.12 grams. It is hard for home user to verify the weight of a teaspoon of instant yeast with home tools and methods. Instant yeast may vary slightly depending on the manufacturer, time and how the yeast has been stored and handled,

Potassium

I had been taking prescribed hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 12.5 mg per day, a diuretic – to control (reduce) blood pressure, since 2011. It was not effective to counteract edema, a side effect of another medication. It has side effects that interfere with digestion and absorbing potassium. I was hospitalized for 2 days in June 2021 as a result of falling. Someone on the hospital team thought I had a potassium deficiency (this was not suggested to have been a cause of the accident). Someone changed my medications to eliminate the diuretic, and prescibed a potassium supplement, for the days I was in hospital. This 2 day intervention did not affect my blood pressure, as far as I was told.

Potassium is an element; the chemical symbol is K. It is measured in milligrams (1/1000 of a gram, abbreviated as mg.) in nutrition. It is an electrolyte, and can also be called a mineral or a nutrient. The US Department of Health, National Institute of Health (NIH), Office of Dietary Supplements, publishes an online Fact sheet for Health Professionals which recommends an adult male person weighing about 80 kg. should consume 3,400 milligrams of potassium per day. The fact sheet, which has been varied 2018-2021, lists some foods high in potassium. The putative source data is found in the US Department of Agriculture’s database, available onlinein 2021 by an application program interface called FoodData Central. The database includes

  • SR (Standard Reference) data, in the USDA “National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Legacy (2018)”;
  • Branded data about foods presented as branded commodities “generated by industry through a public-private partnership” with LabelInsight, a data firm.

The data is not easy to search. A food source may be spelled differently than expected – moong beans may be moong or mung (the latter is a more popular version of spelling in on product packages in the USA). Many dry beans are listed both raw and cooked (boiled), but not all.

The information in the NIH fact sheet generally aligns to the database, but do not always align on product or serving,. The fact sheet seems confused on how much a consumer will consume as a serving. The NIH fact sheet does not list all the foods high in potassium. I transposed some foods from the fact sheet in a table below, and interpolated some foods – mainly legumes – not in the fact sheet. Comments on the fact sheet, the list, and the table:

  • A calorie is a unit of heat. Literally, food scientists burned food to see how much energy the food contained;
  • The Calorie on a food package is 1,000 times larger than the calorie used in chemistry and physics. A Calorie is a kilocalorie (kcal,), the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius.(), abbreviated mg.
FoodAmountSizeK (mg)Mass (g)Water (g)CaloriesTotal carbs (g)Starch (g)Sugars (g)lipids
(fat) g.		protein (g)
Dried apricots½ cup11018024.71935042.7
Cooked lentils1 cup73119813823039.817.9
Boiled mature
White beans: Navy, Great Northern
Cannellini		1 cup100017911324944.9.617.4
Boiled mature
black turtle beans		1 cup80118512224045.1.615.1
Boiled mature
red kidney beans		1 cup71317711822540.4.615.1
Boiled mature Cranberry
(Roman) beans		1 cup68517711424143.316.5
Wheat bran1 cup684585.712537.4.29.1
Boiled mature chickpeas:
Garbanzo, Bengal gram		1 cup47716498.726944.97.914.5
Boiled mung beans1 cup457185
Raisins1/2 cup6188012.42395752
Potato, baked, flesh1medium61015611814533.72.73.1
Cauliflower, raw1 headmedium176058854414729.211.211.3
Eggplant1medium125054850613732.219.35.4
Banana1med. 7
to 7⅞ “		4221208810526.96.314.41.3
1% milk*1 cup36624622110612.712.2
Spinach, raw2 cups3346054.813.82.1.21.7
Tomato, raw1medium292
Apple, with skin 1medium195
Cashews1 oz.18728.41.51578.66.71.712.45.2
Brown rice, cooked1 cuplong grain17420214224851.750.1.55.5
Brown rice, cooked1 cupmed. grain15419514221845.84.5
Sources: Fact sheet for Health Professionals and Food Data Central. In Food Data Central, a food may be listed as “Foundation”. “Legacy” or “Survey”.

*The mg. K number for 1% milk. The fact sheet says 366 mg; the database says 391 mg.

The NIH fact sheet states 1 cup of cooked lentils contains 731 mg K. It aligns with lentils cooked by boiling in water, without salt, in the database. This is a large “serving”. 1 cup of dry lentils braised in 2 cups of water yields what consumers would regard as 4 servings. The USDA data search returns on specific lentils and legumes in the branded product data are incomplete. Some show raw red lentils as containing significant potassium. US and Canadian farmers have been growing mainly large green and brown lentils. Red lentils are split, hulled, brown lentils. But hulled whole brown lentils are red or pink in appearance and marketed by farmers and distributors as red lentils. Brown lentils became scarce in grocery stores near me during the Covid-19 pandemic; red lentils (hulled split brown lentils) remained plentiful. French green lentils and black lentils are available some times in some stores.

Dried apricots and raisins, and banana and apples contains sugars, which are metabolized differently than the carbohydrates in vegetables including legumes such as beans and lentils. Sugar metabolizes into body fat if the body does not need the energy within hours of consumption. Some of the foods listed as high in K provide a rationale for eating high sugar fruits and dried fruits.

Spinach is bulky when raw but wilts. Folding a few cups of chopped raw spinach into a hot dish is easy and fast.

I have recipes for Aloo Palak (potato/spinach stir fry), Aloo Gobi (potato/cauliflower stir fry), Aloo Baingain (potato/eggplant stir fry), braised lentils with spinach, dal (split hulled moong beans) with spinach and other dishes. The potato/vegetable recipes, like lentils, will make several servings but are high in potassium. The grocery stores have been able to provide potatoes, spinach, cauliflower, eggplants and several kind of dry lentils and beans in 2020 and 2021.

A cup of wheat bran has 684 mg. of K. I have recipes for a dozen bran muffins made with 1.5 cups of bran and a half cup of raisins has 1642 mg. of K. 1 muffin has 137 mg. of K.