Hi folks. Removed the jockey wheels from my rear derailleur to clean off the gunk (only 1000km) and was shocked to discover they're made of plastic.
How prone are they to wearing out? Will I get more life out of steel (or other) replacements? Any suggestions on where to source better ones?
by Sammonator_
13 Comments
Jockey wheels don’t really do anything but aline the chain. They are fine. Just cleaning them occasionally is enough. You can spend a bunch of money on metal ones if it really brothers you.
Looks like you had a bushing/bearing seize. I’ve had plastic jockey wheels wear over time, but your experience suggests something well beyond normal wear.
Jockey wheels are a wear part. They are made of plastic so that friction with the chain will cause them to wear instead of wearing out the chain, which would also mess up the cassette and the chainrings, which are made of metal and much more expensive to replace.
Honestly, your jockey wheels seem to be in great shape. I recommend you clean them up regularly and not let them get dirty and caked with road grime like in photo 1 before doing something about it.
You might be over lubing or not wiping it off after lubing. Lots of people do this, don’t feel bad.
Lightly lube chain, rotate cranks 10-20 times, then wipe all the lube off which takes way longer.
The engineers know what they’re doing, plastic is the right material here. You can spend a grand on titanium jockey wheels, but they honest to god perform slightly *worse* than the stock plastic.
On a related note, was I supposed to reinstall the wheels with the U and L lettering facing outwards, to the drive side?
I love cleaning the jockey wheels. So fulfilling. So easy. So worth it.
You might want to use less lube or switch to a different product. I have never used Krush, but for example Muc-Off draws a lot of dirt into my drivetrain.
Lots of good advice. But I’ll just add that plastic is quieter than metal, especially when the chain is entering at wide angles like when you’re cross chaining. And they’re usually made some blend of nylon which is very durable(for plastic) and considerably lighter than aluminum.
I’ve got just over 6,100km on my Rival XPLR and jockey wheel still looks new. I use Squirt wax based lube and clean the jockey wheel when I wash my bike.
Most metal jockey wheels are made of aluminium alloy. They’re noisier and wear just as fast, if not faster, than plastic. Even the most expensive group sets from SRAM, Shimano and Campagnolo use plastic jockey wheels. These are fine.
Mr big guns over here showing off what his watt cannons can do.
Pretty impressive.
Even Shimanos back in the 90s are plastic and some survived to this day.