I got this neglected Kona Cinder Cone last year from FB Marketplace so I decided to clean the chain by soaking it in a container with WD-40 for a few hours. It cleaned up perfectly so I put it back and lubed it with synthetic lube and it worked great.
I haven’t ridden the bike for like 8 months now and as soon as I tried, the chain instantly snapped. I took a closer look and it’s pretty much disintegrated, with cracks on every single link, on both sides.
Any ideas what happened? What did I do wrong? I thought WD-40 was relatively safe to metal.
by rainpl
29 Comments
Wow never seen something like that. I don’t think WD40 has anything to do with that too. More like a production error that took some time to show his ugly face…
Are you sure it was a legit chain? Lots of counterfeits floating around, believe it or not.
The proper application of WD-40 does not involve soaking anything. There’s a reason it comes in an aerosol form.
This chain must have been really brittle to crack like this.
Was the bike exposed to freezing temperatures?
I would write to sram and see if they know what could have caused this.
Ive read that soaking in acidic degreasers can cause “hydrogen embritlement” which can cause chains to crack. but it doenst sound like this chain would have been soaked in that.
COVID era supply chain issues might be the reason.
The builders bought the chain from whatever was available or something.
The only way that would happen is if you twisted or put any excessive sideways pressure on the chain, still odd though the metal should not be that brittle.
Counterfeit or the previous owner soaked it in something that caused hydrogen embrittlement. Some rust removers produce hydrogen.
That’s damn near impressive to break nearly every single link. It looks almost like stress corrosion or hydrogen embrittlement, but to break every link so consistently I think it’s got to be a defect in the heat treatment or something.
Edit: unknown which WD-40 used.
Well at least now you can get a chain that isn’t total junk I guess. Sometimes cleaning chains with hydrogen based degreasers can embrittle them. Maybe previous owner did that?
I have had a chain fail like that couple years ago. Was a SRAM from a retail store.
What chain lube have you been using on this? Muc-off dry lube by chance?
I had never cracked a cassette until … I cleaned my ultegra cassette in simple green with the ultrasonic. I think it was 180°F. It came out looking very good. I mounted it and rode a few 50-ish mile mountain rides and then on a bigger ride (triple bypass it was) I cracked one of the gears on the cassette , during a climb. I’m generally pretty gentle on machinery including my bikes. No hard shifts, no cross chaining.
It was 3rd cog. Still rideable. I had to double shift to hop over it for the rest of the ride.
Someone told me later that simple green is wrong for ultrasonic cleaning.
Hydrogen embrittlement comes to mind. Using the wrong degreaser for too long will cause that (simple green soaks for example), and seeing this was a second hand purchase, it’s a possibility.
But by no means dont quote me on that, Im no expert. Just sharing info I gathered over the years.
At some point it was soaked in simple green. Replace it. The 1110 is cheap chain. Better to use cheap chain.
A few months ago I tried to clean 2 chains that had rust on them and I dipped them in a rust removal solution for a couple hours. Then washed them with water and dried them. After putting them on the bike I noticed same cracks as yours.
I blamed to solution and them being old and not of amazing quality.
can you show us the snapped link? I’m super curious to see how it went
ive had this exam same thing happen, cracks on most of the links in my 6mo old shimano 10spd chain. and just recently, a buddy’s sram 12spd chain also had this. i really can’t say what causes this, other than being fake or manufacturing issue.
I had the same thing happen with my bike. Bought it in 2020 and rode it for one summer. I had some parts swapped in a shop and the mechanic asked me to hop on the bike to see how it feels. I put my weight on the pedals and the chain exploded. Found out it was full of cracks, just like yours.
The mechanic told me he had never seen anything like that before and that there must be spmething wrong with the metal alloy. I got a new, better chain and only paid for the difference in price.
But yeah, this was during covid, so maybe it has something to do with how hard it was to get parts back then.
I once put an old chain in rust remover, this is exactly what happened. While rusty and dirty rode fine.
Was there ever a PC1110 chain? I though the lowest tier chain is pc1130?
How is the chainwheel and cassette – are those OK ? if the teeth are worn then the chain will be stressed more than usual
WD 40 and chains do not mix well but this seems like a severe reaction. I’d suggest a bike specific degreaser like park tool next time and clean it with isopropyl after soaking
In the Marginal Gains podcast they said something about keeping a used chain in white spirits (= polar solvent) overnight. A used chain might already have some humidity on it, which leads to hydrogen embrittlement when surrounded by the polar solvent. They recommend that step only for new chains.
Maybe this was a thing here, but I never understood how that reaction works.
Also, if there was a reason for soaking it, other than just grease removal, maybe there already was some rust on the chain? And rust itself is already taking material from the thin chain links.
Chain links are under permanent high stress — after all, what’s holding the outer plate and the pin together is the friction from the plate hole clamped around the pin. Combine that with a poorly controlled tempering and/or electroplating process plus neglect during use plus a few years, and this is the result. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement)
The material must have invisibly corroded in some way. Salt? I had that once with a folding bike I took to a holiday at the seaside. It never got wet or anything. Back home, it stood for months in the shed, and when I took it for another ride, a dozen or so spokes snapped all at once.
Some metals can become weakened and brittle through contact with other metals, like gallium, but that’s rather exotic…
Leaving the chain soaking in something that wasn´t designt for it, can lead to most if not all of the lube getting stripped from the inside of the pins and rollers. This can also change the chemistry of the links and make them brittle.
Had this happen to me on different brand chains: KMC, and Wipperman.
As soon as I changed my cleaning technique and was less obsessed with a perfectly clean chain, I havn´t snapped a chain since.
I had this once on an old Planet X road bike. Almost the same situation, it was a used bike that I’d been riding for some time without issue. It had been in storage a few months and when I checked the chain almost every link was cracked like this.