Chain Technology

I'll talk a little bit about what we're learning about chains, but first a few pictures from east-central Michigan.  We were really surprised today with how far away from civilization we got.  We actually rode all morning until past 1pm only seeing one small town.  Here's what the road looked like:

 The trees were stunted and there was evidence of a recent fire.  But elsewhere, there were a few neat-looking old buildings.

So, chain technology.....We were astounded in Fargo, ND to pull into a bike shop and have the mechanic there inspect our chains and tell us both that our chains were shot after barely 1500 miles.  You really don't want to run a worn chain in your drive train since it's noisier, it has sloppy shifting, and worst of all, it wears the cassette and chain-rings prematurely.  Our chain lube strategy up until then had been to wipe the chain and oil it every 2-3 days.  Well, the mechanic claimed that our chains had gotten worn from the outside in, due to the excess oil picking up dust, grime, etc and just abrading the links.  A short word about how chains wear here is that it seems like the chain is "stretching".  But that's not what happens.  In reality, the pins and bushings wear - the pins get smaller, and the holes in the bushings get bigger while the outsides of the bushings get smaller.  The net effect is that the chain gets sloppier, the link pitch (distance from one link to the next) increases, and the bushing surfaces that rub against the sprockets wear down.
So what is the avid cyclist supposed to do?  We got a small tray and a metal-bristle brush and have been washing the chains with soap and hot water every 3 or 4 days and then oiling them.  Every other day or so we wipe the chains with a rag to keep the metal particles and road grime from building up.  We also got a chain wear measuring tool and we're seeing how much the chains wear day by day.
So far we're 1100 miles into the new chains and they're still holding up.  Best of all, they are actually staying a lot cleaner.  We will see if the new regimen makes a difference!