charityadventure

Does anyone suffer with chains stretching? 3 months and its grown by the length of half a link. Replacing the chain just skips. Replaced all the cogs just before C2C so not that worn. Tried loads of chains, Mainly SRAM but never seem to last long. What am I doing wrong?

I think everyone suffers to some extent.

You should replace the rear cartridge every time you change the chain (that's the general rule anyway!).

The same thing happened to me on the Sea2Sea (2007). I had to nip into Penrith and badger the bike shop there into replacing both before everyone caught up with me! I also had a problem with the rear cones being slightly loose which wasn't helping.

The other thing to check is that you're fitting the right sized chain for the cartridge. You get different chains depending on whether your rear cartridge has 7, 8, 9 or more sprockets.

High Al,
I'm guessing that you lube and clean your chains regularly, if not that could cause premature wear. Do you use a pressure washer? They kill chains and bearings. They force crud into the rollers and through the seals.
Using to high a gear could possibly cause excess wear if you do it very often,but not very likely.
As Craz suggested it may be due to incompatable chain/cassette. The width varies to allow for the reduced gap between sprockets on 9 and 10 speeds.
If you change the chain approx every 1000 miles you ought to get several times the chain life out of the rear cassette.
Have you measured the chain length? (Park make a cheap easy to use chain length tool. It measures distance between the rollers) Chains wear on the bushes or pins, often refered to as stretch, although the side plates remain the same length, so the chain isn't actually stretched.
Too many links in your chain may account for slipping. There are other causes. Contact me with a personal message and we can go through the options if you like. AW
PS I buy chains on the net from Ribble. Cheaper than most and good service. Much cheaper than my LBS.