Chain Wear with E-Assist

Are e-assists chain eaters? Hard for me to say but it seems like my current 11 speed YBN chain suffered wear and stretch faster than usual. I can be a bit manic when it comes to maintaining my trike but this one got away from me. 

I checked the chain at 7,700 miles thinking that I might be getting close to 50% wear. Wow... it's easily at .75% wear. The chain wear tool slipped right in at 75%. I should have checked my chain wear when shifting started to get sloppy. Maybe the e-assist and all the climbing I do put more stress on the chain then I realized.

The point is, check for chain wear/stretch a little sooner if using e-assist.

I tried to order 14 feet (168 links or 336 links depending on what you consider a link) of chain. It seems like 11 speed chain sold by the foot is out of stock everywhere. However as of the date of this post Dana at Bent Up Cycles has 11 speed FSA sold by the foot in stock.

With no 11 speed recumbent length to be found at the time I bought three standard chain lengths of KMC 11 speed and linked them together with KMC Missing Links. Not my preferred chain replacement method but it works all the same.

Because the chain was easily at .75% wear I also replaced the 11/46 cassette and the 44t chainring. 

I've been wanting to change over to a 11/42 cassette from the 11/46. So all is good. With the e-assist the large 46t cog is not needed for riding roads. With a 11/42 cassette the gearing will be a little more closely spaced which I prefer. 

I bought my ICE Sprint FS E8000 in May of 2019. So it's just over three years old.

Total miles 7,700.

Total gain 547,000 feet (all that climbing tests by gimpy legs but I sure do love going downhill).