Sram Chain

THATmanMANNY

THATmanMANNY

Well-Known Member
If you ride with me you'd see me perform my ritual of cleaning and lubing my chain before the ride. I made my way over to Shimano chains after wearing through a couple Sram ones that came with the bikes. I've found Sram chains are noisy and countless tales of them snapping on friends. They are a quick link fix but for some reason I feel a Shimano chain with pin connectors are much more reliable/dependable. I have a couple on reserve because they are cheap and I have one on my fixed gear right now.

Well, the Sram chain on my fixed is totally shot. Rusted all over. Tried salvaging it. No hope. All the other 4 non Sram chains on my bikes are all good. All the bikes are stored in my garage. Sure it's been a humid summer but i shouldn't have rusted with about a maintained 200miles. Another confirmation Sram chains aren't for me. Warranty replacement...
 
Once you go KMC... you never go back brother.

{esp for a big guy like me.. I have never broke a KMC. I have broken all of the others}

they do tend to be a bit heavier but that I believe is one of the reasons they last.
 
I used to push Wipperman chains on people looking to change their old ones out but after trying a shimano chain I figured I would save a few bucks on an equally good product
 
Ive broken 3 SS sram chains and have had 2 or 3 with multiple stuck links. And they rust. And they are noisy. And they are annoyingly shiny out of the box and always look dirty. I now have KMC and love it.
 
I've had good success on all but SRAM's 10 speed chains. Frankly, I don't like the Shimano pins at all. I can only recall breaking two chains in all of my years and bikes. They were both Shimano and broke at the pin. The last was a 10-speed road chain earlier this year.

On 9-speed or lower, I use SRAM. My road bike with 10-speed has a Shimano chain and a quick-link (anything but the Shimano pin).

FYI, I would not recommend lubing a chain before a ride. Lube it after a ride and let the lube dry before riding. It will pick up less debris and stay cleaner longer. Clean = longer life.
 
BiknBen said:
FYI, I would not recommend lubing a chain before a ride. Lube it after a ride and let the lube dry before riding. It will pick up less debris and stay cleaner longer. Clean = longer life.
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agreed. I used to but now the last thing I want to do is clean my bike after a good time. Also, not riding 6MR makes a huge difference 😉
 
THATmanMANNY said:
Well, the Sram chain on my fixed is totally shot. Rusted all over. Tried salvaging it. No hope. All the other 4 non Sram chains on my bikes are all good. All the bikes are stored in my garage. Sure it's been a humid summer but i shouldn't have rusted with about a maintained 200miles. Another confirmation Sram chains aren't for me. Warranty replacement...
Click to expand...

You're saying that you never brought it into your garage after a wet ride and let it sit there? Like Ben says, maintaining before the ride isn't the preferred method. If you're riding in wet conditions and then letting is sit until the next ride, that's not "maintained" at all.

I've had good luck with both. I have been known to ride quite a few miles in rather less-than-ideal conditions.
 
Like Ben said, lubing the chain before you ride is not the way to go.

Chain lubes typically have a "carrier fluid" that helps to get the lube deep into the chain before it evaporates, leaving the thicker lube behind. If you ride before this carrier fluid has time to evaporate, dust and dirt will stick. Clean and lube after the ride.
 
I'm a shimano die hard and would never run any sram parts except for the chains. I rarely use the quick links too, I'll normally just push the pin back in after I break it. Lube after every ride with white lightning.
 
I've only broken one chain and it was a dura ace chain, halfway through a race while in the lead pack. I'm not a fan of shimano anything on my personal bikes, but weirdly enough I have ultegra chains on both bikes at the moment. I really, really like kmc chains and I usually run the x9/x10 on my bikes.
 
+ 1 on the maintenence after the ride. We use Sram pc991 chains on the MTB tandem and the only problems we've had was if I really made a bad shift and peeled a link. My fault, not theirs. I like the removable link. When it comes time to change the chain on the road tandem (10 spd) I am going to try the KMC chains as I have one on my fixed gear and really like it also. The 10 spd Sram seems to use a non reusable link which sort of doesn't make sense to me but you can purchase a removable one. After riding, the chains get a wipe down at the very minimum and a re lube if its been wet.
Just my$.02.
Ed and Pat on the "Snot Rocket" tandem
 
A little birdy told me that KMC makes shimano chains.

KMC makes good stuff. C-dale uses them at OEM with great luck.

We still sell the most SRAM chains. For some reason no one wants a KMC chain. They need to work on their brand image. Maybe some pin-up girls on the box or something..
 
jdog said:
For some reason no one wants a KMC chain. They need to work on their brand image. Maybe some pin-up girls on the box or something..
Click to expand...

KMC is too close to KFC. I'm entirely serious. Brand images are just blazed in our minds, and the name is going to be associated with fried chicken, like it or not.

Wow, I should get double points for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwURoueDzFo

But that was before my time. This was more like it, still awful though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqD_I0Wj-20
 
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