Campag4life

Good data point. Many say they believe Campy chains are fractionally better...but this maybe placebo. I never felt they were better to the point of justifying the higher price tag let alone ridiculous chain tool.

Kimmo 

I'd believe that about SRAM, but surely Shimano doesn't need to outsource...?

Kimmo 

And this from a dude called Campag4life, LOL. Too right.

I love how Campy are all like, oh you have to use our special chain tool, and by the way it's $400. Typical

Racing Dan

Im sure chains are in fact different enough to make a difference, in either shift quality or longevity, but coming across reliable information is near impossible. Possibly, more expansive chains are to some extent better, but my feeling is you are better of, just getting one of the cheaper ones, in what ever speed you need, and replace a bit more frequently, rather than getting some expensive stuff and try to make i last "forever". YMMV and all that .. :-)

exmechanic89

I'm currently using an FSA Team chain, which has been my favorite of the various ones I've tried. It's very quiet and smooth - and pretty light as well. I've never used Campy chains.

Sy Reene

Is this the chain being suggested? Does it come with a MissingLink? https://store.kmcchain.us/p/x10-93
Data point?
Looks like the KMC chain + ML together is $42. A campy veloce chain is about the same. A record 10s chain about $50. For something that lasts a couple K miles or so, these differences are pretty minor IMO.

Sy Reene

I suppose the linked article here is one of those sources of info.. how much is proven and how much is opinion?
https://www.biketiresdirect.com/chai...bility-article
That said, if there's something that the manufacturers do to optimize their chains to their own drivetrains, I'm curious how KMC magically can optimize their chain to somehow work with any brand of drivetrain?

Campag4life

OK...here is my lowest price for KMC 11s chain + Missing link. $28 shipped:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/KMC-X11EL-S...5.c10#viTabs_0

Now it your turn to post a link of the lowest cost for 'any' Campy chain so we can compare costs. There is no false economy to purchasing a KMC chain versus Campy chain. KMC for value beats Campy.

Campag4life

What do you think KMC does? They don't make drivelines. They make chains to work effectively on name brand drivelines. What they do and are very effective at it.

Sy Reene

​​​​​​What I question is their ability to make a jack of all trades that doesn't offer a compromise for one or another brand of drivetrain. For example, if, as the article states, SRAM and Shimano chains are not cross-compatible, it seems a logical presumption is that if a generic/KMC chain is made to work with both, it would be less optimal for both.

Sy Reene

Ok, so now you've posted a "data point". For Chorus 11s they can typically be found for about $40. Again, $12 isn't something I'd worry about.. If a chain lasts about 2500 miles (probably more), each 50 mile ride will cost me $.24

Campag4life

Can you post a link to a Campy Chorus 11s chain for $40?

Campag4life

I believe your presumption is a false conclusion. I come from the world of product development. Just because Campy makes a chain for Campy doesn't mean that a KMC chain designed for all three large groupset manufacturers may work best on 'all' of them. So your thinking is flawed.

For example. Sram chains are generally regarded as less robust compared to KMC, Shimano or Campy chains. Whether true or not. It is quite possible that 'any other chain' other than Sram may work best on Sram drivelines. Also, just because 'an article' states something as fact, doesn't mean its true.

This is even within brands in terms of cross capability. Campy is notorious for not wanting to mix different groupset models when in actual fact, cross compatibility tends to be quite high...mixing Ultrashift with Powershift for example.

Sy Reene

https://www.modernbike.com/campagnol...11-speed-chain
https://www.merlincycles.com/campagn...eed-44925.html

potenza for 11s at $38. Excel has the chorus as well but at $42
https://www.excelsports.com/main.asp...jor=1&minor=11


This might well be a good case in point. I've seen the recent posts here on BF about chain durability.. the one I'm thinking of was conducted or paid for by Wipperman (link here: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...st-2018-a.html )which is referring in turn to this test result: https://www.connexchain.com/fileadmin...ments-2018.pdf
Yet their test methodology never addresses what brand of drivetrain they tested all of the chains on (nor did they indicate whether a fresh drivetrain was installed periodically so that some chains weren't being evaluated from running a more worn cassette and chainrings.

Until an independent study is conducted where each brand's chain is tested on each brand's drivetrain, and then cross-tested, we're all speculating in this discussion. Though not unreasonable to make the safe bet that same brand chain/drivetrain should not be sub-optimal.

zacster

rgconner

It is pretty widely known in the industry:

"KMC have been making chains for many years and now produce over 80 million a year for a wide range of companies, including Shimano.

https://www.bikeradar.com/gear/categ...d-chain-10810/

A quick google will produce more hits for that.

Kimmo 

I wonder if that's all Shimano's chains, or just the cheap ones...

redlude97

All the new 11s(and at least some of the 10s) chains are no longer made by KMC, they are made in japan which is stated right on the box, whereas KMC is based out of Taiwan.

rgconner

I would expect that to be true.

You would want to keep the high end premium stuff with a high margin in house, and let someone else make the low margin stuff for you.

jordanair45

Always used SRAM until Shimano released their own quicklink LOL

zacster

Well my X10SL chain arrived today, except that it wasn't an X10SL. The box said Z7, and the plates were stamped with a Z. This isn't the first time I was shipped the wrong item from Amazon. Back it goes, and hopefully the reshipped item is the correct one.

zacster

FWIW, an update. My X10SL chain did arrive again. I also ordered and received a Campy Record 10s ultra-narrow chain for my road bike so now I have 2 chains, one for each bike. On top of all that I ordered a new pair of hoods for my road levers. I had put new hoods on a few months ago, but they weren't quite the right ones. When riding the trainer it was OK, but when I started riding outdoors again the shifting was sloppy, hence the thought of a new chain. But now that I have the new hoods the shifting is precise again. But since I also started counting all the miles on RidewithGPS, I know that I'm also due for a new chain anyway, so I just need to find some time to clean everything before I put new chains on both my bikes.