fooferdoggie 

on our bosch mid drive tandem. the motor is in front. we tend to cruise is about 18.5mph to 19 on flats where the motor is almost cutting off or off at 19mph we have a small black chainring 36t for great hill climbing. but on flats we are mostly n the 13t cog. we gat about 2000 miles or so out of that heart and with the last chain change yesterday we found the 8th cog was skipping os new cassette. my shop told me the new shimano linkglide components are much more durable like 300% more so. but the whole drivetrain plus shifter minus the chainring needs changed. still 10 speed all around but Now it will use a 11 speed chain. I thought he told me there is a much stronger chain too but I could not find it. would not be super expensive upgrade if its worth it.

headasunder

It's early days for the link guide groupset but it sounds like it should be a good match for a tandem, you should go for it and report back your experiences with it. Slight weight penalty which may put it off the weight weenies

fooferdoggie 

our bike is 75 pounds os weight is not a issue. but I just replaced the cassette so one way or the other I will wait. for us I dont really shift under load I am good letting off when I shift. I have learned to hit steeper hills by shifting all the way down and just lightly peddling till we are at speed and then peddling.

Arrowana

I've got 1 normal linkglide drivetrain, and 1 cobbled together drivetrain with a linkglide cassette. I don't have experience riding a tandem for more than a short test ride, but I do think linkglide would be a great choice for a tandem. Aside from claiming the the cassette is more durable, Shimano also plans to sell the 11t and 13t cogs separately, so you don't need to replace the whole cassette if you have only worn out the 13t cog. They also do an amazing job shifting under load.

Shimano does sell a chain meant for Linkglide, CN-LG500, though I haven't heard anything about the chain itself being any more durable than the average 11-speed chain.

TobyGadd

I don't have anything to say about LinkGlide, but I can testify that waxing your chain will result in amazing drivetrain longevity. I'm a big fan of Silca wax. While properly cleaning and prepping a new chain is a bit of a pain, ongoing maintenance is a piece of cake: Just wipe the chain and then re-dip the chain in hot wax. SO MUCH EASIER than cleaning a drivetrain with conventional lube. Chains, cassettes, and chainrings last a very long time. For more info, check out ZFC's website: Home - Zero Friction Cycling

Philly Tandem

One thing to remember about 11s chains is that they need to be replaced at 50% wear rather than the "normal" 75% wear for 10s and less chains. I assume this would be the case for LinkGuide, too.

fooferdoggie 

thats good to know. thats usually the I replace chains anyway.

longpete

I use linkglyde chains on all my 11 speed bikes. LG500 chain is cheap. A bit stronger than other Shimano 11 speed chains. On our Etandem we started in 2000 with black and gold wippermann connex chains. I like the reusable quick link. Those chaisn did not rust. Bu ass well the 9* speed chaisn used for the timing chain ass the 11 speed chains for the rear chain did break very often. The links came loose of the pins and we even broke some sram 9 speed quick links.The chains wore also very fast, just like the xt cassette : 2 chains 3000km one cassette. I tried HG93 chaisn for the timing chain and they rarely break. oiled chains that break offroad : omg. Some chains I was using had over six quick links because the chain s did break a lot.
Everuthing changed when starting to use linkglyde 500 chains that I hotwaxed with silca wax. I use 3 chains per cassette. I wax again after every wet ride or after 200 to 400km depending the terrain.Chains on the tandem have over 2000km per chain, deore cassette has 6000 km. Far away of the 0.5 mark that means chain is over. 3 chains +one cassette costed 90 EUR. I think they wil last 10000km for the set. I don't ride offroad when there's only deep mùud like the last weeks in december in Europe. But 1/3 of our rides are in wet conditions. So far I did not break one link glyde chain. After almost every ride I clean the chain very quickly : dry dust : microfibre cloth with denatured alcohol wrapped around the chain and do a few turns with the carnks on it; not too muddy :same; wet and muddy: clean the chain in boiling water, dry and rewax or take the chain of and keep her in a microfibre cloth until I can+wax clean the chain. Linkglyde chains (just like deore/105 and slx chains) rust faster than XT+XTR but they hold wax better than XT+XTR.
Ther is one caveat : I also use linkglyde on my solo MTB where id od a lot more distance: there I noticed that when the chain starts wearing, it goes fast (not linear) so then you best check your chain length every time u change the chain.But I got around 9000km out of one casette and three chains. Solo I ride more challenging terrain ans shift a lot more. On this solo bike I changed recently shiftres+cassette to linkglide. Also waxed but with food wax this time. A lot cheaper than Silca. Have to wax more often. But only around 1500 kml done in this setup, so cannnot say much about wearing rate.
I use Yaban and connex reusable quick links.Alsoe the shimao and Sram 11 speed links i use more than one time.