67tony 

Time for a new chain on my 6-speed Shimano 600 drivetrain, with an MF-6208 freewheel.
Any opinions about these choices? Any others I should be considering?
Thanks!

KMC Z6

KMC Z6 NP

KMC X8 NP

SRAM PL 870

Classtime 

SRAM. 870 is shiny I think.

SurferRosa

I usually buy either the kmc X8 or sram pc850, whichever is less expensive.

randyjawa 

For my vintage steeds, with five or six cogs, I always go with SRAM 870 complete with master link. A great upgrade over old school chains, in my opinion...

Trevtassie

Big fan of Wippermann Connex chains now. German quality.... https://www.connexchain.com/en/8-speed-chains.html

Then you can go down the rabbit hole of checking out all the German bike sites Like Bike-Components and Bike-discount and Bike24 ....

P!N20

Wippermann Connex 808

Edit: beaten by Trevtassie

plonz 

KMC x8.## on all my 6-8 spd builds. No problems with them. The finish on the fully-plated models has held up really well. I have one that is semi-plated and the non-plated links require more frequent cleaning to keep from oxidizing.

67tony 

Thanks for the suggestions.
The SRAM 870 looks good, but is a tad more expensive than the KMC Z8.
I've used KMC on other bikes and have been happy.

At the risk of this being a silly question...
Is the SRAM Powerlink different from KMC's version?

Classtime 

Look at the 850 for $savings. I think it is the same as 870 but not as shiny.

Dfrost 

I’ve tried a few Wipperman 808 and KMC X8.99 and lots of SRAM/Sachs chains, keeping data on how long each lasts, with the same lube methods (Boeshield T9 applied at approximately 300-mile intervals). As a former aerospace test engineer, I love test data!

Of those, the Wipperman and KMC had shorter lifetimes (1200 and 2000 miles, respectively, always replaced at 0.5% “stretch”). The SRAMs, all PC870 (or 890 when those were available) typically lasted about 3000 miles. However, I just replaced an 870 at only 1500 miles, which was disappointing! I’m hoping that was outlier data. It was replaced with another 870, again lubed with T9. I’ve really liked T9 for how clean the chain Is throughout its life (and the rare “calf tattoo” wipes of easily). FWIW, my favorite chains were those pretty, all silver PC-22 from the Sachs days, which would reliably give 5000 miles.

OTOH, I’d read last year about a comprehensive and well-controlled comparison of chain lubes that showed remarkable results with “Smoove”, available on eBay. In this comparison, the Smoove-lubed chain (all chains were Ultegra) lasted nearly 100% longer - over 6000 miles, even with much longer lube intervals! So I've been using Smoove on one bike and T9 on the other, both SRAM PC870. After nearly 1200 miles, the Smoove-lubed (average of 500 miles between lube applications) chain shows zero elongation! The only downsides are that the excess lube builds up on pulleys and cogs, as the Smoove maker predicts, but it cleans up pretty easily and doesn’t seem to attract road grime. If this trend continues, I’m likely to switch to Smoove for all the family bikes.

dddd

Shimano HG91 is no longer made and so is no longer available (at retail prices anyway). It was a great chain that lasted many seasons (plus training mileage) on my CX bike without getting to the .5% stretch limit.

The HG71 is still offered though, and is another really long-lasting chain. It's the HG-toughened descendant of what I consider the first modern chain, the UG Narrow from 1987 or so, since copied by everybody in the business.

I was able to buy a heavy box full of HG91 chains for less than half of retail after 9s came to be, found it being sold by a mtb racing team. These can be found on EBay at an asking price of $89!