Mavic chains ? replacement for ultegra ?

forward_loop

An annoying ticking caused me to have a quick look and I found my ultegra chain had broken. This is the new 6700 chain (on a compact) with 700 miles on the clock. older ultegra chains just wore out which I can accept but I'm not happy with this - I was just off to do some hill reps !

Firstly - noticed CR had the shimano 6700 at half price - I wonder why

So which chain should I be using to avoid a repeat performance. I spotted mavic 10 speed at half price, are they any good - or reduced cause no one buys them for similar reasons ?

Should I bite the bullet and go whipperman ?

Anything I should steer clear of ?

Mettan

Get a KMC chain.

rake

i cant tell if thats concrete or a beige livingroom carpet in the background.
back to the chain what about a 105 chain. only seem to hear its the ultegra breaking. they fairly cheap.

rokkala

I got the Mavic chains 3 for £30 or something at chainreaction. Little bit noisier running than the Centaur chain that came with the bike, but it's been fine.

TheStone

There's something seriously wrong with the 6700 chains.

I had 2 with broken plates after a few hundred miles. There's a thread on here with lots
of examples of the same thing.

My 3rd (and final) attempted has lasted just over 1000 miles and is already 1% stretched.

There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Shimano. I think my next move will be away
from them.

dennisn

FWIW I think people make too much of "brands". Any company can have a "bad batch"
of anything. There is no perfect chain. Any of them COULD break and then the inevitable
bad mouthing of said brand begins. A few people have a chain break and, of course, it's
not their fault, it's brand X's fault. Is it not possible that these people installed these chains themselves, THINKING they knew what they were doing while driving pins in and out. It's easy to blame the chain but a little harder to admit you MAY not have had the skills to do it right.

Monty Dog

Mavic chains are simply rebranded Connex ones if you're looking for a comparison.

TheStone

dennisn wrote:

FWIW I think people make too much of "brands". Any company can have a "bad batch"
of anything. There is no perfect chain. Any of them COULD break and then the inevitable
bad mouthing of said brand begins. A few people have a chain break and, of course, it's
not their fault, it's brand X's fault. Is it not possible that these people installed these chains themselves, THINKING they knew what they were doing while driving pins in and out. It's easy to blame the chain but a little harder to admit you MAY not have had the skills to do it right.

Normally I'd agree, but not in this case.
(a) because it's me
(b) it's too random to have the plates crack in so many examples.

In my case I use a KMC connecting link and both cracks happened well away from that.

Rodrego Hernandez

KMC make shimanos chains. There is a problem with some ultegra chains breaking.

dennisn

TheStone wrote:

dennisn wrote:

FWIW I think people make too much of "brands". Any company can have a "bad batch"
of anything. There is no perfect chain. Any of them COULD break and then the inevitable
bad mouthing of said brand begins. A few people have a chain break and, of course, it's
not their fault, it's brand X's fault. Is it not possible that these people installed these chains themselves, THINKING they knew what they were doing while driving pins in and out. It's easy to blame the chain but a little harder to admit you MAY not have had the skills to do it right.

Normally I'd agree, but not in this case.
(a) because it's me
(b) it's too random to have the plates crack in so many examples.

In my case I use a KMC connecting link and both cracks happened well away from that.

Like I said, anyone can have a bad batch. I didn't say YOU screwed it up. I said it was possible for some people to botch the job. This is sort of like the guy, on this forum, with
the two ruined, brand new, tires. Claims he didn't hit anything in the road, yet the tire pictures show a couple of really nice cuts that has pretty much doomed them to the trash bin.
FWIW chains do fail and they can't tell you why but I would bet that if someone wrote in to this forum and sent a picture of a failed chain, any brand, that immediately there would be 5 or 6 others also chiming in with their horror stories. And to top it off they will all be swearing to never again use that brand of whatever it was.

alp777

i started a similar thread a few months back, same thing was happening with two sram chains i bought

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12683981&highlight=

marin_maniac

I've just got a Trek with Ultegra 6700 and have just swopped the chain from a Sram 1070 to an Ultegra 6700 chain.

The shifting is noticably better. I would stick with the Ultgera chain.

nferrar

I usually stick with KMC chains (although have used SRAM and Shimano chains in the past to) but have to say I couldn't resist the CRC Mavic chain deal either, although will be a while before I swap one in (not seen anything bad posted about them yet though...).

dennisn

nferrar wrote:

I usually stick with KMC chains (although have used SRAM and Shimano chains in the past to) but have to say I couldn't resist the CRC Mavic chain deal either, although will be a while before I swap one in (not seen anything bad posted about them yet though...).

That's sort of what I'm talking about. If someone posts about a broken chain and then someone does the same(same chain) it doesn't prove anything, other than two people broke the same chain. If in fact it was the SAME so to speak(different model, different year).
Most of the post are simply, broke a brand "X" chain. Ya, so did I. Next thing you know
brand "X" is no good. I think this is wrong thinking. But, hey what do I know???

forward_loop

Ok - lots of different views - thanks guys. I guess I was considering changing for two reason
1) Have been through lots of chains and a couple have broken - but this has been over an extended period and theybasically wore out. This is more like catastrophic failure. It may be down to a dogdy batch, but I have no idea how large a "batch" etc
2)I was surprised that as a "new" product as part of the 6700 series the chains are discounted so highly already (46%).

I've got some big rides this year (marmotte etc) so I really dont want to be in a position of worrying about stuff like this and dont want to be lugging around a chain breaker/link etc

TBH - I am quite happy paying the money for components like this if its worth it.

So three options
1)another ultegra at a bargain price - hopefully this was a one off
2)another make at similar discount price
3) premium - whipperman or maybe dura-ace

Not the most exciting bike decision to be be had

PS - photo taken on garage concrete (would be dead if it was the other!)