New Year, New Chain

According to material science, material fatigue is defined as the structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to repeated loading.

The causes of material fatigue could be from frequent state of stress, material type, internal defects or environmental factors (high temperature, high humidity, etc).

The solutions to material fatigue can be redesign of parts, replacement of parts or use of other materials.

Real life situation:

Cause of Material Fatigue:
I have used my bicycle chain, Shimano XT, and for slightly less than 2 years it has borne my load. Just before the last Ramadhan, it broke while I was climbing a short uphill section at Snake & Ladder trail at Bukit Kiara. Two weeks ago, two of my friends’ chains also broke. Was it a hint by God?

Solution to Material Fatigue:
So, I bought a new chain to replace the ageing Shimano XT chain. I got the Shimano XTR/CN7701.

[Shimano XTR Chain]

Other Findings:
I’m also using KMC X9 Gold chain on my other bike.

[KMC X9 Gold Chain]

Putting those three chains on weighing scale, the KMC weighed at 265 grams (…also confirmed by www.sicklines.com and http://www.gramslightbikes.com/2007_10_01_archive.html )

The XT was at 285 grams.

The XTR was at 244 grams.

The XTR was also much cheaper than the KMC by RM45.00 (about 10 euros). Therefore, it is acceptable to conclude the XTR chain is quite a value buy.

However, it’s a shame that Shimano does not have “no tool requires” bra-type link for their chains, like the SRAM’s Powerlink or KMC’s Missing Link.

[KMC Missing Link]

No worries. I am using the Missing Link on my KMC X9 Gold and the outgoing Shimano XT chains. So, I believe that the KMC’s Missing Link can also be used on the XTR chain. Here we go…