'quick link' on your race chain?

[curby]

do you trust the new breed of master links to keep your chain together?

mtn. ? road ? racing ?

the missing link from KMC is one such product... i believe there are many versions now on the market.

all's'miles


curby

 

[AussieRob]

Yeah - cyclocross.

I have been thinking about putting one on my road bike but just not 100% sure I trust them.


rob

 

[Peter Verdesi]

I took a Park Tool Repair class and the guy who was running it spoke very highly of the KMC missing link. He went to a trade show and the KMC rep was there with a bike that was put together with a chain of nothing but missing links. He said he got on the bike and hammered it for a bit with no failure. For what it's worth I'm using the missing link on my Cervelo and have had pretty good luck with it. The cool thing about it is that you don't need any tools to put it on the bike (aside from a chain breaker to get the damaged link off) so if your chain breaks on the road it could get you going pretty quickly. Good luck.

 

[artemidorus]

I've used 3 or 4 different models and have had no problems, except for one which interfered with front shifting when installed "upside down". Even the "single use" ones can easily be clicked open with a multigrip and reused (although I would only reuse them on the same chain, as they wear too).

 

[Albert 50]

I have used them many times & reused the single use only ones.
The only problem I do have is using them on shimano 10 speed chains. The quicklink says only use on a 6.2mm chain. I don't actually know what a shimano 10s width is but the link is definitely wider than the chain. I have observed the pin in the link clip the teeth of the cassette when I spin the cranks by hand & I assume it does it when I'm riding as well.

 

[Peter@vecchios]

I have used them many times & reused the single use only ones.
The only problem I do have is using them on shimano 10 speed chains. The quicklink says only use on a 6.2mm chain. I don't actually know what a shimano 10s width is but the link is definitely wider than the chain. I have observed the pin in the link clip the teeth of the cassette when I spin the cranks by hand & I assume it does it when I'm riding as well.

Wipperman makes a narrow quick link for all current 10s chains, which are all 5.9mm. You can use a 6.2mm onna 5.9mm chain but it's best to use a narrower one. When 10s first happened many used a Sram gold 9s link on the chains w/o problem(6.5mm link).

 

[daveryanwyoming]

Wipperman makes a narrow quick link for all current 10s chains, which are all 5.9mm. You can use a 6.2mm onna 5.9mm chain but it's best to use a narrower one. When 10s first happened many used a Sram gold 9s link on the chains w/o problem(6.5mm link).

I've never had a failure under load with either the SRM or Wipperman quick link. But last weekend at the start line of a road race I backpedaled to roll my left foot to the high side and my Wipperman 10 speed chain with quick link disconnected, the entire chain fell to the ground. With less than 2 minutes to the start I jumped off, rethreaded the chain and reconnected the link. Nothing was damaged but I stood up hard on the pedals 3 or 4 times with the brakes locked before trusting the chain. No problems during the race or since but I'm still replacing the chain and link with the SRM and its one time use quick link. That was just too spooky to have a chain disconnect at the quick link just because I backpedaled. The chain had been on the bike ~ 6 months with no issues and everything looks fine but it's clear that a link that can be disconnected by hand can also disconnect under unusual loading and I don't want that to happen again.

-Dave