I’m still riding a perfectly viable 3×9 XT Ocatlink drivetrain (cutting edge in 2003 I think). I replaced the aluminium middle and granny rings with steel Deores years ago and they’re still going strong but I’m starting to think about changing the outer ring.

I vaguely remember some sort of issue running Hollowtec II chainrings on Octalink chain sets. Does anyone know if I can fit these XT triple outer rings to my venerable Octalink chainset? If they’re not compatible, what options are there?

I think it was the middle position where you had problems. There were “tabs” that sopped non shimano chainrings fitting which may stop newer ones also. I used to run SS on octalink. I just filed the spider, it was only about 0.5mm near each bolt.

I can’t answer your question, but I’ve got some new or barely used big rings you can have way cheaper than CRC. Email in profile if interested.

It’s the middle ring tabs that cause the fuss when fitting new Deore rings to my Deore Octalink chainset, soon fixed it with a Dremel though.

Don’t recall ever having the same problem with the outer ring, but then again it got swapped for a bash ring some time ago…