I’ve just fitted a 44 tooth Middleburn Slickshift Hardcoat ring to my M752 chainset in place of the original Shimano ring. It looks great but there’s a problem. In the middle ring and smallest (11 tooth) cog the chain catches the pins (Slickshift pins I reckon) of the Middleburn ring and make a lot of noise, backpedaling in the combination sometimes results in the chain catching on the pins and jamming or trying to derail. I had no such issues with the Shimano ring.

The Middleburn site states that the Hardcoat covering is 5 times thicker than normal anodizing so does this make the ring thicker causing the problem?

Any ideas for a solution?

You shouldn’t really use it in middle ring, small sprocket combi for that reason. Try using the big ring a bit earlier on the middle sprockets instead.

I don’t use the extreme gears – bit ring+biggest few cogs or small rings and smallest few cogs, to avoid wear and noise, but I’ve always found middle ring+smallest cog fine; it’s certainly fine with the original Shimano ring. It’s a 50mm chainline and the chain looks pretty straight, I hadn’t really though of middle ring+smallest cog as an extreme gear.

I was wondering whether anyone else had had a similar problem with a Middleburn. Are there any solutions or is it just a case of avoid the middle ring/small cog combination?