OK, STW'ers, I was cleaning my bike in prep for tomorrows lakes ride and came across this…..

The chain and bike are only 6-7 rides old, it's not been trashed, or put under any unusual amount of strain. It's an SRAM 971 9speed

So… is it a freak occurence, a manufacturing fault, or something else? Would you trust the rest of the links if that one was removed, or would you cough up 15-20 pounds for a new one?

Cheers guys & gals

Keith

I'm no expert but I'd just remove it and replace with a split link. Should be fine…

If you are going to have to go to the bike shop where it came from 6 – 7 rides ago to get a link (which is what I'd do) maybe ask about a warrantee replacement first?

I can't imagine how you could damage a chain like that by misuse, which would be a usual get-out clause.

Repair it Keith – send the broken link to Sram with a nice letter and they might send you a new chain 😉 – want me to bring you a spare for tomorrow just in case?

I'd just repair it. I have no idea why its done thqt but a chain is a wear and tear item and that could be from an impact perhaps

I see no reason why the chain will not be OK after repair

Looks like a freak weak link..possibly damaged due to the weather..did it go out in extreme cold and them be put near a radiator or similar to dry out?

Send the pic and link to Sram and see what they do, would be very unlikely for more links to fail that way
IMHO

Cheers guys,

I've just nipped out to my LBS and they reckon the rest is OK, so I've got a couple of sigma link things to replace it with. Fingers crossed it's a one off.

I reckon I'll send the pic to SRAM though, see what response I get. It did go out in the snow, but was then washed and stuffed in the shed so no real big temperature changes.

DJ – I should be fine for tomorrow with any luck! Cheers

The (visible) inner link (to the left of the split outer) is fairly heavily corroded by rust. Without having the chain in my hands, I'd say that the damage was caused by the links not being able to move freely. You most likely caused this yourself by putting the bike away wet.