Any ideas why my chain keeps snapping?

X7 front, X9 rear, XT chainset, XT cassette, SRAM chain.

When I built up my old hardtail last year I thought I’d give SRAM a go seeing as it seemed to be getting more popular, but now i seem to be paying a price.
I’m not really happy with the X9, so am thinking about reverting to shimano anyway but does anyone have any ideas how I’ve set up the drive train so wrong that I’ve ripped up two chains? I have tuned the gears to such a degree that they don’t make any noise, and change pretty quickly, albeit quite definitely (read loud clunk), with the SRAM compared to the Shimano I am used to. The X9 has not seen that much use and after my last ride i left the chain on the biggest ring allowing the mud to dry and now the spring doesn’t want to pull the chain off the bigger rings.

It’s doing my nut in!

swap an X9 rear setup for an XT anyone?

Is the chain breaking in the same place?

Too many pies.?

nope a couple of chains in different places

if i turn sideways i disappear

crunching gear changes?

You are Fabian Cancellara in disguise and can generate one point twenty one jigga watts – thread closed

cranking hard in the wrong gear putting excessive strain on the chain?

old chain will break, generally It’s a sign

Wait one second, I will telepathically connect with your chain and ask it exactly what the problem is…

My eldest sprog broke a chain last week. X9 with decent cassette and chain in good nick. He isn’t heavy or strong.

Just poor technique changing down going uphill with too much pressure.

well if there’s no better ideas I’ll go for being double hard….. ……..but only on my hard tail, on the squish with XT all over I have never broken a chain, both bikes built from scratch, by my hands.

so back to the original question anyone want to swap my X9 shifter n rear for and XT, the X9 is really good honest 🙂

I snapped a lot of chains by changing too many gears across the cassette in one go, using old twisty gripshift. Seems to worked itself out as a problem now as I use trigger shifters.

Devil dice. 😀

too many torques………….

Crap gear changes under load I recon

SRAM chains are shite in my experience. I now use KMC and am yet to snap one.

I’ve seen many chains from my bike shop days. Shimano ones snapped at the place of joining. Sram ones almost never snapped. Are you using the power link? The only Sram chain I ever saw snap was during a crash that a mate of mine had at a NPS 4x race. Big crash, extreme forces. It didn’t snap at the power link though!

Had a PC951 recently which would snap every other ride in a different place, gave up, and replaced it, just bad luck? don’t know, but will be looking at KMC for new chains in future

I’ve snapped 3 SRAM chains and worn out a couple of dozen shimano xt and mainly xtr with no snappage, don’t know why they snapped, all 3 were the crossstep sram is it 991nmodel.

Sram chains are not shite. They are from the old Sachs Sedis design – superb German engineering.

Interesting stuff lads but I think I’m missing something. Both of my bikes are built, serviced and ridden by me, one snaps chains the other doesn’t. I can’t imagine my gear changes are any different on each bike, I do ride both of them up fairly steep stuff in Malvern though, perhaps the suspension on the stumpy takes some of the force out of my “crap gear changes under load”.

Stumpy has XT all over apart from the SRAM chain, hardtail has the SRAM front and rear mech with the SRAM chain, it breaks randomly not on the power link. I’ve always used SRAM chains after having a few crap shimano ones years ago.

I guess one way to test the theory is to swap derailleurs on the bikes, don’t know if I can really be ar5ed though.

Friday chain?

I have to admit I try to use SRAM’s, slotted PC-89’s being my fave chain ever (but unfortunately now discontinued), never snapped a single SRAM – even the 89’s despite being slotted, I must have had at least 20 of them, used on both road & mtb.

Haven’t bothered with Shimano’s for years, mainly on advice from you lot. Had a deal off someone here with a Connex & broke a side plate on that (Tour of Wessex day 1, fortunately had a chain tool with me!) so back to SRAM’s. Although they do seem to be getting jolly expensive these days. Maybe I ought to look at some of the KMC’s….

I’ve snapped every brand of chain I’ve owned; SRAM, Shimano, KMC. IMO they’re all fairly similar, I don’t think SRAM are as good as they were, and they’re expensive.

Not really relevant, but I do disagree with things like this:

The only Sram chain I ever saw snap was during a crash that a mate of mine had at a NPS 4x race

Which somehow imply SRAM are wildly superior!

KMC are pretty good, Shimano chains are shite, not had a Sram one yet.

I had a similar problem on my hardtail – lots of chain snapping, including replacement brand new ones, and it turned out to be worn/bent teeth on the chainrings and cassette, twisting it and creating pressure points. Maybe check your chainrings and cassette carefully for bent or worn teeth, cos they’re not always easy to spot, but a little damage can really mess up the chain.

If my mates knew I’d actually answered a mechanical question, they’d laugh their asses off.

New chain – old cassette = no

I’ve snapped every brand of chain I’ve owned

I’m sure that’s your dodgy riding style 😉

I don’t think SRAM are as good as they were, and they’re expensive

They certainly are in **your** shop (not that that’ll stop me buying them there)

would be a lot easier to put the chain on your fs…
if a chain snaps once on me i bin it. i suspect you’ve just been unlucky.
i’ll give you 50p and a bunch of grapes for your sram setup 😀