Just ordered some SLX 12 speed cranks to go with the rest of the Shimano drive chain. I’ve got a new SRAM chain on there at the moment.

Do I need a Shimano chain as well or will the SRAM chain / Shimano ring play well enough for now?

I use a sram chain with 12 speed Shimano one one bike, and a Shimano one on the other – works ok… slightly different but perfectly good. Use the chain and replace it with Shimano once it wears out.

perfect. thanks.

No problem mate

Sram chain works on Shimano 12 speed, but so say not as slick as a Shimano one.

It’s the other way round you can have an issue – the Shimano 12 speed chain doesn’t play nicely with a Sram chainring. Although it might just be the Shimano 12 speed link is the problem rather than the whole rest of the chain.

I think it is the Shimano link that’s weird Joe. I swapped the link on my Shimano chain after it fouled an absolute black oval ring… added a sram one and it worked perfectly…

To get the full benefit of HG+ you need the shimano chain, you’re losing the shifting under load smoothness of shimano 12 speed.
Still works with other chains just not optimal performance.

I’ll give the SRAM one a go to start and switch to a shimano one later if need be. The Freewheel discount means a Deore one is £20.

i don’t think that the deore chain is HG+. you’ll need slx or above for the plusness

https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/deore-m6100/CN-M6100.html

Deore is

optimized for HYPERGLIDE+ cassettes and DYNAMIC CHAIN ENGAGEMENT+ chainrings.