Hi everyone,can someone please recommend me a good chain for general xc.My mates sram PC971 snapped today resulting in the usual crushed nuts and chain ring slice to the right calf.This chain has only done 250 miles and is cleaned and lubed after every ride,infact it was cleaned on friday night ready for our sunday morn ride out and no visible signs of wear found.He is 11 stone wet through and easy on the bike at all times.It snapped on a gentle tootle over a field under very little tension.On closer inspection,there is at least 3 or 4 links cracked and ready to snap.Any advice greatly accepted……..

thanks les

I have been running PC951 chains for years across a couple of bikes and not had any issues. Mashing gears and over shifting off the end of the cassette will not help a chains life. Could just have been a bad one.

I’ve been on sram chains since they were sedis and maybe even Sachs before that. Always been better than Shimano and never had anything like you describe.

Due to feedback on here, I’ve got a couple of kmc to try in the future.

I’m on my second KMC 9 speed chain and will buy another one. Gold Ti Nitride coating. Looks nice and has kept looking nice and *touch wood* no problems.

KMC are gnerally a bit cheaper and work great – I’ve been using them a while.

Wipperman conex, been brillant here.

always pick sram over shimano, i’ve only ever had 3 chains break and 4 shimano chains…… so i’m waiting for the 4th one to go.

I use all things Shimano EXCEPT chains. SRAM chains have been flawless for me.

Your friends one sounds looked after, but even neglected they can work fine. More likely gear mashing/abuse. Rider weight has nothing to do with knowing how to shift properly.

PC771/991 from On-One for 9.99 or 14.99. Bargain

Sram over Shimano purely for the powerlink making fitting less of a faff.

Saying that, Sram is the only chain I have snapped so I moved to KMC a few years ago. They just work.

FWIW, I’ve snapped several (3 I can think of) SRAM chains – in every case it’s been a plate cracking, with further cracks on other links.

Never had a problem with KMC.

Complete opposite for me, tried loads over the years KMC, Sram, Shimano and others the only ones I trust now are XTR but chains do break now and then.

many thanks for all your replies.

I snapped the shit out of a kmc 9 speed up FOD Sunday… 🙁