SRAM chain **** me up…

Riding to work on monday (blue sky, sunny – got that life is good feeling.

Went to accelerate round another biker, stood up to give it some out of the saddle…chain snaps … slo mo fall to the tarmac and take the impact on my right shoulder.

Cue ambulance and an A&E trip, and I’ve got a spiral fracture of the clavicle / collar bone.

What really sucks is that I had planned an epic ride in the black mountains this weekend.

Perhaps I should have taken my shock packing down last week as an omen!

The chain had been on for 6 weeks …

Chains sometimes fail, regardless of age and make.

Yeah, there is quite alot on the net about failing SRAM chains at the moment though. I appreciate most will be fair wear and tear or poorly joined but some seem to be a split side plate. I Haven’t had a chance to examine mine yet though.

Dude i really do feel for you. Sounds really bad as it was caused by a broken chain. If it helps i’ve broken both my collar bones and I totally understand the pain you will be feeling.

Look at name. lol. Fractured my left collar bone on my mountain bike, taking a hugh jump, landed on wet grass, bike slipped out from under me and landed on my left shoulder causing it to snap in half. That was the summer that was really hot and the world cup was on. Spent it in bed. Not happy at all.

Broke my right collar bone exactly 2 years later coming of my motorbike (R6), back end slipped out on me and caught grip and threw me in the air and I landed on my head. The helmet bottom edge went into my right collar bone, again causing it to snap. Had an opertaion on it 3 months later as the bone was to far apart to heel so now have a metal plate and screws on it.

At the point when I felt the pain, I just thought, oh F@*k not again… both times it hapened at the end of May so missed out on 2 whole summers worth of riding.

So dude, hope you get well soon and the best thing is to do is just rest it out for the next 2 months.

Well I’ve just bought a new Sram Pc991 chain and I just pray that the same does not happen.

Unlucky jakethesnake, hope you’re out riding again soon.

I recently got a Sram PC970 chain which snapped twice on the first ride, and after 2 more snaps in under a month has left me pretty pissed off (though uninjured thankfully). Each snap was at a different place and the first 2 were fixed with a powerlink so it can’t have been caused by dodgy rejoining. Anyway, it’s dented my confidence in SRAM chains which have otherwise been fine for the last 8 years or so. Maybe they had “a bad batch”.

see what i mean

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=513405

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/tech/Cancellara_derailed_by_broken_chain_article_280264.html

That’s not good. I had the same problem with SRAMs a few years ago but I thought they’d got over it (always seemed to snap just as I was about 15 yards up a nasty wee hill resulting in much over the handlebar nonsense). I switched to a rohloff chain and it didn’t snap or stretch in about two years of riding. Switched back to SRAM in the end though. The rohloff just required so much more pedalling effort and I’m a complete lazy muppet. I heard that SRAM had the same problm about a year ago as well. It seems to go in cycles with them. Some years – good chains, some years – blinking awful chains.

see what i mean

Thats strange. I’ve run a PC971 chain all year everyday and never once had a problem.

Same here but if it’s made in China…

I have new chain for my hack build-should be interesting.

Get better soon Jake the $. feel for you.

Read about a few breakages on different forums.

I’ve had Shimano chains slowly separate but not snap and switched to sram.
I do a lot of hilly work too clipped in!

Claim for injuries?

I’ve snapped a few, so i gave up on sram chains, i now use kmc and shimano chains with a sram powerlink though.

Cheers for the support – looking on the bright side at least I get to buy myself a new helmet for when i can ride again.

What chains do people recommend. I ‘m a bit sceptical of hollow pins now?

Was using a 971 but ditched it as I was always twisting and breaking it – got KMC on now, but not convinced – seems to come of the chainrings too easy on rough downhills.

So what do people recommend?

Strange – I have had a recent experience with a SRAM chain PG990 ? or somat like that… broke twice in one ride at Nant Y Arian – 2 different places.. the first break I had used a spare power link to fix but the second snap was elsewhere on the chain… I had experienced chain snaps b4 but thought nothing of them…
Not had Shimano snap…

Been using Shimano XT for years and never had a problem. If they’re properly joined when fitted, they’re strong as you can get.
SRAM qc is pretty variable from what i’ve seen of late.
Get well soon, JtS!

Get better soon Jake the Snake. Ouch!
LBS recommended Connex chains. Bit sceptical at first as always used shimano. But have used connex now for the last 2 years (on shimano cassettes). I commute and MTB on the same bike and chain lasts about 2000 miles. No breakages as yet,just stretch and twist when wornout. shifting not bad either. Hope this helps 😯

I have never snapped a sram chain even tho we use them on the tandem – and we generate enough torque to rip hope freehubs! The only chains I have seen break are due to bad shifting. We have to change chains several times a year

Is this chain breaking bad shifting or a bad batch?

My chain broke after climbing the legburner at N-Y-A its a 2 mile climb and used middle ring all the way up, maybe put too much tension onto the chain ?

TJ- I can’t speak for any of the others, but in my case the breaks were not under excessive load (no suicide shifts uphill- infact no shifting involved in any case, and one of the four was going downhill). I should point out that I’ve never had any major problems with SRAM before and will probably use them again in the future.

Have broken a few chains. Shimano chains went through a very rough patch about 5 or 6 yeras ago but my experience is the newer ones with the different riveting seems to have solved the problems of the side plates popping off.

The problem I have seen with the SRAM is that its the side plate cracking it happened to a mate fortunately the chain stayed in one piece and it was spotted by my eagle eyed mate when he was looking for the clicking noise from his gears. We were just about to go up a nasty steep climb when it would almost certainly have gone resulting in a hysterically funny nuts versus stem moment.

However I am not bothered because I use Connex chains

connex chains are not without fault …..

househusband of this parishs connex failed when he was riding next to me on a slight uphill road gradiant ….he stood up to put power down and a pair of plates split …. right in the center they just tore apart ….not near the rivets or owt …cue over the bars and big knee gash !

And 10 speed seesm to be the next “leap” in MTB drivetrains… hmmmm

By way of warning to others my chain started to click about 2 miles befoe it failed. I thought I’d sort it once I’d arived at work.

Take my advice sort it when you hear it, I’m kicking myself now.

My shimano chain had odd clicking and noises-A mate spotted the open link on side.

Was caused by front mech causing shifting problems. Threw mech in bin and better mech and sram chain works great.

I think a quick inspection once a week will help.