What's good in the world of 12 speed chains? Is there any point in spending big money on one?
I've used NX (horrible shifting, no idea on wear rate as it was so bad I took it off), GX and SLX. I got 2600 miles out of the SLX chain on my Rail at which point the cassette and chainring were toast.
Always run X01 chains when renewing. We have had a couple of GX chains that have had multiple cracks in links after very little use.
XTR 9100 chain is well worth the investment IMO. Seems to outlast SLX and XT by as much as 3 times.
With 12speed it depends on what group you are using. I wouldn’t use a 12speed Shimano chain with Sram eagle. The chain is not a good fit at all. Vs Versa works fine.
Posted this a while back.
12sp GX vs XT
The SRAM X01 and XX chains have an extra coating on them which has shown to extend their life significantly, at the expense of a bit of extra drag. Plus, SRAM is technically slightly different size to the other now, so best practice is to run a SRAM chain on SRAM cassettes etc.
I like running sram xx1 chains personally - I found the Shimano chains didn’t like the mud much. That’s on a Shimano compatible chainring / XT cassette with XT mech and shifter. Latterly I’ve moved to a sram chainring as well as I think they retain the chain well and last ages.
On my other bike with GX eagle I’ve gone a bit cheaper and used a KMC X12 gold ti- nitride chain and that’s been ok too tbh - bit cheaper and still gold coloured 😝
Shimano on shimano to get the best shifting due to the extended inner plates and shimano cassette shaping. Get the more expensive ones as the value/mile is better. Sram on anything else, and again go X01 or upwards for value/mile.
XTR 9100 chain is well worth the investment IMO. Seems to outlast SLX and XT by as much as 3 times.
Very much this for Shimano 12 speed setups, the XTR chains are noticeably less resistant to twisting and have the fancy coating on both sides of the plates and the rollers so last bloody ages, as in 1800km to just about 0.5% wear, so I'm looking at at least two, maybe three £50 chains to one £269 cassette on that set up.
My experience with SRAM is that the higher up the model range the better the chain, shifting quality doesn't tend to change (admittedly I've never used XX1), but their cheap chains are utter turd and last about a week.
I got 218miles out of a NX Chain, Moved to a X01 chain and got 787 Miles before retiring it, new X01 chain has 248 miles on it.
I change chains at 0.5 so the sprocket and cassette last longer.