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Put my Raceface turbine cranks on my new bike with 12 spd transmission, bought the correct steel ring. Did i need to?
What's so special about the shimano chain that means I can't use a standard N/W?
essentially I want to try an oval or an aluminium ring
The inner plates on a Shimano 12 speed chain are wider - so less room inside it. Unless you get a ring that has teeth that fit in still it’s going to be noisy / rattly / not smooth.
ok that makes sense
so can you run a non shimano 12 chain with a shimano rear mech? KMC, SRAM etc
Yes.
Won’t shift as well on a Shimano HG+ cassette though.
I've just swapped the 11 speed XX1 on my Jeffsy for 12-speed XT. I had the original chainring almost unused because I put an Absolute Black oval ring on as soon as I got the bike. I thought I'd try it before I bought another chainring. It seems absolutely fine - it's a RaceFace ring on Next SL cranks, XT chain.
As above - inner plates on 12sp shim mtb chain are extended to mech with their profiles chainring teeth.
Shimano call it "DYNAMIC CHAIN ENGAGEMENT+"
chain comparison:
yon can see the difference here - which is why when it is mucky some people run sram 12sp chains on shimano to get more mud clearance - longer inner plates and slightly narrower rollers - both of which are sized/shaped to mesh with Shimano tooth profile.
should really use a chainring that is stated as 12sp shimano compatible.
I run a sram XX1 chain with Shimano 12 speed cassette / mech / shifter and a sram eagle chainring. Works alright. Wouldn’t say the shifting is any worse than when I ran it with a Shimano 12 speed chain and makes less noise / skips less when it’s wet and muddy.
yer the shimano 12 speed thing is pretty much all to do with the need to match their chain to their chainring (or a deemed compatible aftermarket)
their 12speed cassette seems fine with all decent 12sp chains, which means some flexibility with chainrings if you run the appropriate chain. I know a few people run a sram 12sp chain the full shimano drivetrain when it is muddy/winter just to escape that grinding noise you get with a full shimano setup when it is mucky as the chain is less tight to the chainring teeth,
I've been using KMC with shimano, tbh I didn't feel that it made any meaningful difference. I'd heard the mud thing but I've not noticed that, shifting feels exactly the same to me but then I was comparing a used shimano chain with a new kmc so maybe there was an advantage when new that'd just been lost?
It all seemed much like their directional chains- an extra bit of faff that doesn't do anything that competitors have managed to do without it.