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I've just had an SLX (M7100) chainring break on me, the outer ring coming detached from the spider. I'm looking at a one-piece replacement, and have so far found offerings from Unite, Burgtec and Wolftooth.
Does anyone have any experience of these? I've found suggestions that the Unite and Burgtec tooth profiles may not work as well with the Shimano chain.
I think the Unite are really nice, prices seem to have gone up a bit though, I use SRAM chain on mine so can't comment on comparability with Shimano.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000250811457.html
AliExpress rings for under £10 if you're not in a massive hurry.
Burgtec, Blackspire and Unite have worked with HG+ chain no probs apart from the Unite one dropped the chain, whereas the others haven't so I personally wouldn't buy Unite again. Works components are designed to work with HG+ but only come in 30t 32t but decent price and colours, Garbaruk also designed for HG+ chain use, those two are the best looking imho. Wolf (how much?) tooth get a no thanks from me.
I've had a unite one for a year or so - not really seen heavy use but its been faultless.
Currently have a unite oval one - seems fine.
I had a Burgtec one for a while and had massive amounts of chain suck with it - it just seemed too tight on the shimano 12s I was running. Ditched it when the chain snapped under load - might be anecdotal but couldn't get over the fact it must have been putting pressure on the links.
Shimano ones are steel (apart from XTR) with an aluminium spider. All the other direct mount options I'm aware of are aluminium so won't last as long.
Unite oval here, worked great with xt 12sp chain/cassette and mech. Dropped chain alot, with kmc chain even though well bedded in with original xt 12sp drivetrain
Thanks all, some good food for thought there.
Only heard of that issue affecting SLX ones, (and it’s easily prevented with a security torx key and some threadlock),
Got 2 XT ones on different bikes which have never given me any bother and have lasted well - one is 4 yrs old and shows no sign of wear that I can see.