Chinese Chains

[Hacienda71]

Need to buy a couple of chains and keep seeing tempting prices on Chinese brands from UK sellers on Amazon, eBay etc. The specs look good. I am not opposed to using Chinese kit, my current frame is Deng Fu with over 50000 km on it. A bit of googling doesn't show any horror stories, but has anyone used them on here, any real world feedback?

 

[Moodyman]

Considering much of global manufacturing takes place in China, I wouldn't worry about Chinese chains. If you want a piece of mind, buy Shimano HG53 and 73 chains. They're made by KMC (Taiwanese company with China-based factories), but are cheaper than KMC branded chains. I recently bought HG73 at £6.99 each on eBay.

Edit: the UK sellers are often Chinese sellers with a UK address and storage. Allows them to circumvent some import tariffs/restrictions (it's complicated).

 

[Hacienda71]

Update on this. I bought two gold ultra light Chinese chains from an Amazon seller. At first glance very much like kmc xl. First one performed fine, did about 2000 miles on it. Swapped to chain 2 about a week ago. Last night the bike started jumping/slipping gears. I initially thought worn cassette should have changed it earlier, but then realised it was just jumping under load not slipping. Last time I had that was when a chain popped a face plate and snapped under load resulting in a very nasty accident. Checked the chain, low and behold popped face plate. I dodged a bullet there. Will stick to known brands in future.

 

[ianrauk]

Update on this. I bought two gold ultra light Chinese chains from an Amazon seller. At first glance very much like kmc xl. First one performed fine, did about 2000 miles on it. Swapped to chain 2 about a week ago. Last night the bike started jumping/slipping gears. I initially thought worn cassette should have changed it earlier, but then realised it was just jumping under load not slipping. Last time I had that was when a chain popped a face plate and snapped under load resulting in a very nasty accident. Checked the chain, low and behold popped face plate. I dodged a bullet there. Will stick to known brands in future.
View attachment 604671

blimey.. that could have been a bit a naughty

 

[Xipe Totec]

Branded chains are not immune to this sort of thing. Put a KMC 10 speed on a bike a few years back, did maybe a couple of hundred miles before it started exhibiting similar symptoms to those described above. Couldn't work out why, and it wasn't until a week or so later when cleaning the chain that I realised a plate had actually broken, a section in front of the rivet being missing. It was on the inside so I wouldn't have spotted it had I not been actually touching the chain.

 

[Craig the cyclist]

Last time I had that was when a chain popped a face plate and snapped under load resulting in a very nasty accident.

Will stick to known brands in future.

I see your reluctance, but this is the first 'cheap' chain you have bought, apart from the one that worked just fine. So all the other ones have been 'branded', and it happened with one of them too.

Try not to panic and put it down to one of those things is my advice, you will save a small fortune.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I bought a new chain from Decathlon a couple of weeks ago to go on the new Turbo trainer. It was in their own “ Btwin” packing but a KMC chain.

 

[Hacienda71]

I know that my results are anecdotal and not scientific, but 50/50 experienced failure rate has a bit of an effect on my confidence in them, particularly after having an accident as a result of a chain failure in the past. I am just back from a fractured pelvis and broken ribs having had an otb after hitting a pothole at speed, so I am happy to pay a bit extra to give me a bit of confidence.

I see your reluctance, but this is the first 'cheap' chain you have bought, apart from the one that worked just fine. So all the other ones have been 'branded', and it happened with one of them too.

Try not to panic and put it down to one of those things is my advice, you will save a small fortune.

The branded Sram iirc chain that failed previously had done 4000 miles. I had been lazy and not changed it as I knew the cassette would not take a new chain so with that wear level I put it down to my bad and experience.

 

[ColinJ]

The branded Sram iirc chain that failed previously had done 4000 miles. I had been lazy and not changed it as I knew the cassette would not take a new chain so with that wear level I put it down to my bad and experience.

I can understand why that made you nervous, but I'm fairly sure that both of my chains that failed were SRAM and had only done 1,500 - 2,000 miles!

2016:

2020: