New Chain; Snapped!

[Mapster1989]

Bought a new chain yesterday from the LBS and it snapped on my today whilst going uphill. Granted I was putting quite a bit of force through the pedals to catch someone up further ahead but the chain just snapped clean off causing me nearly to headbut the bars.

Any reason why this could have happened? 8-speed SRAM chain for those wondering.

The LBS were very helpful though and just replaced the chain for me without no issues I just obviously don't want this to happen again.

Would it be down to the way I was riding or would it be a manufacturer problem?

 

[ianrauk]

More manufacture problem I guess if the LBS replaced straight away. (Good on them too)

 

[fossyant]

Who fitted it ?

If the chain splitting and 're-joining' had been ham fisted then it will snap. I use quick links these days to join chains, and only ever split them once to get the right length.

 

[Hacienda71]

One of the guys on here had a Sram chain break on him when we were out for a ride. It was relatively new. I think it may have been an eight speed. He fixed it and then it broke again on a subsequent ride.
My Sram 10 speed has done 6000 miles now and seems fine so it maybe a particular model of chain that has an issue

 

[HLaB]

I made a faux pa with a friends chain a while ago fitted it (an ultegra) and realised I hadn't looped inside the jockey wheel chain retainer (or whatever its called) had to take it apart to fix it, a few rides later it snapped, he went to a lbs and they fitted a quick link. I told him he'd had been better with a KMC chain

 

[Psycolist]

As already documented on this forum, I had a spell in December where the same chain snapped on me 3 times. I am now able to report it being totally my fault. I run a very large outer ring so have to lengthen standard chains by a couple of links. I now know that the breaks where caused by trying to lengthen a Shimano chain with Sram links. The odd thing is that I dont buy Shimano chains, I only ever use Sram, so how I ended up with a Shimano chain being fitted in the first place remains an unsolved mystery. I got to the point where I had lost all confidence in being able to split and rejoin chains, so went out and purchased a new chain and installed it with the quick link without extending it. It was only later on in January that I was having a tidy round in the shed and came across the offending chain and realized what the problem had been. I've since installed the Shimano only chain on my utility bike and i've had no further probs.