My .02- Stick to Shimano Dura-Ace chains and install them correctly and keep them clean. Discussing chains is like discussing politics and religion from my experience.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I'm no expert, nor do I have any experience with the Wippermann Connex SS (stainless steel) chain, but have read good comments about them here last year. I'm currently building a cyclocross bike with Shimano drivetrain and am considering the Wippermann due to it's rust-free stainless steel alloy construction, easy-to-use Connex link (similar to Sachs PowerLink, I think, which I've used and like) and 107-year-old German engineering pedigree. both the 9-speed and 10-speed versions are currently on sale at performancebike.com for $40 or less. Check out Dan's(?) review of it at http://www.slowtwitch.com/...nents/wipperman.html or check out the Wippermann site at http://www.connexchain.com/

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Sean

the last time I needed to replace the chain on my bikes also coincided with a sale on Wipperman chains at Supergo. I often run into one of the mechanics from Supergo at my morning coffee stop and I asked him his opinion about it (he is an Expert ATB racer). He told me not to waste my money, buy a Dura Ace chain, keep it clean and replace it when it is stretched. That was what I had been doing for the past 20 years, so I stuck with that.

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Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

I had my origional dura ace chain replaced with a Wipperman stainless chain because I wanted to be able to remove it for cleaning the drive-train. It may be just the way the derailers were adjusted at the time, but even after several trips to the local bike shop, I could never get the front to shift smoothly. I had a new dura ace chain put on and adjusted by a different shop (Bikesport Michigan) and everything works smoothly. It may all have been an adjustment problem because I know Dan and lots of others have no trouble with the Wipperman. Go figure.

i'm wippermann all the way and i'll tell you why. i've popped two chains in the last two years, one dura ace one campy. these were both top of the line chains. i installed the dura ace, and a pro mechanic installed the campy.

it doesn't matter, in my opinion, how well the chain is made, and who installs it. the narrow chains--and by narrow i mean 9sp and 10sp--have a contact area between plate and pin that is too small. it's too easy for there to be a problem with the installation or with the manufacture. the tolerances are too tight. the forces are too great.

so i believe that if you're going 9sp or 10sp, you ought to have a chain in which there is no pin-pressing required. if you want to use a different mechanism than wippermann's, like sachs for example, fine. but to my mind wippermann is so far superior to shimano it isn't even a fair fight. "if you have a tool and you must press with it, don't mess with it."

if you're using 8 speeds or fewer, disregard what i'm writing, your shimano chain will do fine.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I can't speak for the wipperman, but my vote goes to SRAM. I've got either the PC-99, designated as a mtb chain but it's on my road bike, or the PC-89, a road chain, on each of my bikes. I've had zero problems with them. The powerlink is a piece of cake to use.

Mountain bike magazine said that the PC-99 was the only chain that they hadn't broken.

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Brandon Marsh - Website | @BrandonMarshTX | RokaSports | 1stEndurance | ATC Bikeshop |

for those who don't know, when i write "sachs", and when you write "sram" we're talking about the same chain.

notwithstanding tom demerly's positive comments about shimano, and he comes into much more contact with many more bikes (and chains) than i do, i'm speaking simply of my own experience. tom's certainly right about shimano's chains being very good, my point is that i think there's a better technology now for narrow chains, that is, shimano is leveraging very good, but older, technology out over a newer sub-class of product, narrow chains. i just don't think the old way of putting a chain together works as well for the narrower chains.

therefore, a non-press mechanism used by sachs (sram) and wippermann makes more sense to me. perhaps if i hadn't popped the two chains i popped in recent years i'd feel differently.

consider this as well. when you press the pin into a new DA or ultegra chain, is the link ever stiff? if you do it perfectly every time, and it's never stiff, probably you're fine. if it IS stiff, whatever you do to make it "un-stiff" is in some way compromising the press fit that you've achieved with the tool. that's no problem on a wider chain, but perhaps it's a problem on a narrow chain.

i'm open to be corrected by those who know more than i about chains.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I put a Wipperman on my race bike last summer. It shifted fine, but on a ride home from an Oly race the connex link popped. Broke into several itty bitty pieces. Left me stranded in downtown Oceanside 30 miles from home. I hoofed it to a bike shop 5 miles down the coast and had the chain re-installed with a standard pin. What REALLY freaked me is that this was to have been my final ride on the race bike before shipping it off to Lake Placid. I came within a couple hours of riding of having that chain break in my IM.

I'm back on Ultegra chains. No worries. I realized I don't need to remove the chain anyway to clean it and lube it.

.

one thing about the wippermann connex link. it is possible to put it in backwards, and it's not as obvious as it ought to be in the instructions that come with the chain.

one way to know you put it in backwards is that it'll skip on an 11t cog. a lot of very smart people didn't and don't realize this about the connex link, and they just figure the chain is weaker and/or doesn't function as well as it should.

one distributor had thought about discontinuing the line, because he'd gotten complaints about the chain on the small cog, until he realized what the issue was. now he's back loving it and he sells a ton of them, but it's a rather new product in the market, there are no sales reps, and it's going to take awhile for people to realize how to use this chain right.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I've been thru a LOT of Shimano HG, DA, etc. chains, mostly due to bad luck with rain on the way to a race/training. So, I bought a Wipperman stainless and absolutely LOVE it. SO EASY to take off and clean and it *feels* like there is more power as well. I will definitely be spec'ing one on my new bike.

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"To give less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." - Pre

MattMizenko.com

What is forwards and what is backwards? I don't recall any clear differentiation in the instructions.

I ask because I still have a new one in a box that Nashbar sent me under warranty.

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