4 watt difference between SRAM's XX1 / AXS and KMC's Eagle X12 chains?

Triathlon Forum
1

Has this popped up around here yet? I saw a little blurb in a Cyclingtips article. Is KMC doing some Dan Kennison magic to their chain for such a low price? That’s the chain on my Trek Fuel, but I can’t say I thought past ‘gold’ and the fact I have never had a problem with a KMC chain.

Copied straight from the article:

As a teaser for an article in the works, Kerin chooses to use a different chain depending on whether he’s training or racing. “ SRAM Eagle XX1 / AXS chains are the longest-lasting in the world, but they have been tested by two separate independent labs as being very slow.” For racing, Kerin chooses KMC’s Eagle x12 chain, “ tested as pretty much fastest chain to date, but is also extremely short-lived, with controlled machine testing being not too great, and field testing taking an average of 600km of mountain biking for it to reach .5% wear mark.”

According to Kerin, it’s a case of 4W versus 8W at 250W load. Stay tuned on this topic — an in-depth feature exclusive to CyclingTips is in the works.

2

Very interesting. I hate the stock lube that comes on Sram chains. It’s a gunky, sticky mess that is super hard to strip off.

3

Agreed. I look forward to the next installment because I’m curious what treatment/cleaning was done to those chains before testing. The KMC chain was covered in something that felt much lighter. I think I installed it as-is when I definitely stripped the syrup from my GX Eagle chain before use.

4

New AXS chains have a much thinner factory grease than the 11spd chains you’re probably referring too. Out the box, they are much easier to work with than the older ones. Pretty happy about this.

5

Road or mountain? I think AXS can refer to either and I thought SRAM said the chains are not cross compatible. There’s the Eagle 12 speed (that I was referencing) and the new Flattop for Red and Force AXS. I’m not 100% on that info though. You and Alex may know more.

6

I think Ceramic Speed is using all KMC chains. Before Jason got bought out by CS, I think he found the DuraAce chains fastest (made by Izumi), but the KMC’s were right there. I’m guessing CS is using KMC to be a bit brand agnostic and they’re probably easier/cheaper to get in bulk than Shimano.