Y'all:
In 50 years of riding bikes I had my first ever chain failure ever today. An 11-speed HG901 Dura-Ace/XTR with less than a thousand miles on it. I was able to make it home but had to soft pedal in the largest cogs because it jumped the teeth on the small cogs. To those of you unfamiliar with this chain, this is not the link I used to close the chain. This chain uses a one-time use master link.
As you can see in the picture the outer link plate at the 12 o’clock position has partially pulled away from the inner link roller. I tried to free up the link on the road but it was jammed solid - and probably just as well too. This chain would likely have broken if I had lots of climbing yet to do, possibly resulting in a ruptured achilles or crushed testicle had I been climbing out of the saddle at full power. Broken chains are no joke.
I'm chalking up the failure to poor quality during the Covid era.
Scott
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