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Shimano 12 speed can officially F’ right off.

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FrankS29

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Well, for me at least.

I’ve been a huge Shimano fan boy for years and years. But the 12 speed stuff is pure garbage compared to older Shimano drivetrains.

I had my second, SECOND practically new XT chain snap on me last night. That’s 2 this season alone. I have also yet to get more than 500 miles on a Shimano 12 speed chain that didn’t measure as worn.

Keep in mind, these are not quick link failures, these are factory pinned links blowing up and they are blowing up under less than stressful environments.

Until I started riding Shimano 12 speed, I had never snapped a chain before. Ever.

I have Shimano 11 speed chains with nearly 2,000 miles on them that are perfectly fine.

Combine this with practically unavailable replacement parts and the ridiculously low life span of my last 2 Shimano 12 speed derailleurs, noticeably cheaper and poor actuated shifters, I’m officially over it.

Hyperglide+ is great and all, but not great enough to keep blowing through parts and doing trail side repairs.

Once SRAM officially releases the new cassettes with the flat top chains for MTB, I’m swapping fully over to Sram.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Blkdoutindustries said:
Where are you buying the chains? Sounds like they could be counterfeit maybe. I've been on Shimano 12 speed since it came out on 3 bikes and no issues at all but I run XTR chains. Now I'm on a mix Shimano/AXS setup and loving it
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All of my Shimano 12 speed chains have either been from Jenson or Fanatik.

I would say that counterfeit chains coming from either of them are highly unlikely.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
mtnbkrmike said:
Frank - could it be that you have the legs of Dangerholm and be layin some serious wattage down? Are you Dangerholm? View attachment 2003666
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If that was the case, I would absolutely wear shorts like those all the time as well.

I don’t care what occasion is; wedding, funeral, office Christmas party…

The legs would be on full display!
 
#7 ·
FrankS29 said:
Well, for me at least.

I’ve been a huge Shimano fan boy for years and years. But the 12 speed stuff is pure garbage compared to older Shimano drivetrains.

I had my second, SECOND practically new XT chain snap on me last night. That’s 2 this season alone. I have also yet to get more than 500 miles on a Shimano 12 speed chain that didn’t measure as worn.

Keep in mind, these are not quick link failures, these are factory pinned links blowing up and they are blowing up under less than stressful environments.

Until I started riding Shimano 12 speed, I had never snapped a chain before. Ever.

I have Shimano 11 speed chains with nearly 2,000 miles on them that are perfectly fine.

Combine this with practically unavailable replacement parts and the ridiculously low life span of my last 2 Shimano 12 speed derailleurs, noticeably cheaper and poor actuated shifters, I’m officially over it.

Hyperglide+ is great and all, but not great enough to keep blowing through parts and doing trail side repairs.

Once SRAM officially releases the new cassettes with the flat top chains for MTB, I’m swapping fully over to Sram.
Click to expand...
Sorry that you’re wrong.
 
#12 ·
Interesting how differing experiences people have. I have only broken 1 Shimano chain and that was a rock strike and still haven’t managed to wear out an XT or XTR chain despite my highest mileage one now being at 2900km. These seem to last forever even when compared to X01, which is also an excellent chain!

Remember, dirt will wear out a chain very quickly. None of us can put down enough watts to wear out a clean and properly lubed chain in a few hundred kms.
 
#15 ·
ballisticexchris said:
Actually Frank is right. The Shimano drivetrains are flimsy compared to Suntour or Sram. I have yet to break a Suntour/Sram chain or derailleur. I lost count of how many Shimano XT/XTR chains and derailleurs I've broken over the years.
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Things change over the years. Early Sram stuff was pretty much crap. They did get a decent rep for chains due to shimano chains sucking even more at the time, but the ESP 9.0 stuff was pretty bad, they broke the plastic (faux CF) knuckles often and other parts. The b-tension rings were another common one, I still have spares in my toolbox. The in-between "alien" stuff from their Sachs acquisition was also no better, not anywhere near the level of shimano groupsets. SRAM very badly wanted to have full groupsets, but apart from a couple unique good ideas (micro-indexed front shifter) their stuff was pretty poor. In the same time, Shimano was making great stuff. The old first gen Saint derailleurs could literally be smashed into rocks and come out fine, with the rocks breaking. Then Sram came out with the next generation stuff a little ahead of 1x and then finally the 1x stuff. From that point, Shimano has been playing catch-up to the ideas like the one-piece cassette, 1x in general, wireless, etc. The quality on this stiff is leaps and bounds over what the old Sram stuff was, but don't think for a minute that it's always been that way. Shimano and Sram seem to be WAY closer these days. Shimano's 11spd offerings were kind of half-a$$ and late to the game, but they put the time and effort into developing a decent 12speed drivetrain. So again, they are very close and in a better position to one-up each other in much smaller increments than in the old days.
 
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#17 · (Edited)
I love the new XT 12 speed. However, I got very lucky, and felt my chain clicking, so I stopped immediately. A plate had broken, thank goodness I stopped and threw a quick link in. That chain was about 200 rides old, approx 2700 miles on it. Drivetrain was shot at that point, and new complete drivetrain was put on the following weekend. 2nd pic is fuzzy, but you can see plate broke. It was a lot of miles though, not new. BTW, chain ring had 5400‘ish miles on it (400 rides).
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#18 ·
I have heard you can run Shimano 12 speed with an SRAM Eagle chain. The X01 or XX1 chains are the longest lasting chains I have ever seen, its almost impossible to kill one.
 
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#19 ·
Yup. Shimano 12spd is pretty bad compared to 11spd and earlier. Shifting is clunky and loud, almost as cheap feeling as sram. Cassette lasts only a couple months before creaking, unacceptable but at least Shimano warranty dept is on point.

Still prefer Shimano over sram though. And not by a small margin.

Only chains I’ve ever snapped under load were Sram. 970s I believe. Two over a summer. Smashed knee good during one failure.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Two decades ago when I used to run full XT drivetrains, I would use SRAM or KMC chains cuz they had better performance than Shimano chains. I am and have always been a big Shimano fan, although I always hated Shimano's chains and pedals/cleats. My last bike had a full SRAM drivetrain and after I snapped the chain, I went with KMC and would replace it once a season cuz 11 or 12 speed chains are necessarily thinner and therefore weaker than the 8/9/10 speed chains of the past. All my replacement chains are KMC cuz they are good quality products at a reasonable price. (y) (y) (y)

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