My younger son rides a single-speed winter bike with studded tires. He phoned yesterday and said the chain had broken. He walked the bike over, and I was surprised to see the nature of the failure. Any chains I've broken have failed with a pin pulling out. This was different though - the actual link had broken, and there was another one that was cracked. He's a tall and strong young man, and I guess is applying a lot of force to the drivetrain. Or perhaps this was a bad batch from SRAM. I suspect the former.
I rode up to my LBS to buy a replacement SRAM single-speed chain, but they were out of stock. They sold me a KMC Chinese-made chain instead. The price was really good. We'll see how it holds up.
Here are some photos of the old chain:
I rode up to my LBS to buy a replacement SRAM single-speed chain, but they were out of stock. They sold me a KMC Chinese-made chain instead. The price was really good. We'll see how it holds up.
Here are some photos of the old chain: