Review on 🚲 11-Speed Shimano Ultegra/XT CN-HG701 Chain Featuring Quick Link by Sam Dhungana

UPDATE (03-2021): I've got about 2500k now - the master link connection works fine. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I have been racing since the late 70's, built frames in the 80's, was a bike shop manager and mechanic until the mid 80's and was 'in the past' a support mechanic and motorcycle official for Coors Classic. I've replaced hundreds of chains, but always with a chin break tool and solid pins until recently. I never had a problem with it, maybe because I developed the fixed pin technique. "Master Links" were intended for 3-speed chains and commuter bikes. Are they on race chains now? This can be good for people who don't know how to properly convert a chain into a chain tool, but if you don't have the right tool (which I do) those Master Link chains can be tricky to replace - pretty good versus down to the main limbs first. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with concatenation or ML - I just don't like ML. In this case I didn't use ML, just used a chain break to remove the excess chain length to fit my bike and connected the ends with the chain break. I guess time will tell if reusing existing pins is a bad idea, but I've ridden on a new chain for the last 3 weeks and about 300 miles so far. The chain replaced the stock non-Shimano chain on the 2018 Cannondale SuperSix Evo training bike, which was stretched longer than I've ever seen, with a chain length of about 3,000 miles. I've heard that these Ultegras also tend to stretch easily, so we'll look at that as well. After all, the chain is what it is - Shimano Ultegra - and who am I to doubt Shimano's chain engineering? Links. However, I won't be using ML anytime soon unless I find out that inference reuse leads to premature failure. But I have the Park ML tool, so I can go both ways. I also plan to continue using Ultegra on my training bikes and the Dura Ace chain on road bikes as I've never ridden better chains.