Review on High-Performance SHIMANO CN-HG93 9-Speed Chain for Ultegra/XT Bikes by Doug Layman

After several thousand miles of OEM chaining on my Urban Warrior converted Giant Trance, shifting became sloppy and almost random. I blamed pretty much every other component of the drive train for the time being, then I noticed a lot of idler play and a lot of side chain flex. I replaced the chain and then quickly realized that the old chain had worn the cassette and front ring so badly that they had to be swapped out to match the new chain. Eventually, it became painfully obvious that the pressure wheel on the derailleur was rocking too much to allow for crisp shifts. So the new chain practically pushed me towards a new drivetrain, but I'm glad it happened. The chain comes with a spare pin to reconnect the chain after you cut it to the correct length. It is not recommended to partially extend and reuse the pins. Since I had to downsize the chain several times and also replace the derailleur, I reused the pins. The links proved stiff, but with some careful pressure from the chain tool, the link walls could be adjusted to keep the links looking like new. A few hundred kilometers with a new gearbox and everything seems fine.