Pardon the battle scars on my crank arm from a totally weird, low speed chain drop to the outside that completely wrapped the chain around it. But my very bling-y gold KMC chain.
Pardon the battle scars on my crank arm from a totally weird, low speed chain drop to the outside that completely wrapped the chain around it. But my very bling-y gold KMC chain.
So I needed to put on a new chain so went down the bling route. The KMC packaging on those chains is more akin to a piece of jewellery!
chuckp – you might consider using a fine Sharpie to colour in those scratches and make them less visible. One thing I learned from my mechanics course is to keep some Sharpies in my toolkit!
I tried. The Shimano cranks are neither painted nor anodized. The ink from a Sharpie doesn’t stick.
Dang – that’s a bummer.
And Shimano doesn’t make touch up paint/pen. I can live with it. If I ever see a used Ultegra 6800 crank cheap on eBay, I might buy to replace.
If I had and knew how to use PhotoShop, I suppose I could airbrush them out in pics.
Who was it on the old V-site – Cyclops? – who was frightenly good at photoshopping pics? He has Frank climbing alongside Cancellara et al and it if didn’t know it was BS, it looked real! Cyclops could have gotten a lot of unqualified kids into elite colleges based on their athletic “prowess . . . .”
That’s what I taught my Pedalwan! Every third ride he comes off! Don’t care about bleeding as body repairs itself. More concerned about his steed! Thank goodness for the fine tip Sharpie!
I keep being tempted by a KMC Black/Red to go with my #1. I think I will at its next chain change coming up.
A friend in the UK talked me into getting the KMC gold chain with the hollow side plates. Cost was about the same as an Ultegra chain. The missing link connector is easy peasy to use. And KMC actually makes chains for Shimano.
I’ve used KMC with the hollow side plates for quite a while and used their Q Links even longer. The Q Links work fine with Gruppo chains and are easier than peening the Gruppo joining pin, plus being splittable for cleaning after really crappy rides.
The removable link is truly one of the great advances in cycling in my time. So easy, effective and safe. Last time I tried to push out/push back a 10 speed chain it snapped on me. Back in the days of 6 or 7 speeds, the chain was a bit more robust, but no more. Removable links rock!
Then again they are not really new, just a bit more refined. That old “bend the chain to remove/join the link” always seemed a bit sub-optimal (though it still exists in 5/6 speed chains or the other method with the hairpin type locking piece.