Link on the left came with chain, link on the right is spare bought separately.
I made the mistake of putting my new chain on over gravel and lost one half of a quick link so I ordered spares and found I couldn't get the quick link to snap closed after attaching no matter how much force I put through cranks.
Never had a problem getting a quick link to close before so I had a closer look and found the spare to have a shorter pin with a smaller indent. The one that came with the chain also has larger shimano and sm-cn910 text on the side.
This made me think I had a counterfeit chain but I ordered another from a different seller and the packaging and product appear to be the same. Both have this authentication sticker which doesn't seem to be 2 layer so maybe both are counterfeit?
Both chains are 126 link xtr 12 speed cn-m9100 and spare quick links are sm-cn910 links for 12 speed chains.
Have Shimano changed their links/chains or am I looking at 2 counterfeit chains? The spare links match the size of links I have got with old XT and XTR 12 speed chains (when I say old I mean last year so recent, just worn enough to replace 2 in that time).
by Talking_Gibberish
6 Comments
where did you purchase the chain?
the one on the right is real.
the one on the left is counterfeit.
the text on the side of the quicklink should not be that massive. the 12 S should not be the same size as the arrow.
The most telling part is that the one on the left has a very big gap and the pin looks too skinny.
If you bought this on Amazon, 100% chance they’re counterfeit. Support your local bike shop.
If you are ordering from a site like Amazon, even if it’s from a different seller, sometimes it comes from the same stock in the nearest warehouse if it’s all the same product codes. I would use a LBS for purchasing chains.
[the one with small model number text and flat back of pin matches the one on shimano’s website](https://bike.shimano.com/products/components/pdp.P-SM-CN910-12.html)
Second one (right) looks lower quality ?
That said I have no idea.
Edit: seems I am wrong, all that glitters is not gold.