All about bicycles, electric-assisted bikes, technology and safety in the press

In our daily work as we deal with bicycle safety, technology and user manuals we come across lots of safety risks. The most frequent ones are published in articles of the leading German special-interest magazines TOUR – Europas Rennrad-Magazin Nr. 1, BIKE – Das Mountainbike Magazin Europas Nr. 1 and E-Bike – Das Pedelec-Magazin to make this information important for the sector accessible to a wider public.

For many years now the Eurobike Show Daily accompanying the annual international Eurobike Show has given us the opportunity to publish our perspective on major developments in the cycle industry in full-page articles.

We also speak regularly in independent lectures about all topics relating to bicycle technology and bicycle market. In addition, we are regularly cited by further special-interest magazines or trade journals as well as more and more by radio and television and in their media reports, which shows us that we are completely right with our information. The section NEWS informs you about the latest news from our specialist fields. The reports and publications of this section are listed chronologically or according to topics of interest.

TOUR 02/2016
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Chain from another manufacturer?

Reader’s question

My Campagnolo 10-speed chain needs to be replaced. In the case of Campagnolo this requires, however, an expensive chain rivet extractor. Is there anything that speaks against using a 10-speed chain with lock, for example from KMC? Could this cause problems?

Reply by Dirk Zedler, TOUR technology expert and bicycle expert

In principle, there is no problem in exchanging chains from different manufacturers, but you have to observe the chain width. Compared to Shimano chains Campa chains are slightly smaller in width. If you change the make, the width of the new chain should be comparable to the Campa chain. If the chains are not identical in width, it may happen in particular in the area of the front derailleur that the chain does not run smooth from one chainring to the other. You then pedal abruptly without resistance and may fall in the worst case. An overview of the compatible chains and information on durability is given in the TOUR chain test published five years ago (TOUR 2/2011 or www.tour-magazin.de, search term "Rennradketten"). According to our experience, chain locks are no longer a problem today. Chain locks from Wippermann, SRAM and KMC are reliable are easy to handle.

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