New parts: USE Shokpost Gator / KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

Got through a couple more bits today:

• KMC x9 73 9 speed chain (£13.99 from CRC)
• USE Shokpost Rubber Gator (£4.03 from CRC)

KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

I've never come across KMC before so these were a bit of a gamble.  The reason I went for them was primarily because they were one of the few manufacturers to do a chain in 116 links.

I needed 116 links because the chainstay on the Surly LHT is longer than most frames to accommodate panniers with plenty of spare foot room.  However the default number of links seems to be 112 links nowadays - SRAM seem to exclusively do 112 links, as do Shimano, although I didn't spend too long looking to be honest.  In the end one of the few companies to do 116 links was KMC, so I just went with it:

The chain itself seems to be pretty heavy duty relatively speaking, with solid pins and fairly thick chain plates (I'm comparing to something like the SRAM PC series which are very lightweight and come with hollow pins at the top end of the series).

I wasn't too bothered about this given that it was a fairly heavy duty bike / tanky bike anyway and would be carrying a lot of load most of the time anyway so a few extra grammes wasn't going to hurt, I thought.

Anyway, turns out I still had to remove 2 links from this new chain anyway so that it would fit properly.  I did the 'usual' measuring up routine of putting the chain around the largest sprockets at the front and back WITHOUT putting it through the rear derailleur and then adjusting it / shortening it so that there was one link 'spare' or 'loose'.

Here's a shot of the chain on the largest sprockets at the maximum possible extension, including the rear derailleur:

So that looks exactly right really, I'd never put the chain/gears in that kind of configuration under normal riding conditions obviously but it's good to know that if it ever did happen by mistake that it can take it.

Here's a shot of it on the smallest sprockets front/rear:

Again, not normally a configuration that will happen in real riding conditions but still it's nice to know the chain isn't falling off on that setting just in case.

All in all, happy enough with that chain setup.

USE Alien XCR Shokpost Gator

Nowt to say about this really, it's a bit of rubber fer gawds sake!:

I decided to refurbish / service the existing USE Shokpost I have and carry on using it.  I actually won the thing in a competition / prize draw from Bike Magic some 8-10 years ago now for submitting a review for Ortlieb panniers.

Wowser, just managed to find details of that review here back in November 2003 - so 10 years ago!:

USE member review winners

Here's a quote from that page:

The October ones first, then. Top prize of a USE Shokpost, baseball hat and Ring-O-Star headset preloading gizmo goes to Tim B (Cotic Soul). Runners-up prizes of hats and Ring-O-Stars go to Andy Allsopp (Kryptonite Kryptoflex cable), Paul Cooper (MET Parachute helmet) and Matthew Smith (Egg Beater pedals).

There are old links to the reviews in the article but unfortunately it seems they're no longer visible / the URLs are out of date. :(

ANYWAY, yes I decided to carry on using that Shokpost since it was around £80 at the time I won it, so a very decent seatpost, and it is highly serviceable (USE do brilliant after sales service / spares)... so I figured I'd give it a good refurbish / service, change the springs / elastomer and get a new gator for it (the old one was split / had perished).