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review
Chains
YBN S10C ChainYBN S10C chain

YBN S10C Chain

8
by dave atkinson
UPDATED Thu, Oct 15, 2015 04:24

First Published Mar 28, 2010

2
£17.99

VERDICT:

8
10
If you don't need a superlight chain or a flash-looking one, this will do just fine
Weight: 
278g
Contact: 
www.upgradebikes.co.uk
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Chains. Not very sexy, but every so often you're going to need a new one and you're spoilt for choice. Light ones, heavy duty ones, gold ones, you name it. Whatever they say on them, plenty of them will have been made by YBN. So you might save a few quid if you cut out the middle man.

The S10C (such a catchy name) is a low- to mid-range offering that does precisely everything I'd ever want a chain to do: it joins up the chainrings and sprockets and moves across them when I ask it to. Fitting is fairly straightforward: as usual, the chain came with a link pin that has a section that unscrews; as usual I ended up just snapping it off as it was stuck fast. Since then I've pretty much forgotten all about the chain and I've had no issues at all.

Shifting performance (on Ultegra 6700) is excellent, almost on a par with Shimano's own links. The chain comes with a fairly sticky lube applied that's good for a fair few miles before it needs topping up, and it buffs up nicely even after some fairly rough treatment on wet and salty roads. At 278g you're giving away 11g to the Ultegra chain and 22g to YBN's Titanium Nitride coated Soulchain that costs nearly three times as much, but I can happily live with those extra grams knowing I've saved quite a few quid.

Verdict

If you don't need a superlight chain or a flash-looking one, this will do just fine.

road.cc test report

Make and model: YBN S10C Chain

Size tested: 10spd

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
9/10
Rate the product for performance:
 
9/10
Rate the product for durability:
 
8/10
Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
7/10
Rate the product for value:
 
9/10

Did you enjoy using the product? Yes

Would you consider buying the product? Yes

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes

Overall rating: 8/10

About the tester

Age: 36  Height: 190cm  Weight: 98kg

I usually ride: whatever I\'m testing...  My best bike is: Trek 1.5 with Ultegra 6700

I've been riding for: 10-20 years  I ride: Every day  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track

YBN S10C Chain
YBN chain
Bicycle chain
Dave Atkinson

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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2 comments

Avatar
Gkam84 | 11 years ago
0 likes

I know this is old, but shout me on twitter, would you still use this 3 years down the line, or is there something better?

Having just done a little research, its whats on my trike, I was going to go KMC, but I think this will do, weight is not an issue, its price that is bugging me, because I need to buy 3 at a time

Avatar
dave atkinson | 14 years ago
0 likes

just did a 214km audax on it today and it behaved faultlessly.

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