Originally Posted by
intence
Depends who you ask I think. Shimano had reliability problems or something with the connecting link so they stopped including them. Some say the connecting pin is the way to go, others say you'll be fine with a KMC missing link on there.
The original 7900 chain with the hand-removable link was discontinued, it didn't work right, that link got bent after a month and the drivetrain operated like crap. The more traditional set up 7900 chain the replaced it with (I've had that on my bike for over six months) works flawlessly. I had that experience, so did my team mate.