Here's the article:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...d-chain_108165

He says the chains can be broken anywhere as long as a new Campy rivet pin is used to reconnect it. At least that's what I gathered from reading it...

The Campy manual doesn't explicitly say where to break the chain if you need to open it, but it does say the rivet pin can be pushed out and replaced up to 2 more times.

I am a little confused on what's okay to do and what's not. I just installed my first 11-speed chain yesterday and had a problem. I got a stiff link after installing the rivet pin and no matter how much I flexed the chain laterally (as per Campagnolo instructions) to free the stiff link, it wouldn't go away. After at least an hour of fussing with it I got desperate and tried drifting the pin ever-so-slightly from side to side hoping it would free the stiff link, but it didn't help at all. I eventually got wise and realized the end of the outer plates where the connecting rivet pin is located were slightly bent outwards. In other words, there was a larger gap between the inner and outer plates at that end of the link, causing the opposite of that link to pinch inwards, causing the stiff link. I hope that makes sense. So I took some vice grips and gently squeezed the end of that link and the link finally unstuck.

Needless to say, I don't feel very good about the long-term durability of my master link right now. Campagnolo says I can't "alter, modify, or remove this link" no matter what because it's machined to exact tolerances for the rivet pin.

What are my options here? I need to remove probably another 2-3 links anyways (only removed 2 the first time since it was hard to gauge using Campy's instructions), so why can't I just remove this "untouchable" outer-plate pair and rivet pin completely and replace it with a KMC missing-link? Or if it's possible, could I just remove the potentially damaged outer plates I'm talking about along with another inner plate pair to open up a fresh outer link pair and just use another rivet pin???

I really want to salvage this chain and I simply don't trust the master link after being so rough on it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!