Originally Posted by
Sir_Name
I did the above and subsequently 'broke' a shimano chain, which then got caught up within the rear derailleur and pulled it around the axle. One of the pins pulled through the plates and spread the plates apart causing them to bind in the derailleur. All I'm saying is be careful, I'm not saying to not do it. User error can have...detrimental effects (as in my case). The thinner the chain, the thinner the plates, and the less purchase they have on the pins.
I had long spoke highly of Shimano's special pins, but not so much any more.
And not that I need to "clean" my chain, since my routine lube-and-wipe with a terry cloth never allows increasing buildup of crud over time (I use a solvent-diluted type of lube).
BUT, while building up a customer's bike recently, I had the special pin push right through the chain before any noticeable torque on the handle had been noticed!
And there is sometimes the need to "change" a bike's chain, either to test a new one out (as a diagnostic), or to alter the bike's gearing.
So the KMC links (available in two 8s widths as well as 9, 10 and 11s) are a better way to go, and even cheaper than Shimano's pins in an ever-increasing number of cases!
I note that in the OP's photo (post
#10 ) that the sheared-off peening is visible at the ends of the pins, assurance that those pins would never be able to support normal pedaling/shifting stress levels reliably.
Unless all of the links with pushed-out pins are replaced, the chain is a time-bomb. It doesn't look like a Shimano chain in the photo, so no special pins can fix it, the links are damaged and must be replaced.
The narrower chains and their special attachment methods may have been developed to allow those ever-growing gear counts, but make no mistake, these newer chain's designs and metallurgy offer the biggest improvement to older drivetrain's shifting that can be found, while surviving on ever-more-scant lubrication and even weighing a bit less. So I'm happy to put up with them you could say.