Originally Posted by
Homebrew01
Why are some links not reusable ?? I can understand they may not "lock" as tightly after several disconnects, but chains are always under tension, so I wouldn't think they'd pop open from shifting.
It is for hysterical reasons:
The original was the Superlink, and it was patented, and the patent included the words "reusable".
Initially, SRAM licensed the patent for the 8 & 9s links, then decided they didn't want to pay any more money, so they concocted the latching design that was difficult to remove, and called it "non-reusable", and introduced it in the 10s links.
KMC links come in both designs, which is dumb since the patent has expired. There is no good reason to keep producing the latching "non-reusable" version, other than to convince people to needlessly buy more links.