Originally Posted by
CliffordK
Odd, the number of pins is the same, as well as the basic pin design.
I've wondered for some time of the "stretching" of chains was actually occurring in the chain plates rather than at the pins, especially in multi-speed bikes.
So, I could imagine the shaped half-link plates would be at greater risk for stretching.
It's not a big mystery in this case. With a full-link chain, the pin-to-pin spacing is fixed for each outer link. No matter how much the pins and bushings wear, the two pins for each outer link will never get further apart. So all of the elongation you see is the slop that allows the inner links to migrate outward from each outer link. With a half-link chain, you get that migration in both directions at every single pin, so the elongation adds up twice as fast.
At least, that's my understanding. I'd be surprised if plate deformation played more than an infinitesimal role in all of this.