Originally Posted by
lnanek
Yes, the slop on the rollers is irrelevant except that it makes the bad chain wear checking tools report new chains as bad.
I haven't had any of my chain checkers report new chains as bad. There may be some manufacturing tolerance variations that make this happen though.
My Park Tools CC-2 won't even go into a new chain. As the chain wears, progressing from 0.25% to 0.5% to 1.0% on the checker, I start using another checker that compensates for roller wear; I have the Park CC-4.2 and a similar Shimano checker. These are both "Go-NoGo". When those indicate 1% wear (by dropping into the chain), I change the chain knowing there's probably a little wear left.
EDIT: That ProLink gauge doesn't compensate for roller wear either; It's basically a "Go-NoGo" gauge with varying shades of "Go", like the Park CC-2.