Shimano Ultegra 11 Chain
 

I went to buy a new Shimano 11 spd chain and suddenly they are difficult to find online and rather expensive. Previously they were $35 or so and available from multiple places online and locally. Today I was only able to find one on Amazon for $54. Is this a pandemic shortage or is Shimano making a change? Thanks!

Yup...I noticed the same thing. Lots of fluctuations in the cost of various bike parts because of last year.

AliExpress has them in stock and for $27.00 usd. plus $8.00 shipping. Not sure why but Shimano limits stock and availability in North America but plenty available on offshore sites.

Shimano XT/Ultegra CN-HG701 11-Speed Chain | Competitive Cyclist

$42 plus tax and shipping.

Slightly off topic, but stay away from any Dura-Ace chains you may see on eBay from China or shipped from Cali—via China I guess.

i figured why not try they’re only 20$. I received them and they are clearly fake. I got my money back though.

Semi OT. Some Park Tools have almost doubled in price!

I almost fell for this one on a local Facebook Marketplace ad by someone in my city. The price was only slightly cheaper than retail. Something didn't look right and I googled, counterfeit Dura Ace Chains and sure enough without a doubt they were fake. Best to purchase from reputable shops. I don't know if this is happening with Ultegra chains so this post may be moot.

The package was nearly identical. I had a real one to compare and one word was different. The plastic that held the chain with the was cheap and flimsy.

The dead give away was the script on the chain. It was large and different than a real dura ace xtr.

TLDR: Duh. Shimano has been this way since the pandemic started and it won't get better anytime soon. MSRP will be the prevalent pricing strategy for the foreseeable future. Days of cheap Shimano are gone for at least 3-5 years.

Oh FFS. "suddenly they are difficult to find"?!! Really? Suddenly? Where have you guys been?

I've been selling my soul for over a year to get ANYTHING Shimano. I have a friend who is building a Dura Ace Di2 build because he scored an SL6 frame cheap on clearance last year. It took 5 months to get the hubs from Chris King. I told him to scour the internet for parts as through Shimano my delivery dates were June (this was last September) but I told him to check to make sure they actually had it in stock before trying to buy it. I get his wheels built and check in with him - he was still waiting on parts. 2 weeks ago I sat him down and we scoured the internet for the last 3 or 4 parts. Took 3 hours and involved some phone calls to verify the item was actually there and not just listed as in stock on their website.

Here's the deal guys - Shimano also had to shut their Malaysia plant down last week because of Covid. They can't get containers to ship. They were woefully out of stock in the US for years leading up to this. They couldn't care less about "aftermarket" parts as their entire business is OEM. Their OEM orders are 3 years out at this point. Last year they wouldn't put an OE order in unless it was for at least 1,000 kits and even then they were saying "maybe 8 months".

During all of this all of the online places that were buying grey market product and flipping them online at US wholesale prices dried up. The ones that didn't realized they were idiots for selling below MSRP. Guess what? The days of easily paying below MSRP for a genuine Shimano part are over for the foreseeable future. How is this forum just now figuring this out and so late to the game?

If you have stock of Shimano disc brake pads for road groups with fins you will find you can sell them on eBay for twice what you paid for them. If you enjoy riding and didn't stock up on parts already then good luck.

As for Ultegra 11 chains - I myself have one in desperate need of replacement. Even as a bike shop I am now going to have to switch to Connex/Wippermann. I still have a small stockpile of KMC OE chains I got a few years back but they tend to be on the short side for road use and everyone today wants to run huge cassettes so they can go slower.

Yeah and cheap ones on ali, ebay, amazon, etc are knock offs from China. They are flooding the market to try and take over the huge gaping hole that Shimano has left behind. Those chains suck. Stay away from them. If you think you're getting a bargain they go for it. Your dentist will love you for it.

[QUOTE=Psimet2001;22106110]

If you have stock of Shimano disc brake pads for road groups with fins you will find you can sell them on eBay for twice what you paid for them. [/QUOTE]

Truth. Just yesterday I was like "hmm... I should buy a new set of pads before 'cross season starts and everyone is buying up brake pads". Too late.

A couple of months ago I had a customer whose rotors and pads were shot. I had to pull the ones I had in reserve just to get this guy going. I now no longer have backups. Stupid me.

That is not true. It is just fear porn for those who won't admit to what is happening. I recently built up a Carbonda gravel bike with a full GRX 810 2X group of which a vast majority of the components were sourced from the only place which has stock AliExpress. None of these parts were counterfeit. Chain, Cassette, Groupset, XTR Rotors were all ordered and no issues at all. The real question is how we can stand by and have Shimano and other manufacturers limit supply into their biggest market, penalize online retailers and local grey market sellers while allow the barn door in SEA to remain open without any action. It's our local shops and distributors not being allowed to compete and survive because supply has been cut off.

The two scenarios -- i.e., (1) fakes, and (2) limited domestic supply leading to grey market imports -- are not mutually exclusive.

I'm just here for the fear porn.

This supply thing is hopefully going to clear up by year-end. One small shop I know has even been buying a 3-4 from Jenson when he sees them, to keep some chains in stock.

No chance. Book it, mark it...revive this thread in a year.

Currently a ton of parts at Shimano don't even have restock dates for this calendar year. OEMs are selling 2023 and further out bikes to dealers.

Darn. I better stock up on a few more chains, brake pads, etc. So insane!

You can keep your fear porn. As for not being true - in this specific case it is absolutely true. Dealers all over the country have been brought piles of fake chains. Compare the boxes. They are close but the printing is fuzzy and there's usually a mistake on the back.

I could care less about anything else you're sourcing. That's up to you.

If you're absolutely positive there's an endless supply of legit Shimano bike parts readily available to everyone on ali and you really believe that every single bike shop in this country is completely content to lose pile of business, not be able to service their customer, and generally die off then I'd question you convictions....like I am now.

You don't believe me so then just go into business yourself. Buy every single Shimano part you can. you can easily flip them for way more than you spend on them. Every shop just about has been buying retail off Jensen, Richardson, Competitive, Backcountry, excel, etc. Some of us are importing what we can from overseas stockpiles we can find. I flew a couple of boxes of rims in last month.

The audacity to think that an entire industry is failing in the US and Europe simply because they're too stupid to order off Ali....amazing.

Seriously though go flip the parts. I have a guy on facebook who used to OE source for Specialized who has been doing just that as he's been calling in favors from little stockpiles all over the world.

The only true hope we have, which is counter intuitive, is that as everything starts to resemble something normal that people decide their free time is better spent sitting on their butts in bars, shows, etc. All the other hobbies and pastimes they had to leave. If that happens then in roughly a year all the demand that was artificial and driving all the MRP schedules everywhere...and all the panic and fear based PO's that everyone sent for the last year will cause a rapid flood of the market.

This is only if demand just disintegrates overnight. Al of the industry studies up to now point to more of a slow dissolving of demand. so... good luck. Enjoy the ride and ride the hell out of what you have.

I respect the discourse but the clarification I would like to make is I have nothing but respect for the local bike shops as well as the distributors. My concern is with how the manufacturers can allow these back doors to exist and our businesses suffer while others are unfairly benefiting. I have closely looked at my parts and they are all original and yes there may be an issue with chains, I received a full build kit and compared it very closely with my other GRX equipped bicycle.

In at least the cars of the tiny shops, they make hardly money when they buy from the Jensons of the world. I use a small shop here since he is local and just opened it. I don't know if it helps but I have him do much of the service I did myself and I pay in cash. If I find something on Backcountry in stock and he can get it soon enough as well, I'll order from him. Our neighborhood has sort of banded together to support him, which I think is very cool. Some shops are doing well but some small ones are having a hard time. With such limited bike supply too, it is hard for some to just make a living off just service and parts. I have never seen anything like this.

Obviously the forum hasnt had you berating us enough for everyone to have figured this out sooner.


I have ordered multiple genuine Shimano components this year for less than msrp. ebay and wait. europe and wait. Both have netted me cassettes, shifters, and chains. 2 cassettes and chains for a 9sp road bike and 1 cassette and chain for an 11sp road bike. I actually intended to get KMC chains and was surprised to see the Shimano 11sp for less.
You clearly deal in higher volume than my anecdotal limited experiences and I fully agree that some product is limited. Maybe I happened to luck out and need product that wasnt limited.

Do you happen to have photos of both to compare the real vs counterfeit? I'd like to see what to look out for.

Jenson still has the resin finned pads (L03A) in stock for a great price. I just got a set today.