Long stay Focus requires longer chain (no longer available)

[sdcoffeeroaster]

My Focus Jam2 came with an HG701 chain. Older boxes for this chain listed two sizes 116L and 126L. Now there appears to be only one size available and it is not long enough for a bike with 457 mm chain stays. Has anyone found a longer Shimano chain. The new 12 speed chains are 126L but are NOT listed as compatible with 11 speed XT's. They still offer 116L, 126L and even 138L in the HG701 chain in Europe but of course won't ship to the US.

Aliexpress listed the 126L chain but unboxed and looked almost burnt to me like it's a knockoff so I'm not going there. Maybe a KMC chain will work? Any thoughts?

 

[life behind bars]

Buy three chains, a handful of quick links and make a couple of chains up.

 

[sdcoffeeroaster]

Yes, thanks, that was one of two options I thought of doing. The other is to just order that 126L chain from China and see what I get. Could be that they are chains bought by bike companies that went out of business and are OK just not in boxes. I don't like running 2 quick links but they seem to be reliable and I've never had one come off yet. I have two 116L chains right now and a bunch of quick links so I could "make" a chain and just use the extra chain to make many others. Strange Shimano did this I've looked at 30 or so stores and all they called now is the 116L. My two boxes for the 701 show the 126L as an option. Only the new 12 speed chain is 126L and the Shimano charts say it is NOT compatible with 11 speeds. With a 457 chain stay I need at least 2 more inches than most bikes.