Marginal Gains and the New Dura-Ace R9200 / Ultegra R8100 Groups

The manufacturers do specify which ones can be reused and which can’t. That being said, we have seen plenty of single use quick links be reused many times without issue.

Hey Guys,

Would reusing a non-reusable quick-link on my chain really do damage to it or is it just a ploy to get me to buy new quick links.

By reusing I mean unlocking for cleaning purposes and reinstalling it using the same quick link.

Dear Fatty, Dear Hottie, Dear Josh,

First of All thank you so much for this amazing podcast. Really love the show and great that you put so much effort in this!!! The knowledge output is awesome. I am listening from Germany. And you guys really got me back into my road bike again, which hung up in the basement for almost a decade.

You recently talked about the new Shimano groups 12 fold speed. I was wondering what the material stability is in the chain and cogs? I would assume the chain and the cogs get thinner and thinner in order to fit 12 Cogs on the hub. I doubt that the Hubs get wider. How is the stability compared to older versions.

Furthermore disk brakes and rim brakes were mentioned. Can you please talk about the benefits of disk brakes compared to rim brakes? I understand that the performance is better on the disk brakes. But what about aerodynamics? I looked at some of the Tour de France teams and some have disk brakes some have rim brakes. I also looked at some of the time trial machines that almost all are with rim brakes. But when I notice that Filippo Ganna puts aerodynamic end caps on his hubs, aerodynamics must play an important role in that area of the bike.

Maybe you can explain whether it makes more sense to have an aerodynamic great bike but lower braking performance or better brake performance but less aerodynamics.

Considering a mountain stage at the Tour de France you want great brake performance on the decends but also don’t want to lose time/Watts with bad aerodynamics at high speeds.

Thank you so much for considering my questions for your podcast.

Keep up the great work!

Best wishes

Matthias

The new Shimano groups. Nice presentation but one thing i missed was any talk of metallurgical changes to the chain (and requisite changes to the cogs and rings). Chains used to last forever but with more gears comes shorter chain life. I’m curious if any advances have been made there.