I had my first dropped chain… as in, the chain fell completely off my bike. The side of one pin on the KMC missing link appeared to have popped right off. Nothing else was missing or damaged.
That link was the original and had only been removed once since the chain was installed, approx 900km before, when the cassette was replaced around 800km ago.
The only recent change to my bike was buying new wheels, but other than reindexing (at the LBS), shifting was excellent before and after the wheel swap.
Was it just bad luck, or is there something that might have caused this that I should watch out for?
The replacement link says reusable (Original KMC), but perhaps the original with the chain isn’t as strong?
I’ll note that this happened on a very casual ride, so no added weight, hills, or power going through the pedals. I shifted and it fell off. 😵
My best guess is that the chain wasn’t installed correctly to begin with. Exactly how is anyone’s guess. It’s possible to miss half of the connection on some brands of quick links, though. The chain would look pretty close to normal unless you were really looking for that issue.