I haven’t done an equipment review for a while now and it normally takes something quite good or bad for me to make the time to write a post about it. So you guess which way this one will go.
Quite a while back, in fact it was May 2021, I bought an 11 speed chain as a spare. I’ve done Shimano and KMC X11’s to death and I fancied trying a Taya branded chain we sold in our stores. They are supplied by Oxford Products. I bought a Taya E-Onzo-111 RRP £34.99 at the time, £39.99 now (but shhhhhh I get them at trade price!). It was actually an ebike chain and had 136 links (standard road chains have 114 or 116 normally). My thought process was that the length was immaterial and being for an ebike it may wear better and last longer on a gravel bike right? who knows
Who are Taya?
Not just another Taiwanese chain maker. They have been making Motorcycle and Cycle chains for over 50 years so they have some manufacturing pedigree. tayachain.com
The chain had been sat in my man cave tucked away for a rainy day ever since until my Dolan GXA was on the stand a few months back and I checked the chain for wear. It was bang on 0.75mm so ripe for another one as you can generally get two chains out of a transmission if you catch it at the right point.
Initially I was going to buy another KMC X11 as I’d forgotten about the Taya by now but then I remembered I had it and decided to give it ago on my (worn) Shimano GRX 1x transmission with a 40T Garbarauk oval chainring + Shimano SLX 11-40T Cassette.
First thing I liked about the chain, when I got it out of the packet, was that it wasn’t gunked up with grease like Shimano chains can be. It was coated in a particularly light lube and it was light and super silver-shiny too.
Fitting was standard and simple with a quick link although with 136 links there was plenty of links to remove.
Now the most important part of any chain is how well it shifts and we know that mixing brands can be sometimes detrimental. Not here. As I span the cranks up and flicked up and down the gears, the change was noticeably and I mean noticeably slick and fast. I was impressed.
A quick spin up and down my road confirmed the nice gear change but the real test would be out on the trails.
I’ve been using it for a few months now and today, running it through my chain bath to get it back to its shiny ‘as-new’ look it seems to have after every clean I just had to share my experience.
VERDICT: It is better than a very good chain. Quite honestly one of the best if not the best chains I’ve ever used. It has performed faultlessly on my gravel bike in mud, dust, wet, dry conditions with the rear mech clutch on or off. It’s never missed a beat. 100%, it shifts better than KMC and Shimano in my opinion. Wear has been good too. I give it 6 out of 5. A real gem of a find.
6 out of 5 😱
that good!