TESTED: CSIXX Chain guide and chain ring

Words and photos: Mike Blewitt
 
South Africa is still riding a mountain biking boom, and better yet that boom is expanding from marathon mountain biking. The country that has enough mountain bike stage races to keep you busy for just about every week or weekend of the year has got its own mountain bike industry creating some unique products for the global market. One of those is CSIXX, based in Cape Town, who make rim protectors, rims, handlebars, mudguards and a range of chain guides and chain rings, like the ones we have on test here.

The Super Single 9Series ISCG 05 chain guide is a lightweight guide, just 27g without the hardware. Chain guides don’t need to be carbon fibre but it does make them stiff. This guide is designed for single chain ring use on narrow-wide chain rings, and can fit 28-38t rings, which is a huge range. CSIXX make the carbon parts right in South Africa. With the bolts and spacers the total weight came to about 50g. Not a whole lot.

Fitting it up was easy enough, with a couple of goes to get the spacing right for the chain line. As the top mount doesn’t swivel away it does mean you have to fiddle around a little more removing it and refitting it. The top guide is wide enough to run completely rub free on a Shimano 12-speed drivetrain. As for chain security – well I never dropped a chain during testing. But I hadn’t dropped a chain on the Shimano 12-speed drivetrain it was tested on anyway. But most people use a chain guide for security more than necessity, and after some trial and error on setup for positioning, this guide ran trouble and noise free.
 
CSIXX have a really broad range of replacement chain rings at very agreeable prices that are made and finished in South Africa. They are also one of a handful of companies who have replacement chain rings for Shimano 12-speed direct mount crank sets. Now, Shimano rightly claim that using aftermarket chain rings with their Hyperglide Plus tooth profiles won’t deliver the drivetrain performance that their engineers created with the complete system. And it really is very hard to go wrong with a Shimano chain ring.

However the CSIXX chain ring not only fitted up easily, but it has run perfectly, even with a chain that is about half way through its life. The chain rings are made from 7075 aluminium that is heat treated to T6, and then hard anodised to increase durability. If you’re really counting grams, the chain ring is a few grams lighter than the equivalent XTR M9100 unit, and it would be considerably lighter than say an SLX 12-speed chain ring if you were upgrading down the track.

The alternating tooth profile of innies and outies is said to hold the chain better. But even taking my XC bike to Tasmania I didn’t manage to trouble the ring for chain retention. And that’s with and without the use of the chain device. CSIXX claim they have had 5000km of testing on the chain rings and they’re still going strong. This manufacturing is similar to other brands known for chain ring longevity so there’s no reason to think they won’t have a long lifespan. If it is worth changing from stock Shimano will be your decision – but this might fit best for those looking for an upgrade once their SLX or XT rings wear, or maybe something a little more wallet friendly than replacing an XTR chain ring.
 
Hits:
–      Well made and at a good price
–      Precise fitting
–      Shipped to your door

Misses:
–      The chain guide can be fiddly to adjust.