My girlfriend has an old Raleigh with a Sachs Huret drivetrain that she uses for around town riding. Last week I went to the local bike shop to get a new chain for her bike and the guy there told me that I'd have to replace the whole drivetrain because Sachs Huret used a proprietary spacing for it's chains, making any new chain incompatible.
I think he was just making it up so that he could sell me an entire component set instead of a $20 dollar chain. Who's right? Did Sachs Huret use a funky chain spacing? And if they did, is the difference so great between it and modern spacing that my a bike with Sachs Huret bits and a SRAM chain would be inoperable? Or was the guy at the shop just trying to make a quick $100?
I think he was just making it up so that he could sell me an entire component set instead of a $20 dollar chain. Who's right? Did Sachs Huret use a funky chain spacing? And if they did, is the difference so great between it and modern spacing that my a bike with Sachs Huret bits and a SRAM chain would be inoperable? Or was the guy at the shop just trying to make a quick $100?
It's possible he was grossly misinformed and talking about the chain width (not the chain pitch = distance between rollers) since new chains are slightly narrower than old. However, this is not really an issue. SRAM PC-48 works on 6 speed drivetrains and probably 5s as well - only issue might be a little skating between chainrings depending on your setup.
What is really ironic about this affair is that SRAM chains were Sachs chains until a few years ago.
