Table of Contents
Endless Post
This is Part 6 of a series of 9 posts organized as a single work,
“endless”. There are 8 parts, published as
posts on this blog, and a table of contents of the series in the 9th post. The series is organized into sections, numbered for reference, in the series table of contents and in the table pf contents for each post. From March – July2024 I reorganized and revised the long article extensively. This post has been most recently updated July 30, 2024.
17. Drive Systems
Modern Chain
As of 2022-2024, chain manufacturers make many kinds of chains to supply the need for replacement chains:
- Most modern bikes on the market in Canada and the USA, other than e-bikes, children’s bikes and single gear bikes, have derailleurs and rear wheel cassettes with 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13 cogs, and compatible laterally flexible bushingless chains;
- Some cargo bikes and e-bike manufacturers make bikes that have:
- rear derailleurs, and flexible bushingless chains; or
- purpose-designed chains, which may be bushed chains or wider bushingless chains than chains for road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes and hybrids; and
- Older bikes requiring wider chains compatible with derailleur shifting with less cogs than modern bikes are in use.
Some chain manufacturers claim that e-bikes with the motor situated at the bottom bracket or chainwheel (as opposed to the drive wheel hub) put higher stresses on chains than chains for non-electric bikes can withstand.
Manufacturers will be making chains for years to come. The flexible bushingless roller chain is an established technology in wide use.
The bushingless, steel roller chain has a short life expectancy. To make chains thin, chains have short pins. To make chains light, link plates are thin; many chains have hollow pins. The chain is vulnerable to wear and breakage. Consumers have been “educated” by their experience with the actions and words of the bike industries to realize that some bike components have limited “service lives“, and to accept that the mean time before failure of a modern bike chain is only a few hundred hours of riding.
Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling (“ZFC”) suggested in an interview by CyclingTips in 2019 that 11 & 12 speed chains are more durable, in terms of wear, than 8-9-10 speed chains due to technological innovation:
It’s commonly said that the wider chains of past drivetrains were more durable. Sure, older 8-, 9- and even 10-speed systems do offer wider cog widths which provide increased surface area with the chain, but does that actually mean the chains are more durable?
It’s a question I posed to Kerin after the previous testing was done, and he got the Zero Friction Cycling torture machine up and running again to find out. In this, he tested the top Shimano chains from each respective speed, and the results may surprise you.
…
It seems that with each gear added, durability has improved. And at least for Shimano chains, 10-speed saw a significant jump in durability from 9- and 8-speed, and Shimano’s latest 12-speed XTR mountain bike chain rules the roost as Shimano’s most durable offering.
The reasoning for this is less clear, but certain materials have improved, manufacturing processes have become refined, and new low-friction coatings have been added. Similarly, the chain designs themselves have changed, and where 8- and even 9-speed chains would see the inner links turn solely on the connecting pins, newer chains typically see these forces shared across the pins and specifically stamped plates, too.
Dave Rome, CyclingTips, 2019, Finding the Best Bicycle Chain 1Note – defunct link
Other Drive Systems
Some internal hub systems, including planetary gear systems are in use or in development:
- Sturmey-Archer 3-speed AW internal gear hub system was used on Raleigh bicycles for many years. There are articles and resources at Bicycle Technical Information (“BTI” – the Sheldon Brown site), such as “Servicing Sturmey-Archer 3-Speed Hubs“, and other manuals and support resources. There is a BTI article on Internal-Gear Hubs.
- Shimano
- had a 3 speed hub in the Nexus line, discussed in a 2017 article at BTI, “Shimano 3-speed Hubs“;
- manufactured and supported the Nexus and Alfine internally geared hubs, discussed at BTI – Shimano Nexus/Alfine;
- made an 11 speed Alfine hub (BTI). Some Alfine products/parts are still in the US market.
- Classified Cycling, situated in Antwerp (Belgium) and Eindhoven (Netherlands), introduced its Powershift system in 2023. It is available for Road, Gravel, MTB and Urban bikes by purchasing and installing new bikes or wheels with Powershift hubs and compatible cassettes. It is on some Ridley road and gravel bikes (Belgian bike brand, no dealers in Canada)
Some internal hub systems had or have a friction or coaster brake. Some are available on bikes or wheels for a disc rotor or metal rimmed wheel (for rim brakes). Most are available with a single gearwheel on the drive wheel for use with a single chainwheel gearwheel. Some recent Shimano Alfine models were also made for a belt drive.
The shaft drive and the belt drive have some history. The shaft drive appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, disappeared, and has been revived in 21st century prototypes: Ceramic Speed is raising funds for its Driven technology – a 99.2% efficient shiftable drive shaft. Belt drives reappeared late in the 20th century e.g. the Gates Carbon Belt Drive.
An alternative drive system may be an option for a home mechanic, or a shop option for an owner with the ability to pay for work and parts, if an owner can find a mechanic who can do the work.
18. Durable Chains
Introduction
Some modern laterally flexible bushingless chains on the market are durable. ZFC tested “top” Shimano 8-9-10 speed chains, and a top Shimano XTR 12 speed chain, and some other chains. In the CyclingTips NerdAlert podcast episode March 16, 2022 “Finding the best chain lube for your needs” Adam Kerin mentioned those chains, including the use of chrome in the manufacturing. The Outside Magazine sites, including its Velo (corresponding to the online verson of VeloNews) have depublished this material. Adam Kerin has discussed durable chains with other interviewers, but I have not located the interviews and passages. Adam Kerin has Chain Wear Test Results on the Chain Efficiency page. The chain wear result graph selected chains for “longevity” in terms of km in wear testing to the .05% wear mark .
ZFC initially planned tests of lubricants and tests of chains but has done more lubricant tests than chain tests. The initial 2018 document laying out the chain “longevity” (durability) testing is still online. The ZFC data chain durability is not as detailed as the material on lubricant testing. ZFC found that some chains were more durable than others in tests run with White Lightning Epic Ride dry-drip lube.
Chains by different manufacturers vary. Bike manufacturers and bike shops do not regard chain replacement as their responsibility, and do not have inventories of chains as spare parts for specific bikes. In modern commercial and economic thinking, chains are consumables. A bike shop can sell a new chain to replace a worn chain.
Not all chains by the same manufacturers are equally durable – it depends on plate, pin and roller, material, machining, metal treatment, coating, lubrication and conditions.
In an interview with Global Cycling Network tech journalist/presenter Alex Paton “They Don’t want your chain to last this long” in March 2024, Adam Kerin diffentiated some SRAM chains as better value than other chains on the basis of SRAM’s “hard chrome” treatment of chain components (which seems to be the use of chromium alloy steel plating on some chain surfaces) on those chains. Durable chains, compatible with modern drive trains and cassettes cost more.
Durable chains are not available from all manufacturers, or to all purchasers and riders in the markets of the world. Buyers and riders have lighter, thinner bushingless chains that are more vulnerable to wear. Light and thin can be cheap or expensive. Durable is more expensive. Modern chains have associated costs.
There were reports of counterfeit chains on the market during the pandemic. The elusive idea/hope buying an inexpensive durable branded chain on the internet has suffered more.
Data, Records
A rider should know when a chain was installed or lubed last, and the distances the bike has traveled. A cycling computer has a trip odometer. Keeping trip records in the device or an app requires tinkering with the device and the settings – and turning the device on. The rider may store trip data in an app that stores it in the cloud, or in spreadsheet or chart or table, or in a notebook.
Tested Chains
ZFC posted bar graphs of the durability test results in a “News” item in 2022. Some of the results are explained in CyclingTips Finding the Best Bicycle Chain article, which adds to the ZFC results:
- Some chains were retested;
- The ZFC “cost to run” results are graphed in $US.
ZFC also publishes a pdf version of a “consolidated” Chain-Efficiency-and-wear-life” results bar graph.
ZFC is attempting to measure some of the real world effects of chain construction, lubricants, and operating conditions in tests that represents the real world. Josh Poertner of Silca Velo has provided his explanatory gloss on Adam Kerin’s lubricant testing work in a couple of Silca Velo channel YouTube videos:
- Josh helps you crack the code of Zero Friction Cycling Lubricant Testing Data, August 2023;
- Josh explains more Zero Friction Cycling data set details, August 2023
In 12 speed chains, ZFC thought SRAM Eagle XX1 and X01 could run about 5,000 Km, and the Shimano XTR 9100 to about 4,000 Km., with the control lubricant a low quality “dry” drip lube, based on pure elongation results. The ZFC lubricant tests indicate that a high quality chain will last longer with paraffin lubrication. ZFC suggested, in an extrapolation calculation in the lubricant testing spreadsheets, that a few specific modern Shimano chains, immersion waxed, can be run for 25,000 Km. ZFC is not always consistent in predictions and estimates; its comments refer to specific chains, and not to manufacturers or brands.
Will what manufacturers of the tested durable chains have done be replicated in production lines of chains by any manufacturer?
The best 11 speed chains in the elongation tests, among those tested by ZFC, at over 3,000 Km., were SRAM XX1, Campagnolo Record, and YBN SLA-110. ZFC found, in its cost to run 10,000 KM. calculations, several chains at about $500 (Australian), or about $200 (US), making assumptions about chain replacement and other drive train component replacements. The cost to run numbers in US dollars are in in a bar graph. Several chains show at a price to buy $150-$200 US per 10,000 Km. Online or retail stores list economy and mid price bike chains under the SRAM and Shimano brands from $30 to $50.
ZFC sells the following chains, in bundled waxed chain sales, as of 2024 (not counting some chains for e-bikes2ZFC discloses the shipping costs to consumers outside Australia – more emphatically than most e-commerce sites. I have not matched the description in the ZFC store to the desciptions in the test charts):
| 10 speed | 11 speed | 12 speed | 13 speed |
| Campagnolo Ekar | |||
| Campagnolo Record | Capagnolo Super Record – C-Link | ||
| Shimano HG-901/XTR | Shimano M9100 | ||
| Shimano M8100 | |||
| SRAM AXS UFO | |||
| SRAM AXS Road | |||
| SRAM AXS Eagle | |||
| YBN-SLA 101 | YBN SLA-110 | YBN SLA Ti-N | |
Adam Kerin was cited by CyclingTips in”Finding the Best Bicycle Chain” (The Outside Magazine sites, including its Velo site, corresponding to the online verson of VeloNews,the owner have depublished this material) as regarding the Campagnolo Record and YBN SLA as “excellent choices”. Adam Kerin did not distinguish between YBN 11 speed SLA chains – SLA 110 and SLA 1100. YBN chains can be ordered from MSpeedwax in the USA and other regional dealers elsewhere, including ZFC in Australia. MSpeedwax lists the SLA-110 chains at about $70 US.
Adam Kerin stated, under the heading “How Long will waxing last?”, on the Waxing Instructions page:
Re-waxing by recommended 300 Km. mark, the average for a top quality chain like YBN to get to recommended wear replacement mark of .5% is 15,000 Km.
….
Erring on the earlier side. i.e. re-waxing in the 200 the 250 mark [range] brings a big jump in chain and drive train life span again. From 100 Km. post re-wax there is literally zero wear … From 100 to 200 Km., the friction and wear increase is minute.
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