BMW Motorrad has created what they claim to be a completely maintenance free chain.
For more than 90 years BMW Motorrad has proudly featured the shaft drive in their motorcycles, offering a maintenance-free and environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional X-ring chain.
BMW’s new M Endurance chain has a permanent lubricant filling placed between the rollers and pins, enclosed by X-rings. This means that lubing your chain is no longer required, further more its said that the M Endurance chain will also eliminate chain stretch and the need for chain re-tensioning while maintaining similar characteristics of the traditional chain.
The big difference that sets the M Endurance chain apart from others is the use a new coating material for the rollers, tetrahedrally amorphous carbon (ta-C), also known as industrial diamond. The coating, like a diamond, has incredible hardness and resistance; it is placed between the DLC (diamond like coating) and pure diamond. In contrast to the metal coating that is currently used for chains, this new coating will not wear off, while offering drastically reduced friction.
With this form of dry lubrication it is said that the M Endurance chain will offer the same minimal maintenance and cleaning as a shaft drive motorcycle. All together the M endurance chain eliminates lubricant splash and offers a more environmentally friendly approach to the chain drive than the traditional option.
The M Endurance chain in 525 pitch is now available initially for the BMW S 1000 RR and S 1000 XR. The M Endurance chain is available as accessory or directly from the factory as an option. Although the chain is only available for these two models you can expect BMW Motorrad to prepare models for the M Endurance chain for the future.
