BMW Motorrad have been providing maintenance-free shaft drives for over 90 years, but they’ve now revolutionised this a step further. Their latest M Endurance Chain is completely maintenance-free for the first time thanks to the use of some very hard, very advanced material.
In previous designs, you’d still need to carry out chain lubrication for the rollers, as it was just the space between the rollers and pins that had permanent lubrication.
In the NEW M Endurance chain, the rollers have been coated with tetrahedrally amorphous carbon (ta-C), which is harder than ‘Diamond-Like Carbon’ often found in industrial use. This material never wears off, so lubrication between rollers will not be necessary throughout the bike’s use.
The M Endurance Chain is available for the BMW S 1000 RR and S 1000 XR bikes as an option or as an accessory to be bought and purchased after the fact. The same design will be available on other BMW bikes in the future.
Here’s the press release with more.
PRESS RELEASE
For more than 90 years, the maintenance-free, environmentally friendly and comfortable shaft drive has been one of BMW Motorrad’s immovable technical cornerstones. With the M Endurance chain, BMW Motorrad now offers a maintenance-free chain with comparable characteristics for the first time.
Like previous X-ring chains, the M Endurance chain has a resident permanent lubricant filling between the rollers and pins, enclosed by X-rings. What is completely new, however, is that the previously necessary additional lubricant addition for the rollers and thus the familiar “chain lubrication” is no longer necessary, nor is any re-tensioning required from time to time due to the usual wear.
This enormous gain in comfort was made possible by using a new coating material for the rollers: tetrahedrally amorphous carbon (ta-C), also known as industrial diamond. This coating is characterized by extreme hardness and resistance and in this respect it is placed between the well-known DLC coating (Diamond Like Carbon) and pure diamond. In contrast to the metal surfaces used so far, the coating with the ta-C industrial diamond does not wear off. At the same time, this type of coating also offers a drastically reduced friction coefficient.
Thanks to excellent dry lubrication properties and the elimination of wear, the tetrahedral amorphous carbon coated rollers of the M Endurance chain offer maintenance comfort equivalent to that of a shaft drive motorcycle. This includes all the cleaning work that is unavoidable with a conventional chain due to splashed lubricant. Accordingly, the M Endurance chain also offers maximum environmental friendliness.
The M Endurance chain in 525 pitch is now available initially for the two 4-cylinder models BMW S 1000 RR and S 1000 XR. The M Endurance chain is available as accessory or directly from the factory as an option. Further BMW Motorrad models are being prepared for this feature.
