No more lubricants: BMW develops maintenance free chain for motorcycles

BMW has recently announced that it has readied a motorcycle chain that doesn't need any lubrication or tension adjustment.

The new maintenance free chain has been christened 'M Endurance' chain. It has been launched on bikes such as BMW S1000RR and S1000XR. It's introduced as a factory option or as an official accessory to the existing owners. BMW says that more models will be launched with M Endurance chain in the future.

The BMW's M Endurance chain features a resident permanent lubricant filling between the rollers and pins, encased by X-rings. The company has also added an industrial diamond coating to the roller and bushes of the chain. The industrial diamond coating is known as tetrahedrally amorphous carbon (ta-C). On the diamond scale it sits between the Diamond Like Coating - DLC (used to reduce friction in engine internals) and pure diamond. The ta-C coating prevents the chain from friction and thus reduces wear.

As per the manufacturer, the traditional additional lubricants for the chain is unnecessary on its M Endurance chain since it never wears off due to friction. Also, it doesn't require any re-tensioning or adjustment.

BMW quotes: “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."