The World's First Maintenance-Free Chain is Now Shipping
One of the world's oldest motorcycle chain manufacturers (founded in Italy in 1919), in September last year Regina announced the world's first motorcycle chain that eliminates the need for 1,000 km periodic and workshop service interval re-lubrication.
Initially being offered as 525 (with 520 and 530 in development), the Lombardy, Italy based manufacturer describes its High Performance Endurance (HPE) chain as a Z-Ring chain "that is the result of extensive lab and street testing to demonstrate that it has a reliable useable life that is at least equivalent, if not greater, than a traditional, regularly re-lubricated Z-Ring chain".
The 'secret sauce' is the hydrogen-free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) coating, currently considered as the most advanced among DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coatings. Applied on the surfaces of the bushings and the rollers of the HPE chain, it combines hardness with a low coefficient of friction.
Friction is the enemy of all transmission chain durability and reliability and reduces the efficiency of how the system is able to get the power that the engine sends to the transmission down to the tire/road interface, where it needs to be.
It is the ta-C coating that eliminates the need of periodic re-lubrication, while ensuring at least the same mileage obtained with a normal chain regularly lubricated every 500 km. It reduces energy dissipation and increases efficiency in the chain drive, eliminating lubricant spatter during operation, and therefore minimizing environmental impact.
For those who have an interest in material science, the use of ta-C is interesting. Pure carbon is present in nature only in two crystalline physical states - diamond (atoms in a tetrahedral bonding arrangement) and graphite (atoms in a hexagonal planar bonding arrangement); ta-C is a synthetic state of pure amorphous carbon in which up to 80% of the atoms are bonded to each other with a Tetrahedral arrangement - in the same way as pure diamond.
For this reason, among all DLC coatings, the physical properties of ta-C (such as hardness and coefficient of friction) are the closest to pure diamond, the hardest material on Earth.
However, a chain drive using an HPE chain does not require ta-C coated front and rear sprockets. When installing a new HPE chain, Regina strongly recommends replacing the front and rear sprockets with new steel made ones.
The company says that to guarantee its best functionality and aesthetics over time, there are three simple rules to follow - clean and re-lubricate the chain once a year (after washing the bike, after using the bike in wet conditions and/or in salty or dusty environments, and before storing the bike at the end of the riding/winter season) and check for correct chain tensioning every 3,000 km.
www.reginachain.net