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TECH NEWS
Muc-Off NanoTech Chain - 6.jpgMuc-Off unveils “fastest chain in the world”
Muc-Off is offering £135 chains that have been "NanoTube Optimised to offer power savings of up to six watts” through the reduction of friction.
The chain is hand treated with a Speed Film Lubrication that was developed for Bradley Wiggins’ Hour Record and also used by Birdie O’Donnell in her hour record.”
“Our NanoTube Speed Film is an all-weather treatment, so riding in wet or muddy conditions is no problem,” says Muc-Off. “The groundbreaking formula contains NanoTube additives to make it incredibly fast, but still retains the proven all-weather repellency of Muc-Off’s Hydrodynamic Lube.
“Each chain is painstakingly speed graded and run-in under load during which data is taken to find its optimum. Now it’s sonic cleaned in several formulas and hand treated with the NanoTube formula, then nanotube particles are applied. It’s now finally ready for track, triathlon, road or MTB competition straight out of the box.”
Muc-Off says that the NanoTube Chain Optimisation will benefit you for over 400 miles in dry conditions and for over 250 miles in wet and muddy conditions.
This, then, is aimed at serious racers who have a target event where they want peak performance rather than for everyday use, unless you happen to be supremely wealthy.
Muc-Off claims that the performance drop off of chains treated with dry waxes is far sooner. It also says you can bring the chain’s performance back to a level approaching its best after cleaning.
"Once you are ready to clean the chain then you can still bring your chain back to within 1-2 watts of when it is at its optimum by applying the top up Nanotube Speed Film Lube available on the Muc-Off website.
“It won't be as fast as when it was first treated as we use a special technique and processes to ensure the formula is driven deep into each link for 100% coverage (we also apply a powder externally) but you can still achieve significant savings,” says Muc-Off.
A Shimano chain will cost you £135, a SRAM Red chain is £137, and a Campagnolo Record chain is £140.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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17 comments
And the report by Road.cc does make the point that it's probably aimed at competitive folk aiming at an event. To a tester who has the skin suit, Aero helmet, bike, selection of deep section wheels £135 to save another 6 watts for a number of events is probably seen as a worthwhile investment.
i was wonder when a brand with such massive market penetration were going to, ahem, step it up a gear from just making fancy degreasers and lubes
My BS alarm just went off...
http://www.the-spokesmen.com/?p=518
Listen from 33min in & then make your mind up.
FFS go and look at the bloody product page if you're all so het up about it. You buy a chain from them - Shimano, Campagnolo, whatever - and they treat it. The most obvious thought would be that that chain is what the comparison is made against.. although, as mentioned, it's not at all clear at what outputs that might be. We could hazard a guess, although saying is going to be taken at the maximum possible output is based on bugger all evidence as well. Who knows, not us,more data needed. That said I wish some people would put in 10% of the effort they use in ranting to actually go and look up what they're bitching about before hand.
Off you go then
All snake oil unless they offer up the testing behind those figures. They won't, though. These are people who sell "lube" as though it's some kind of wonder-material, when in reality it's just oil like any other.
Who need drugs when you have British ingenuity.
nanotubes in the toilet
"...to offer power savings of up to six watts” through the reduction of friction..."
Comparing to what?
I like the box it comes in
The emporer's new clothes are mud-resistant? Impressive!
Snake oil. With nano technology.
(Okay it probably offers marginal gains for elite riders but 135 could be better spent, or just ride up grades...)
So after 400 miles, at best, it becomes no better than a 20-30 quid chain, is that right? Can't say I'm convinced that this represent good value, to tell the truth.
to be fair, based on the PR from Bradley's hour, I was expecting something north of £250 when I read the headline.. £135 doesn't look too far away from the £80/£90 KMC chain bling available. I'm sure the ten grand bike brigade will be all over this like sauce on chips.
This whole stunt was engineered to generate some PR for a grey-skinned hand model
April 1st is still a few weeks away??