Conceptually, to me, the new interior bits serve as a sort of individual tooth holder that is free to rotate with the tooth as the tooth orbits the axle. So there's not much friction at the tooth:holder junction as the sprocket turns.
That friction is now occurring at the narrower intersection of a hinged tooth holder and chain link. Being a narrower hinge joint, just the length of a chain link's thickness, it has less surface area for friction, and less room for debris ingress etc.
Conventional chains rotate a pin across the sprocket's thickness, and AIUI use a roller to try keep debris out of and lubricant within that interface to reduce friction. This contraption takes it a step further.
You can actually envision the tooth holder as analogous to the roller in a conventional chain, just with less surface area at the twisting intersection. They've obsoleted the conventional roller.
Likely the "pins rubbing" you mention doesn't really matter, because the wear from inserting and removing the chain as it cycles around has to be a miniscule fraction of the wear that occurs under load.
In a worn chain, the rollers engage high up, and then work their way down (under high load) until seated at the base. In the unworn condition, engagement begins at the base of the tooth where the forces are better spread over the roller.
In point of fact, the forces are spread out over more teeth when worn. The first tooth engagement might begin 3mm high, then 2.5mm, then 2mm, etc. over ~6 teeth. Whereas the fresh chain might manage 2 or 3. But the wear and friction of the worn chain is much higher as you have a great deal of motion under high load as the loaded rollers creep down. The unworn chain has perhaps higher loads, but the roller is essentially seated and immobile at the base of the gear for this.
Not at all! The article claims 98% efficiency.
Roller chains are used to transfer torque in bicycles and motor cycles, inside internal combustion engines to drive cam shafts... and many more applications covering a huge range of power levels and environments.
Not only is it efficient, it's cheap.
If that last 2% of efficiency was important (or easy to obtain) it would have been on a GP motorcycle already.
- BMX: This market would be all over anything that would be an improvement in durability, and frankly a percentage would just do it for the different tooth design.
- Auto: Admittedly, the site for the company that is making this new chain mentions automotive in a blog post, but I don't see anything specific to an automotive product. A more durable and efficient timing chain is something I'd expect most of the automakers to care about.
https://www.bmwblog.com/2020/08/27/m-endurance-motorbike-cha...
My bike (a k75) has it and well it's pretty cool!
The solution clearly loses on weight/benefit ratio to just making a thicker chain.
However, the rule of thumb is to minimize rotational weight (e.g., wheels) due to the increase in rotational inertia. I wonder whether chain weight is similarly problematic.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0QDnUkUaQfk
It's interesting to look into what's actually scientifically supported in biking and other sports, and the implied effect sizes.
Often, races are won and lost in the final dash to the finish line, which is pretty much all about acceleration.
JK Rowling taught me that nonplussed is apparently a part of the daily vernacular in the UK.
> Note: The use of nonplussed to mean "unimpressed" is an Americanism that has become increasingly common in recent decades and now appears frequently in published writing. It apparently arose from confusion over the meaning of nonplussed in ambiguous contexts, and it continues to be widely regarded as an error.
I actively try to avoid USAmericanisms, except for "y'all". Go figure ;o)
[That last phrase is a USAmericanism, used for amusing intent.]
Rough synonyms: confounded, flummoxed, bewildered, perplexed, stunned, shocked, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, thunderstruck.
Using nonplussed to mean “unimpressed” or “apathetic” will leave listeners both unimpressed and confused.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonplussed
My observation: "continues to be regarded as an error" is a bit of a "that's not how linguistics work" thing