Ceramic drive chain

On 6/20/2019 7:09 PM, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jun 2019 11:31:10 -0700 (PDT), Chalo
wrote:

When I first saw this nonsense a few months ago, I recognized that their little strainer basket cassette thing would never be able to tolerate the side loads resulting from a person pedaling for propulsion. Building the cassette, bearings, and drive shaft rigid and strong enough to do the implied job would make the weight of the system uncompetitive with existing solutions.

" CeramicSpeed's USA office, and the University of Colorado Boulder's
Mechanical Engineering Department" developed the design so one might
assume that it is likely that problems such as you describe were
considered during the design phase.

The problems were probably considered. That doesn't mean they were
solved. I'm betting against that; but we'll see.

It looks like the company is making its money from other enterprises
entirely.

CeramicSpeed bought Friction Facts, which got a lot of press (and was
discussed here) with its chain lubrication service. They lubed it with
paraffin wax plus a bit of teflon powder and had test data showing it
was more efficient than chains slathered with traditional liquid lubes.
CeramicSpeed sells "optimized" chains, which are probably just chains
with that lube.

They also sell ceramic bearings for (or in) things like bottom brackets,
derailleur pulleys, headsets, and claim they will save you huge
percentages of your friction watts. But your friction watts are pretty
tiny to begin with. Dare I say it's like losing two pounds from a 180
pound bike+rider?

I think the company is using it's cheese grinder drive disk to get press
attention and drive buyers to its real business, which is pretty darned
conventional. We'll see if this goes anywhere.

--
- Frank Krygowski