Muc-Off Launch Nano Tube Treated Chains

You might remember Bradley Wiggins doing a time trail last year with a £6000 chain on his bike. The treatment was done by Muc Off, who say it had a NanoTube treatment to make it all slippery and efficient like. They’ve now announced that similarly treated chains are available to everyone, for £135 – £140 depending on your favoured flavour of chain.

Depending on how you view it, that’s a more than 97% reduction in price of the tech on Bradely’s time trail bike, or a roughly 364% increase on the price of a chain if you already buy kit in the range of XTR. For the extra moolah, Muc Off claim you will save 6 watts of effort, and that the coating will last 400 miles in dry conditions, or 250 miles in the wet, before requiring a £35 top-up from a bottle. It’s unclear how many fractions of a watt you’ll lose by inserting an untreated quicklink on the trail, but the press release describes it as “perfect for mountain biking” and there’s more info here.

The release doesn’t actually explain what these mystical ‘NanoTubes’ are, or what they actually do to reduce friction (do they work like tiny little rollers? Do they blow the chain along with their tiny lungs?) – presumably that’s a closely guarded trade secret…

You can’t see it, but it’s there: NanoTubes!

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David Hayward

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.

Replies (7)

jeffl March 10, 2016 at 1:39 pm

Yep”perfect for mountain biking” until you encounter some mud or such like that will instantly add extra friction to your bike thus negating the 6 watt gain you’ve made with your silly expensive chain. It’s not April 1st is it?

Matt Taylor March 10, 2016 at 2:20 pm

When nanotube-treated chains meet Peak District grit, who wins?

AlexSimon March 10, 2016 at 3:51 pm

It can double my wattage! That’s incredible!

Hang on – why the distances? Watts/distance doesn’t exist.

AlexSimon March 10, 2016 at 3:52 pm

hmmm – either I was confused on the article has been edited.
Ignore my watt’s per distance thing.

nach March 10, 2016 at 3:59 pm

You’re not losing your nano-marbles: I realised the wording was confusing, so edited it 🙂

dangeourbrain March 10, 2016 at 6:33 pm

I can’t help wondering why is no good for cyclocross, which is really just UK mountain biking with less mud* and a road bike.

Sam March 12, 2016 at 2:42 pm