100% Maintenance Free Motorcycle Chain

This has to be one of the most overlooked innovations in the motorcycle sector – a completely maintenance free motorcycle chain that does not need any lubrication and re-tensioning once installed!

Too good to be true? I was keen to find out and bought this chain in early 2021 for my brand new KTM 1290 Super Adventure R.

The Regina HPE (High Performance Endurance) Chain was first announced by BMW under the name BMW M Endurance Chain in late 2020. The fact that this chain is indeed not made by BMW but by Regina is good news for everyone not riding a BMW as this innovation will not be exclusively reserved for a single brand.

Like previous X-ring chains, the Regina HPE chain has a resident permanent lubricant filling between the rollers and pins, enclosed by X-rings. What is completely new, however, is that the previously necessary additional lubricant addition for the rollers and thus the familiar “chain lubrication” is no longer necessary, nor is any re-tensioning required from time to time due to the usual wear.

This enormous gain in comfort was made possible by using a new coating material for the rollers: tetrahedrally amorphous carbon (ta-C), also known as industrial diamond. This coating is characterized by extreme hardness and resistance and in this respect it is placed between the well-known DLC coating (Diamond Like Carbon) and pure diamond. In contrast to the metal surfaces used so far, the coating with the ta-C industrial diamond does not wear off. At the same time, this type of coating also offers a drastically reduced friction coefficient.