CeramicSpeed has filed a patent for a “Rocker Joint Roller Chain”, adapted specifically to the needs of the modern-day bicycle drivetrain. Instead of making use of the traditional sliding surfaces of pins and bushings found within the conventional bicycle chain, CeramicSpeed’s concept chain utilizes three “rocker pins”. These literally rock against one another to produce the pivoting joint necessary for chain articulation.
The rocker-joint chain design presented in CeramicSpeed’s patent (US 11608874 B2) does NOT look to be compatible with the cogs, cassettes, and derailleur pulleys of any production drivetrains, based on the unique variable chain pitch as the chain pins “rock” (read on for more detailed explanation). That suggests the brand may have an entirely new drivetrain under development. C Type Agricultural Chain
We reached out to CeramicSpeed for comment who did not deny the possibility, and surprisingly give some interesting insight...
Before we get into the detail of CeramicSpeed’s patent on the Rocker Joint Roller Chain (colorized by us, above), it is pertinent to take a look at the traditional roller chain that is in use across all cycling disciplines today. What’s so wrong with it that CeramicSpeed would look to replace it with a new design?
CeramicSpeed is well known for its friction-reducing drivetrain lubricants, and of course its OSPW derailleur cages. The latter, thanks to their over-sized pulley wheels, reduces the overall friction within a given drivetrain. It does that by reducing the required articulation angle between links of the chain and thus reducing the amount of sliding between the constituent components, i.e.: the pin, roller, and inner and outer plates.
Indeed, the roller chain does generate undesirable friction thanks to those sliding surfaces – pin outer surface to roller inner surface & roller outer surfaces to inner plate inner surfaces. Increased friction equates to increased drag in the system, and that translates to the loss of precious Watts that could otherwise be dedicated to forward propulsion. The CeramicSpeed Rocker Joint Roller Chain does away with most of those sliding surfaces to create a bicycle chain that exhibits less frictional losses.
Chains that use a Rocker Joint between links are nothing new. They have seen widespread use in higher-load industrial applications, particularly in the automotive industry, but their use on bicycles has been prevented due to the fact that they do not satisfy the requirements of a modern bicycle drivetrain.
So, what are the chain requirements of a modern-day bicycle drivetrain, exactly? Beyond the chain’s primary function of transferring load, it must have the following features:
In order to access the low-friction benefits of a Rocker Joint chain for a multi-speed bicycle drivetrain, CeramicSpeed have come up with a new chain design that could see light of day on an all-new drivetrain. We reached out to Paul Sollenberger, Senior Product Manager at CeramicSpeed. Below is his pleasingly insightful response which, to no one’s real surprise, makes reference to reduced friction and wear.
“This rocker chain concept that our R&D Team developed was born from our continual study of drivetrain friction and how to further reduce inefficiencies wherever possible. A traditional rollers chain doesn’t actually benefit from rolling surfaces in regards to its mechanical function. The roller rests against the tooth trough and slides against the pin and inner chain plate, which also slides against the outer chain plate”.
“We are very familiar with how various liquid or solid lubricating materials can affect efficiency and wear through these sliding surfaces. Our UFO Drip chain coating performs extremely well through various environments for keeping friction and drag to a minimum – but as long as some measurable friction is present, we know there is further room for improvement. Currently, that is between 2 and 3 Watts of friction in the best conditions. When factoring in extreme conditions of mud and contamination, that drag can also be multitudes higher”.
“Rocker-style chains are commonly used in industrial and automotive applications, and excel at transferring load with minimal added drag, as well as presenting outstanding durability due to utilization of a rocking pivot point rather than sliding pivot point”.
“Recognizing these benefits, our team took on the challenge of overcoming design limitations that prevent existing rocker-style chains from being adapted for cycling use. Primarily, the amount of chain articulation required for smaller gears/cogs, the necessity of reverse articulation (required by the guide pulley of a derailleur), varying chain line, and overall chain width confines”.
“The novel inventions on the patent from the CeramicSpeed R&D team answered these limitations to press forward on developing the most efficient drivetrain solution possible”.
“The team were able to achieve their goals and prove the concept of utilizing a rocker chain link interface within the design of a traditional derailleur drivetrain. However, the rocker chain pitch increases and decreases throughout its range of articulation and this means special cogs and gears are required to enable the adoption of this rocker chain design. Solving certain design challenges often leads to new concepts to explore. As such, we do not have any timetable to share related to a rocker style drivetrain”.
“Our R&D team continue to test various concepts that can disrupt the status quo for drivetrain efficiency and durability. We remain confident our range of UFO Products and CeramicSpeed components equipped with hand built hybrid ceramic bearings are the best solutions available today for all riders looking to get the most of their riding efforts”.
The Rocker Joint Roller Pin design centers around use of two rocker pins (7 & 8) sandwiching a “floating” center pin (6) with a roller (22) encompassing them, in an arrangement referred to as the “connecting pin assembly”. The radii of the rocker pins’ surface arc determine the maximum articulation angle between neighboring links. The patent reads as follows:
“In particular, for the bicycle chains described herein, the rolling contact angle θ of each rocker pin 7, 8 allows for twice the articulation angle of a traditional rocker-joint chain with no center pin. With this, higher articulation angles can be produced while maintaining larger radii rocker pin surface arcs, and larger radii rocker pin surfaces produce less sliding (and therefore lower wear and frictional losses) at the higher articulation angles. In some embodiments, the articulation angle θ is from −40° to +40° relative to the horizontal axis (e.g., 80° total articulation), such as from −36°and +36°.“
As you might imagine, multiple embodiments of the design are described. In some, one of the rocker pins is fixed to the outer plates either because it is integral to one of them, or because it is press-fitted to them. Either way, that rocker pin extends through an aperture in the inner plates. In some scenarios, the second rocker pin in the arrangement is fixed to the pair of inner plates, but the patent acknowledges that it would be more beneficial overall for the inner plates and the second rocker pin to be more loosely associated. It reads as follows:
“Additionally, the bicycle chains described herein may allow for the lateral flex of the chain. As a non-limiting example, the rocker pins may not be firmly affixed to the associated pair of inner plates, and the inner links can pivot (yaw) somewhat in relation to and at the contact point of the rocker pin in response to forced chain skew, thereby allowing an increase in the lateral chain bending ability. Alternative embodiments with alternative design elements between the inner plates and the rocker pins are provided to allow pivoting of the inner plates, ultimately providing for increased chain lateral flex.“
In all of the separate possible solutions, the center pin (6) that each rocker pin rocks against is described as ‘floating’. The roller (22) surrounding the whole assembly looks to be, in the very least, essential to prevent debris from accessing the rocking surfaces, and likely to help contain lubrication.
As Paul Sollenberger mentioned, the pivot design will actually result in the chain’s pitch varying slightly – dependent on the articulation angle – a feature that would prevent the use of this chain with traditional cassettes and chainrings designed for use with the regular conventional roller chain. It’s a small, but quite possibly critical difference in exact dimensions. However, the patent does include this statement on compatibility:
“The roller 22 may be utilized to allow the chain to be compatible with standard tooth profiles of modern bike sprockets”. It goes on to say, “In one non-limiting embodiment, the inner diameter of the roller 22 may be oval”.
It seems quite unlikely CeramicSpeed’s Rocker Joint Roller Chain would end up on bikes destined to go off-road. Any debris entering the space between the rocker pins and the center pin could limit articulation of the links and prevent the chain running at all consistently. It seems to us it would require ultra-clean road conditions in order to see its proposed lower friction benefits come to fruition.
But CeramicSpeed also are big lubrication nerds, so maybe they could and would design some treatment to keep debris out and give XC racers and edge too?
Regardless, it is cool to see ever more innovation in this (small) space. With CeramicSpeed’s solid history of investment in products that promote drivetrain efficiency, it seems logical that they will one day take it to the next level and attempt to design the most efficient bicycle drivetrain possible. In fact, they’ve been at it for some time – who could forget the CeramicSpeed DriveShaft?
This Rocker Joint Roller Chain may present a more palatable alternative.
Jessie-May Morgan is the UK & Ireland Tech Editor of Bikerumor. She has been writing about Mountain Bike Riding and Racing, and all its weird and wonderful technology for 4 years. Prior to that, she was an Intern at the Mountain Bike Center of Scotland, and a Mountain Bike Coach and Leader in the Tweed Valley.
Based in Innerleithen, Scotland, Jessie-May can often be seen riding the Glentress Trail Center, and its neighboring Enduro and Downhill Tracks. She regularly competes in Enduro at a national level, and has recently competed on the World Stage at a handful of Enduro World Series events.
For Bikerumor, Jessie-May is testing the latest mountain bikes, equipment and kit, letting readers know what’s hot and what’s not.
For context, she weighs 60kg and stands at 5ft 4″ tall (163cm).
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
In today’s episode of “trying to fix what isn’t broken”…..
They’re trying to improve what’s good. Nothing wrong with that. With chains as good as they are, no simple solution is going to make them measurably better. Not that this will work but it doesn’t hurt to try advancing chains
Ceramic speed is marketing company, I doubt they have a single engineer working there. Most of their stuff if lame “press release” junk and their actual products do nothing better than stock.
I assume you have facts to back that up?
You don’t see any of the big group set manufacturer using oversize pulleys and Ceramic beating have been proven over and over as no better then a good set of metal bearing and a much lower cost.
Check out Hambini on YouTube. Ceramic Speed is a grift. Not sure why BR gives them free passes.
I have always been willing to give them a pass until they came up with that bullshit drivetrain that anybody with a half decent mechanical aptitude knew would NEVER work yet they got all kinds of media attention. Screw them.
So they went around with there chainless bike dog-and-pony show and now they are making a ground breaking (drawing of) chain. I guess we will get some Hambini content out of it.
Seems like an interesting concept. IF you are a Cat 1/2 or Pro roadie where that fraction of a watt will make a possible difference at the end of a race. What sort of special tools and processes within new chain require to install and maintain it? For the average enthusiast, and even racer, I doubt this will be economically practical to own. Perfect component for the Orthodontist Triathlete entering his first Ironman.
Not much on this website is economically practical but people want new tech anyway. All of us could be riding an economically practical hybrid with an 8sp internal hub with a chain guard keeping things clean but we don’t
I doubt this makes that much of a difference even for Olympic cyclists in competition let alone the average chungus out there riding around. They make dumb products they should do something useful to society like stuff with orphans or dogs but instead they make silly stuff. I’m appalled.
Please call it the Rocker-Roller chain, it would help to justify the inevitably astronomic pricing.
Hold on.. it’s a Joint Roller chain? Now that’s a feature I can get behind.
fig.8 shows the lobes of the link closer at the top, were they should be closer at the bottom given the chain articulation. just goes to show they dont know what they are doing
SMH…go look again and try to understand it. They aren’t THAT stupid.
whoops sorry my bad! damn IPA’s
I was confused at first as well, but the left lobe belongs to the right chain link and vice versa. That way, the angles make a lot more sense.
Interesting tech and credit to the company for thinking outside the box.
If this seems production, I wonder if one will need a new type of chain tool. A new type of quick link for sure.
I could see a rocker chain being used on a proprietary track drive train since the chainline is completely straight and you could use a large chainring and cog to limit chain link articulation.
“Bring on the marginal track bike gainz?”
Where theory meets execution……and that’s the last we shall see of this.
“… CeramicSpeed’s concept chain utilizes three “rocker pins…” Finally, the word ‘utilized’ properly applied! People confuse ‘use’ and ‘utilize.’ One uses a chopsticks to eat, but one utilizes chopsticks to retrieve something stuck between the car seats. Thus, utilize refers to something applied as a substitute for something normally used. “Instead of making use of the traditional sliding surfaces of pins and bushings found within the conventional bicycle chain, CeramicSpeed’s concept chain utilizes three “rocker pins”. Good job!
Quite agree. But ummm “One uses a chopsticks to…” should be “One uses chopsticks to…” Shoot me dead N. O. W. Cheers.
I love stuff like this. This is how bikes have moved forward the last 200 years. More power to Ceramic Speed! We might even get an enclosed drivetrain in the bargain. Tired of cleaning chains.
They make shaft drive, belt drive already dude.
I’ve been skeptical of CeramicSpeed for years, but this concept seems to make sense in theory.
One thing I see is that the rocker joint as described above doesn’t seem to allow for the lateral flex needed for a multi-sprocket application yet, since the rocking pins are ramped/configured to allow for fore-and-aft motion. For this to work on a conventional derailleur-type drivetrain with multiple cogs, the rocking pins may need to be angled for lateral rocking as well.
That said – would love to see Hambini’s or Peak Torque’s take on this design.
On a different subject, I would like to see a cassette which moved right or left & retracted into or out of the rear hub RATHER THAN the conventional set-up where the cassette is stationary and the chain moves right or left. This would produce a straight chain-line in ALL cassette gears & result in watt-savings. Just a thought.
The email says “yes they are” and the web site headline does that. More attention grabbing wonkbait from vaporware monger CeramicSpeed perhaps? Remember the drivetrain they made and pushed all over the place that had no functioning value from the get-go.
If nothing else, Ceramic Speed’s terrible concepts are great at generating clicks and comments here…
There was no shortage of new gear and great times on bikes this year. As usual, the hardest part it narrowing it down!
Next up in our Editor’s Choice series, Jeremy Benson lists out some of his favorite gear (out of a lot of choices).
TopOak Overland’s Aluminum Hardshell wedge-style rooftop tent sells for only $1299
This isn’t the first full-suspension BMX frame we’ve seen, but WeThePeople Swamp Master may be the first proper production BMX fully to come to market.…
Is REI’s first electric mountain bike any good? We hit the trails to find out.
After coming back from injury, Steve was more stoked than ever to test out new gear in 2023.
Is the Ornot Large Handlebar Bag, the best handlebar bag out there? It is… Ornot.
Tyler’s picks for the best bikes, components, wheels, tires, gear, and tools of 2023.
Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.
Conveyor Chain Types Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.