Wiggins’s £6000 Hour Record chain (video)

Breaking the Hour Record calls for attention to every detail and this included the chain used on Bradley Wiggins’s bike, with lubricant manufacturer Muc-Off claiming that the total cost amounted to £6000.

>>> The tech behind Wiggins' Hour Record

Muc-Off has developed a machine to quantify the efficiency and durability of its chain lubricant formulations. Called the CLOD (which stands for Chain Lubricant Optimisation Dynamometer), this machine measures the friction generated in running the chain. There’s a video of the machine in use below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCGyR9KgxLs

Muc-Off tested over 30 Shimano Dura-Ace chains to select the most efficient, before deep cleaning them in a sonic bath. Muc-Off’s team then applied a specially formulated lubricant treatment with military grade high pressure additives to reduce friction.

>>> Muc-Off's Team Sky lubricant

Muc-Off proved that the new formulation showed limited performance degradation over an hour of running and has published a graph showing its performance over the hour relative to its other formulations. This shows that friction losses in the chain started off as low as other formulations and remained low throughout an hour of use, whereas other tested formulations generated increased friction losses over the course of an hour.

The chainring which Wiggins used was also run in by Muc-Off in advance of the record attempt, to ensure that it was optimally prepared.

Bradley Wiggins's time trial minute man