Lead time for Fully Optimised Race chains is approximately 2 weeks.
**LATEST UPDATE ON FULLY OPTIMISED RACE CHAIN PREP OPTION as of 28/4/25 – As standard the ZFC race chains are prepped using mspeedwax, which is a magnificent balance of speed and treatment lifespan. However you can request this wax to be either chipped with silca speed chip to approx. 0.5% more efficient again at cost of approx. 25% to 50% treatment lifespan, or you can request your race wax to be endurance chipped for approx. 0.5% lesser efficiency vs base mspeedwax but increasing treatment lifespan by approximately 25 to 50% for particularly long and or harsh conditions events. Please note speed chip and endurance chip are fully compatible with mspeedwax same as silca hot melt.
Fully Optimised Race chains by Zero Friction Cycling are meticulously prepared to be as fast a chain as possible from the gun at your next race or event. ZFC also takes the opportunity to include a couple of nice little details not found in competitor offerings.
When it comes to preparing the fastest race chains, details are important. These are not a mass batch produced chain, each is meticulously prepared and no shortcuts are taken at any step in the process. With other batch produced offerings – how long is the initial break in? how many chains see the same ultrasonic solution? how well is the wax break in done?
Note only that – ZFC pays attention to a few nice little area’s that others do not.
The optimised treatment will remain ultra low friction for at least around 300km in normal road conditions. There are race chains which claim 600km or longer – but these are lab test results – lab test results often do not match real world results. If it is a wax chain, its true ultra low friction zone will be to around 300km and then slowly start to increase to approx. 600km mark by which time it will be approaching that of top drip lubes.
Secondly – What’s in a watt? It is good fun to play with Bikecalculator.com. You will see for most rider weights that every watt of friction you remove from your drive train – this is equivalent to taking around 250 to 300grams of dead weight off your bicycle on a 5% grade. So taking 5w out is like taking a couple of full bidons of water off your bike. Pretty handy considering it is as easy as swapping chains. Every watt you don’t lose to easily avoidable friction is another watt propelling you forwards faster for the same effort.
A note on wax and powder race chains – They are the fastest chains you can get, and unlike the vast majority of drip lube chains – they remain extremely close to lab test performance for the lifespan of the treatment, whereas many drip lubricant chains can begin increasing in friction from KM zero as they grab and hold airborne dust and contaminants.
A Fully Optimised Race chain is the fastest choice for all road and off road racing. It is amazing in dust, mud and water as being solid it is the lubricant most resistant to friction increases from contamination. Like all lubricants however the more extreme the conditions, the shorter the lifespan of the lubricant.
*Note a Race chain is not a one off expensive purchase. Your race chain can be easily re optimized either by sending back to ZFC, or by re treating at home following race chain guide on the website. One of the smartest and cost effective ways to save a bunch of watts is to have a dedicated Race Chain and training chain. Race chain is kept at mint performance for races, training chain you hammer away for your weekly miles. When training chain hits 0.5 wear mark on park tool cc3.2 checker, Race chain moves over to become training chain, purchase new Race Chain. You will always need another chain sooner or later – pre buying your next chain as a Race Chains is simply a very smart, very cost effective way to save great watts on race day.
NOTE:
If you generally use Mspeedwax, you can re-wax after original race optimisation treatment has worn down by putting straight into pot of Mspeedwax with zero issues.
