About ICE Friction Technology

The main reason to ICE your chain is to reduce chain friction, thereby improving the efficiency of your bike’s drivetrain.  Stated another way: ICE your chain if your goal is to go faster.  Specifically, an ICED chain can save you up to 80 seconds per hour and 5 minutes over an Ironman distance race.   The end result is that more of your physical effort goes into moving you forward and less is wasted overcoming the high friction in your chain.  Professional racers refer to this as “free speed”. 

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The ICE coating has been designed not only to have low friction in the lab, but where it matters most: on the road, trail, or gravel.  Chains lubricated with traditional methods gradually increase in friction with each mile covered.  These lubricants attract grit and dust as you ride, transforming your chain lubrication into grinding paste.  From our field testing, it is very common to measure chain friction in excess of 12 watts in chains lubricated with standard methods.  Examination and cleaning of these chains shows the build up of grit in the lubricant causes the high friction levels.  On the other hand, our ICE coating has been designed to repel grit, keeping you rolling with low friction for up to 600 miles with no need to lubricate or clean the chain.  And, after 600 miles, you can return the chain to us and we will “ReICE” it.  This involves a complete cleaning of the chain followed by reapplication of the ICE coating and friction testing.  

The team behind ICE Friction has over 35 years experience in metallurgical / material science engineering. This experience includes extensive product and process development for a wide range of industries including railroad, automotive, heavy-duty truck, recreation vehicle, mining, and water and wastewater processing. At ICE, we focus on understanding the details of all the material and environmental interactions to develop engineered solutions.  Laboratory testing coupled with field testing is a critical part of our data driven product and process development.

Check out our research in order to learn more about the benefits of ICED chains.