RK 520MXU sealed chain for Off-Road racing
As the new Off-Road race season has unfolded this winter, the top teams and riders in FIM SuperEnduro and the EnduroGP series have been placing their reliance on the RK 520MXU chain for racing Off-Road.
"There are many types of off-road chain in the market today," says RK's European Sales Manager Daisuke Takagoshi. "An off-road chain needs light weight but high tensile strength to endure the high loads during high jumps and many different technologies need to combine to develop a chain that will fulfil such severe specification needs.
"While the horsepower of Off-Road motorcycles is increasing year by year, we believe that Sealed Chain is the solution as the next generation Off-Road chain," says Daisuke.
The RK 520MXU has a similar tensile strength to that of RK 520MXZ5 non-sealed Professional MX race chain and at 13.8g per link it weighs in at about 0.1g per link lighter than the 520MXZ5.
"The merit of a sealed chain is not only the drastic improvement of wear life, but that the chain does not elongate until the chain comes to the end of its expected life span. Whereas a non-sealed chain will elongate proportionally to the mileage of the chain, a sealed chain does not start elongating until it is reaching the end of its recommended service life.
"This means the sealed chain is not only more durable, more reliable, but ensures the efficient transmission of the increased from the engine to the rear wheel throughout the chain life - the pitch of the chain always fits correctly onto the sprocket."
RK 520MXU is the choice of many of today's Enduro champions - including Graham Jarvis, five-times Erzberg Rodeo champion; Billy Bolt, three-times FIM SuperEnduro champion and Andrea Verona, 2022 FIM EnduroGP World Champion. Recently, the similar design concept chain has been evaluated and applied to the Honda CRF450 Enduro Model as the OEM chain of choice.
"We believe this will be the future of motocross chain," says Daisuke. "MXU series is the next generation of enduro/motocross racing chains and only our ultra-thin seal, U-rings or UW-rings, make it possible to design a sealed chain with the weight of a non-sealed chain.
The RK520MXU has a Tensile Strength of 35.6 kN and is rated for 125 cc/500 cc applications with a maximum of 70 hp. The total weight is 1.38 kg per 100 links and a 'clip type' master link is included.
