Enduo Track drivetrain from New Motion Labs

Is the Enduo Track drivetrain from New Motion Labs the world’s fastest?

Track racing, it’s arguably the purest form of bike racing. Bikes with a fixed gear and no brakes, racing on a flat banked velodrome, so no hills to conquer, no descents to defy and no headwinds to battle against. Over the years the types of racing have led to frame and wheel evolution, just like the rest of the bike world. The one item that hasn’t really changed is the drivetrain. Here the constant is that all riders will be on a fixed-gear bike. But a game changer in the form of New Motion Labs’ Enduo Track drivetrain could be about to change that.

On a fixed-gear bike the single rear sprocket is screwed directly to the wheel, there is no free-wheel. This means you have direct drive to the wheel allowing you to brake by using your legs to slow down. The gears can be swapped depending on the type of event you are riding, but once they’re on, you can’t change gear. And it’s been that way since track racing started. How can it change?

Well New Motion Labs have created what is being touted as the “fastest single-speed cycling drivetrain on the planet”: no small claim. Apparently the Enduo Track drivetrain has been tested and verified on a state-of-the-art, custom built chain dynamometer testing rig in collaboration with the University of Bath. This showed that Enduo Track saved ~7w over the most popular drivetrain at the Tokyo Olympics. At that level, where every item is checked for any performance gain, this is something not to be ignored.

What’s the difference?

So what have New Motion Labs done to create theses savings? First of all they re-engineered the sprocket and chainring tooth profiles. This allows the chain to transfer a rider’s power to both sides of a tooth in what they call dual engagement. By driving off each side of the tooth – eliminating the relative movement between tooth and roller on a conventional chain – friction is reduced, saving those precious watts. New Motion claim this gives them over 99% efficiency and makes “dropped chains an issue of the past”! Take a look at their videos to get a clearer picture of what’s happening with this new set-up.

And it’s not just the teeth that have had a makeover. You know your old 1/8″ track chain? Well that’s not going to work with this set-up, you’ll need to get yourself an 11-speed chain. Extensive testing was done and the results showed that an 11-speed Shimano Dura-Ace chain was the most efficient. Any 11-speed chain will work with Enduo, but if you’re looking to smash those PBs, you’ll want the best.

Enduo Track drivetrain details

Enduo Track chainrings and sprockets come in sizes that may seem a little odd to traditional riders. They will have the same diameter as the equivalent tooth size, but with half the number of teeth. So a fourteen tooth sprocket will only have seven teeth and a sixty tooth chainring will have thirty teeth. The chainrings have a five bolt 144mm BCD are made from 7075 T6 aluminium and come in 58-68 tooth sizes, with two tooth jumps. The sprockets come in 14-20, again in two tooth jumps and these are made from stainless steel. And if you’re a UK based rider, you’ll be please to know they are made in Devon, home of the cream tea!

The Enduo is available from the New Motion Labs shop website or from Handsling Bikes who they have recently gone into partnership with. If you buy one of their TR3evo track frames you can spec it with an Enduo Track drivetrain. We’ll see if we can’t get a Handsling rider to give us their opinion on this new set-up and let you know how it performs.