by wz507 » Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:48 am
IMHO an x-ring chain for your bike would be a good idea, would last dramatically longer than a conventional chain with less mess and require little maintenance. The BMW Endurance chain you referred to is a spendy proposition as it lists for over $300 and comes only in size 525, so you’d need to narrow your 530 sprockets from 3/8” to 5/16”.
If you are having to narrow a sprocket anyway, a much more appealing financial proposition might be to use a 520 weight x-ring chain (for ¼” width sprockets) that you can buy from eBay for ~ $70 delivered, e.g., an RK 520 XSO series chain. Similar sprocket narrowing has been done by privateers on XR’s for decades.
The 520 XSO chain is rated for 80 HP so is way more than enough for your 40 HP KHK. This is not RK’s top of the line chain (which claims 10X the wear of conventional chain), but is a good chain claimed to provide 7X the use of a conventional chain. The XSO series is also slightly narrower and lighter weight than the top end chains which are good for 200 HP, which would be gross overkill on a KHK.
The 530 x-ring chains are significantly wider than a conventional 530 chain which can result in clearance issues, although others here on the forum have testified to using them with no interference. That said the 520 x-ring will fit with no clearance issues.