page_title: Chain drive
section_title: Transmitting power to the wheels
hierarchical_section_title: Chain drive / Use in vehicles / Automobiles / Transmitting power to the wheels
caption_attribution_description: English: 1906 Austin 25-30 chassis top view
context_page_description: Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles.
  Most often, the power is conveyed by a roller chain, known as the drive chain or transmission chain, passing over a sprocket gear, with the teeth of the gear meshing with the holes in the links of the chain. The gear is turned, and this pulls the chain putting mechanical force into the system. Another type of drive chain is the Morse chain, invented by the Morse Chain Company of Ithaca, New York, United States. This has inverted teeth.
  Sometimes the power is output by simply rotating the chain, which can be used to lift or drag objects. In other situations, a second gear is placed and the power is recovered by attaching shafts or hubs to this gear. Though drive chains are often simple oval loops, they can also go around corners by placing more than two gears along the chain; gears that do not put power into the system or transmit it out are generally known as idler-wheels.
context_section_description: Chain drive was a popular power transmission system from the earliest days of the automobile.  It gained prominence as an alternative to the Système Panhard with its rigid Hotchkiss driveshaft and universal joints.
  A chain-drive system uses one or more roller chains to transmit power from a differential to the rear axle.  This system allowed for a great deal of vertical axle movement (for example, over bumps), and was simpler to design and build than a rigid driveshaft in a workable suspension. Also, it had less unsprung weight at the rear wheels than the Hotchkiss drive, which would have had half the weight of the driveshaft, and differential to carry as well. This meant that the vehicle would have a smoother ride. The lighter unsprung mass would allow the suspension to react to bumps more effectively.
  Frazer Nash were strong proponents of this system using one chain per gear selected by dog clutches. The Frazer Nash chain drive system, (designed for the GN Cyclecar Company by Archibald Frazer-Nash and Henry Ronald Godfrey) was very effective, allowing extremely fast gear selections. The Frazer Nash (or GN) transmission system provided the basis for many "special" racing cars of the 1920s and 1930s, the most famous being Basil Davenport's Spider which held the outright record at the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in the 1920s.
  The last popular chain drive automobile was the Honda S600 of the 1960s.
caption: Austin 1906 plan view
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