There’s an old saying, “never judge a book by it’s cover”. If there’s a BMX product that proves this adage, it’s the Answer Drive Chain.

Arriving in a simple black box, unadorned by any superfluous information, on first sight the chain itself is similarly underwhelming. There’s no fancy cutouts in the side plates, no hollow pins, not even the Answer logo engraved anywhere. What you do get however is a product that was very carefully researched by Answer to perform. There’s a couple of things that are important to look for in a chain; one is strength, which is self explanatory – a broken chain is invariably a painful experience. The other is stiffness; you don’t want a chain that can twist or flex – cranking down the chain tensioners until you can play the chain like a guitar string shouldn’t be necessary to stop it from coming off.

Answer compared their chain against the market and what they found is that there is some others available that were slightly stronger but not as stiff, and there are others that are stiffer but not as strong. The Drive Chain is an ideal compromise of strength and stiffness.

Now I’m pretty picky with my chains, and over the years I’ve tried a lot. What I have found with the Drive is that it’s very smooth. If you’re of the sort that likes to sit in the pits and spin their cranks, you’ll notice how free running it is. There’s very little power robbing drag. This has been a long term test, and after many months use I haven’t found any significant wear or stretching either; my back wheel is still in the same place – I’ve had some chains where the back wheel has been slowly moved back every service to make up for wear (yes I could measure this scientifically with a chain wear indicator but I haven’t – it’s BMX). The finish is extremely durable too… take a look at the photo below, that’s a nearly 1 year old chain and it looks as fresh as it did out of the box.

Manufacturer’s Description

Answer Drive Performance BMX Chain-3/32″

• fits 3/32″ cogs, sprockets and chainrings
• total links 114
• weight: (114 Links) 340g/12oz

Final Words

Over all I’ve been surprised and impressed by the Drive Chain. As the saying goes, never judge a book by it’s cover.

Rating 19/20

Comments

• A BMX racing specific chain that’s strong, stiff and will out last most of the others while still satisfying (most of) the weight weenies, now that’s value for money.
• At 340g for 114 links, it’s not the lightest on the market but would you give up the weight for strength?
• As far as chains go the Drive Chain ticks all the boxes and out lasts any other chains I’ve tried.
• The Answer Drive Chain does look a little plain, but I won’t hold that against it. It’s clean, and a true performance chain!

Answer BMX products are distributed across Australia by Elite Cycle Imports (www.eciimports.com).

Reviewed by Paul Knox/bmxultra.com July 5, 2019