Chain Durability 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 speed

[cannon]

I'm still fairly new to ebiking so please forgive me if this has been covered before, a quick search didn't reveal much.

There have been several posts saying that chain drives with a lower number of speeds are more robust as the chain is wider and will last longer. However, a bit of Googling seems to contradict this as shown in the fourth section in the link below titled – 8 vs 9 vs 10 vs 11 vs 12-speed durability.

I do not yet have any experience to confirm or deny the test results...perhaps other on here have ?

 

[vfr400]

I'm still fairly new to ebiking so please forgive me if this has been covered before, a quick search didn't reveal much.

There have been several posts saying that chain drives with a lower number of speeds are more robust as the chain is wider and will last longer. However, a bit of Googling seems to contradict this as shown in the fourth section in the link below titled – 8 vs 9 vs 10 vs 11 vs 12-speed durability.

I do not yet have any experience to confirm or deny the test results...perhaps other on here have ?

Those tests wouldn't be relevant. There will be 5 times the force on it when fitted to an ebike, so strength and robustness become important issues, but the main consideration is cost, especially the rear cassette. People on this forum claim to have worn out their rear cassettes in just a few hundred miles, though i'm very skeptical about that. You can buy 9 speed cassettes and chains very cheaply, so it's no problem to replace them regularly.

Chains and cassettes on bikes with hub-motors last forever because the motor takes pressure off the chain rather than adds to it.

 

[cannon]

Thanks for the reply.
Normally with mechanical items as long as the component is not overloaded and breaks, a increased load leads to increase wear so find it hard to dismiss the test results. I agree that the loads will be higher with a mid drive ebike but how much higher is down to endless factors.
Reading the above link indicates that the newer higher speed chains are designed better and use superior materials leading to greater life.

My own ebike conversion has a 250w BBS01 with Sram 11 speed and almost 1500 miles. So far the wear seems to be minimal after examining the cassette and checking the the pitch elongation.