Chain material choices?
I'm a commuter, not a mechanic, and someone at work this morning asked me an interesting question I didn't know the answer to, so I thought I'd ask you all. We were talking about winter riding, and I said my biggest problem was chain maintenance. (In fact, my LBS guy just recommended the motor oil treatment for my chain a few days ago, after seeing how rusty it was getting.) He asked if chains are available in some kind of alloy that doesn't rust, like something with stainless steel. I've never heard of one, but it seems such a good idea that certainly someone must have thought of it by now, unless there's a good reason it wouldn't work. Maybe nothing like that is durable enough? What do you all know about that? (The first two pages of a google search in "rust free bicycle chain" turned up nothing relevant.)
BTW, I do know that there are bikes that use a belt or a shaft instead of a chain, but I've already read a number of threads on those (probably started one or two myself), so we don't need to get into those here.
- John