Four times the wear resistance, with no loss in strength.

SRAM took their strongest Rival chain and made it lighter — cutouts through the outer plates shed grams, Hard Chrome plating on the inner links extends its life, and the Flattop profile keeps it narrow and quiet.

114 links, Flattop PowerLock included. Works with 12-speed road and 13-speed XPLR AXS.

Hard Chrome — the number that matters

SRAM's Hard Chrome finishing process on the inner links and rollers delivers four times the elongation resistance of their standard chains. Push-pin strength and ultimate strength are unchanged.

Elongation is what people call chain stretch, and it's the thing that actually kills a drivetrain. As a chain wears, its pitch grows and it stops meshing correctly with the cog teeth — at which point it starts carving new profiles into your cassette and chainrings instead of sitting in the existing ones.

A chain that resists elongation four times longer isn't just a chain that lasts longer. It's a cassette that lasts longer, and chainrings that last longer. On an AXS drivetrain where the cassette costs three times what the chain does, that's where the money actually is.

What Flattop does

Look at the top edge of the outer plates — flat where a conventional chain rounds off.

SRAM developed the shape to enable X-Range gearing. Running a 10-tooth small cog means the chain has to wrap a much tighter radius than an 11-tooth ever asked for, and it has to do it without the plates interfering with each other. Flattop makes the chain narrower to clear that, and puts material back where load concentrates so nothing is given up in strength.

The side effects turned out to be the selling points: a narrower chain runs quieter, and the reshaped plate profile is stronger and more durable than what it replaced.

Cutouts and solid pins

The E1 revision adds machined cutouts through the outer plates — weight removed from the areas that aren't carrying load, which is the cheapest kind of grams to lose.

Pins stay solid rather than hollow. That's what keeps this chain fully e-bike approved: a motor puts sustained torque through a drivetrain that legs can't match, and the pin is where a chain fails first under that kind of load. Solid pins cost a few grams and buy a much higher fatigue ceiling.

Nickel plating on the outer plates handles corrosion, which matters if you ride in weather or wash your bike more than you lube it.

One chain, both drivetrains

This chain covers SRAM's full drop-bar AXS range:

• 12-speed road AXS — Rival, Force, and RED, 1x or 2x
• 13-speed XPLR AXS — the gravel groups running 10-46T cassettes

If you have a road bike and a gravel bike, that's one spare in the parts bin instead of two.

What it won't work with

Flattop is its own standard. This chain does not work with:

• Shimano 12-speed drivetrains
• SRAM Eagle 12-speed mountain drivetrains
• SRAM T-Type Eagle Transmission drivetrains
• Any generic 12-speed chain application

If your bike has drop bars and SRAM AXS, this is your chain. If it's a mountain bike, it isn't.

114 links — size it to your bike

114 links covers most road setups, but chain length is bike-specific and you'll likely be removing links.

Larger frames, long-chainstay gravel bikes, and 2x setups with big chainrings can need more than a 114 gives you. If you're building a large gravel frame or you're unsure, measure your existing chain first — a chain that's two links short is a chain you can't use.

Follow SRAM's chain length procedure for your specific drivetrain rather than eyeballing it. Getting it wrong affects shift quality and derailleur behavior in ways that are irritating to diagnose after the fact.

About the PowerLock

A Flattop PowerLock connector is included. It's a tool-free connection — route the chain, click it together, then push hard against the brake to seat it.

Treat it as single-use. Once a PowerLock has been seated under load, it's not meant to come apart and go back together. If you pull the chain for cleaning or a repair, install a fresh one. They're a few dollars, and a spare in your saddle bag turns a broken chain into a ten-minute trailside fix.

Replace it before it costs you a cassette

Check chain wear with a gauge every few hundred miles. Catch elongation early and you replace a chain. Ignore it and you replace a chain, a cassette, and a chainring — which on an AXS drivetrain is the difference between fifty dollars and several hundred.

Hard Chrome buys you a lot more time before that point. It doesn't buy you infinite time.

Fitment

• Speeds: 12 or 13
• Chain technology: Road Flattop E1
• Drivetrains: SRAM 12-speed road AXS and 13-speed XPLR AXS, drop bar
• E-bike: Approved
• Connector: Flattop PowerLock D1, included

Specifications

• Model: CN-RIV-E1
• Speeds: 12, 13
• Length: 114 links
• Color: Silver
• Inner link finish: Hard Chrome
• Outer link finish: Nickel
• Outer plates: Cut-out for weight reduction
• Pin type: Solid
• Connector: PowerLock D1, included
• Chain technology: Road Flattop E1
• E-bike approved: Yes
• Weight: approximately 248g at 114 links

Installation

Break the chain with a proper chain tool, size it using SRAM's procedure for your drivetrain, and seat the PowerLock under load before riding.

If you're replacing a worn chain, check your cassette at the same time. A new chain on a worn cassette will skip under power — the cog teeth have already been reshaped by the old chain, and a fresh one won't sit in them.

Full documentation is available in SRAM's service hub for this model.

OE product information

Not intended for retail sale. This is original-equipment product supplied for dealer service, warranty replacement, and complete-bike build applications.

OE product is the same component that ships on complete bikes — identical specification, identical performance. What differs is how it's supplied:

• Plain bulk or poly packaging rather than a retail box
• No printed manuals or quick-start guides — all documentation is available free from SRAM's service hub, linked above
• No retail hang tags or display materials
• Components may show minor handling marks from bulk packing

Warranty. SRAM's consumer warranty program does not apply to original-equipment components. Warranty and defect claims on this item are administered by State Bicycle Co. Contact our support team with your order number. Wear is not a defect — chains are a consumable.

Original equipment service item. Supplied in OE packaging for dealer service, warranty replacement, and complete-bike build applications; not a retail-packaged consumer product and not intended for retail sale. SRAM consumer warranty does not apply to original-equipment components — warranty administration on this item is provided by State Bicycle Co. Compatible only with SRAM Flattop drop-bar drivetrains; not compatible with Eagle, T-Type, or Shimano systems. PowerLock connectors should be treated as single-use. SRAM, Rival, AXS, XPLR, X-Range, Flattop, HARD CHROME, and PowerLock are trademarks of SRAM LLC. State Bicycle Co. is not affiliated with or endorsed by SRAM LLC. Specifications subject to change without notice.