The following study covers a detailed description of the plasma enhanced nitrating process and salt bath nitrocarburising TENIFER process as well as their use as a means to improve mechanical and tribological features of a bicycle chainring. The study deals with the historical development of the bicycle and bicycle types according to their purpose, taking into consideration critical components of a bicycle. The stress will be put on the tribological and mechanical features of a drivetrain, i.e. chainring-chain tribological system. The main focus of the experimental part of this study is a 22-tooth chainring which reprisents the low range gear ratio on a bicycle. Two of such chainrings have undergone a heat treatment as a part of a plasma enhanced nitrating process and one has undergone a salt bath nitrocarburising TENIFER process. The three of the processed chainrings were then directly compared to the fourth, which has not undergone a process of any sort, but has undergone exploitation wear test in similar conditions as the previous three chainrings. Afterwards, the four chainrings have undergone measurings of weight, flatness, and the dimensions of the profiles of the teeth before and after the exploitation wear test. Moreover, metallographic examinations of compound layer and diffusion zones have been conducted. By comparing these results, we have come to a conslusion that the plasma enhanced nitrating process is a better heat treatment process for enhancing wear resistance of a bicycle chainring as opposed to salt bath nitrocarburising TENIFER process.