Which lubricant for my chain?

[AndyBSG]

Found this video on how to 'professionally' clean your bike in under 10 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... _NaltjgN-k

Have to admit I usually spend about 30 minutes on a full clean for my bike and it never comes up as clean as the one in the video!

Obvious thing that stands out to me, he doesn't seem to dry the bike off afterwards?

[NUKe]

For all weather riding I find Chain saw oil is ideal. very tennacious, weather resistant and good no fling attributes

How do you find it for attracting road grit/muck?
I'm convinced the sticky wet lubes such a Finnishline Wet,TF2 Extreme,etc,are chainsaw oil by another name,and they attract road muck and grit like a magnet.

Its not too bad, I tend to heat the oil and chain together in a pan, let the excess run off then wipe with a cloth to removev the excess from the outside. it costs about £8 per litre. Unless its mid week and I've run out odf time in which case I just use a syring to drip oil onto the links. leave for an hour and the wipe the excess off. if you like shinny clean chains forget it, it turns black but it does seem to protect and gives me good mileages compared to modern cycle lubes when used to regularly commute.

[reohn2]

Nuke
Thanks for letting know.
I'm afraid I'm not into 'cooking'

Found this video on how to 'professionally' clean your bike in under 10 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... _NaltjgN-k

Have to admit I usually spend about 30 minutes on a full clean for my bike and it never comes up as clean as the one in the video!

Obvious thing that stands out to me, he doesn't seem to dry the bike off afterwards?

I got to 1' 20'' and couldn't stand it any longer

[Mick F]

I wouldn't let that fat bloke within 50ft of my bike!
Absolute rubbish. I had to watch it all just so I could see a good bit. I didn't see one second of good bit.

Why didn't he take off the chain?
Why wasn't he careful of the jockey wheels?
If the cassette was dirty, why didn't he take it off and clean it?
Why did he spend ages scrubbing a perfectly clean bike?

[reohn2]

At the risk of being controversial, I think some people are too free with the use of solvents to clean chains. Shaking your chain around in a tin of white spirit (or equivalent) works a treat if you are doing a thorough job, after which you can give it a few hours to drip dry before re-lubing. But a quick application of solvent followed by a quick wipe and re-lube can leave solvent in the inaccessible places where lube should be. If I don't have the time or inclination for a thorough job I settle for wiping the chain and cogs as best I can without solvent, then lubing. Lubed but slightly dirty is better than partly unlubed.

I find a chain srubber adequate if the chain isn't 'caked',if the weather's warmish after the scubber I back pedal it through a rag to remove any excess WS,then leave it for a short while for the WS to evaporate.Then by twisting the chain over as if your trying to turn it inside out,it's easy to tell if it's clean,if it's still dirty ie;grit still in it,it'll 'crackle' if not it won't.
If It's really bad and crudded up it gets the deep clean jam jar treatment,it may need two dunk and shakes with a wipe before going into the second clean jar of WS,then a wash in hot water and washing up liquid.
To dry it off I hang over a finger at half point and whizz it round,'the spin cycle'.
While the chain is off ,I clean the cassette thoroughly with engine degreaser on a 2" paint brush keep for the purpose followed by water on the same brush followed by a squirt of GT85.
The chain's then replaced and lubed,wiped then lubed again,then left to dry.
The light chain scrubber takes about five minutes.The deep clean 15 minutes max.

I don't like to wipe a dirty chain with a rag as IMO it just wipes crud and road grit,etc back into the into the chain.
I usually get 4 to 4.5k miles out of a chain(Sram 971) to 0.75%, and three chains before the cassette needs changing.The third chain is run until shifting becomes bad ie;a lot of side slop in the chain,or if it skips on most used cogs.Which is usually an extra 1K miles
I then change chain and cassette for new.

I avoid WD40 etc because I think it is a solvent with a hint of lube and washes off too easily.

I agree,and it's a dirty,mucky lube too.

[NUKe]

Nuke
Thanks for letting know.
I'm afraid I'm not into 'cooking'

To be honest I am begining to doubt the merits of this part my self. Although the main part about the cooking is that it is an easy way for me at least to clean the chains, and does thin the oil down to get into inside newly cleaned chains . I do also use it straight onto the other bikes in our collection Wifes Kids etc and it seems to work fine when just applied direct.

Btw the late Sheldon brown was an advocate of chainsaw oil as lubricant, He didn't do the cooking though

[MartinC]

Sheldon described the correct chain cleaning method here: http://sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html

MickF rejects this as not being rigorous enough.

[Brucey]

there is a place for heating chain lubricants so that they penetrate chains better, but it isn't with any kind of oil.

Greases and especially waxes will become thinned out with heat, and you can make effective chain lubes (for certain conditions) with either. However, greases are sticky and attract dirt, and waxes (below their transition point) are not really mobile enough to heal any breaches in the lubricant film.

Waxes occur naturally in amongst oil fractions that are then used to make lubricants. Oil companies spend a small fortune removing all traces of wax from the vast majority of the oils that are then used to formulate lubricants.

If they left waxes in the oil, there would be some sense in heating oil up, but they don't, so there isn't that much point in it; most oils will penetrate the innermost parts of a clean chain in a few minutes even when they are stone cold. If you want to assist the oil to penetrate without the 'cooking' then you could just refit the chain dry, then lube it in situ using a hairdrier or something.

cheers

[Vantage]

I used to be a huge fan of Finish Line Cross Country wet lube. It did a great job of keeping the chain quiet and smooth running but after a few wet rides it would eventually start wearing off.
I then tried Finish Line Ceramic wet lube as it was all very high tech and promised the earth. Wot a load of c**p that was. Thin, washed off in no time and very noisy.
My current lube of choice is White Lightning Wet Ride wet lube. Brilliant stuff. It never seems to wear out. Keeps the bike running silent and smooth as a very smooth thing. It does seem to go black quickly (dirty) but a wipe with a rag once in a while sorts that out and it just carries on doing the job it's supposed to until it's time for a bike wash. This week alone, she's been dragged through rain, muck, snow and ice and a ton of that horrible brown salty slush from the gritters and she's still quiet as a mouse. The lube's been on maybe 3 -4 weeks

[mercalia]

I wouldn't let that fat bloke within 50ft of my bike!
Absolute rubbish. I had to watch it all just so I could see a good bit. I didn't see one second of good bit.

Why didn't he take off the chain?
Why wasn't he careful of the jockey wheels?
If the cassette was dirty, why didn't he take it off and clean it?
Why did he spend ages scrubbing a perfectly clean bike?

since the bike was already clean? I bet the guy would do it in his kitchen lol hose down all the greasy muck onto the ground/floor. When he hosed the rear wheel I winced, water in the free wheel . I can do it all in 30 secs - take the bike to a car wash would also save him having a bath

[bainbridge]

This might be wrong or right, but it's what I do:

Run chain through a chain cleaner twice (using citrus degreaser or diluted fairy liquid).

Rinse off the detergent by gently trickling a jug of water over the cassette and chainset while slowly back pedalling by hand (I do this with the bike leant to the right so water flows away from the freewheel/cassette).

Allow to dry thoroughly after wiping down (I have a little oil filled radiator in the porch for this).

With the chain on middlemost cogs front and rear apply a nice oiling of your favourite wet lube (I use finish line cross country) by trickling it on the chain just above the top jockey wheel while slowly back pedalling by hand.

Do some gear changes up and down to distribute the oil.

Wipe excess off with a rag.

Works for me!

[pwa]

Vantage, I might try that White Lightning wet lube next time I need some all-weather stuff. Ta.

[niggle]

Nuke
Thanks for letting know.
I'm afraid I'm not into 'cooking'

To be honest I am begining to doubt the merits of this part my self. Although the main part about the cooking is that it is an easy way for me at least to clean the chains, and does thin the oil down to get into inside newly cleaned chains . I do also use it straight onto the other bikes in our collection Wifes Kids etc and it seems to work fine when just applied direct.

Btw the late Sheldon brown was an advocate of chainsaw oil as lubricant, He didn't do the cooking though

I have just ordered some 'Super Sexy Chainsaw Oil' from Ebay, £3.99 a litre posted, which I make about 8% of the cost of my usual bike chain wet lube. I will have to remove the label before I leave it on the garage shelf: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191496078278? ... EBIDX%3AIT whoever came up with that packaging must be stuck in a 1970s time warp!

[Mick F]

I'm off to buy some chainsaw oil this afternoon ..................... for my chainsaw.

I'm buying this from Abbey Garden Machinery:
http://www.abbeygardensales.co.uk/acces ... 005GP.aspx
Good value.

[mig]

i'm not sure i'd use something "viscous and tacky" on a bike chain. every damn leaf in the borough plus lots of grit is surely going to stick to it.