Using lube

reacher

just opened an e mail from my brother in australia asked him this question , an the answer was that the bike mechanics around him all use lube on the chains , a universal one ???

MattC59

rake wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

Simon E wrote:

..... And what's wrong with grease anyway? It works perfectly well in bearings and on threads so why should it not do the same in a chain?

You've heard about using the right tool for the job ? Well it's the same with lubricants. Would you service your bearings and use a dry lube in them ?

no. dry lube is crap and overpriced. grease isnt and would work well on a chain as well.

ok, I'll bite
But the grease would get everywhere and pick up the grit and dust, prematurely wearing out your chain.

ride_whenever

How runny does grease get at high temperatures? Perhaps fully degreasing your chain and then lightly warming it before forcing it into the links at high pressure in an autoclave (sp) then removing from the outside would work rather well.

geebee2

Grease is not so good because it's viscous.

"Greases are used where a mechanism can only be lubricated infrequently and where a lubricating oil would not stay in position. They also act as sealants to prevent ingress of water and incompressible materials. Grease-lubricated bearings have greater frictional characteristics due to their high viscosity"

from Wiki

dennisn

Does everyone realize we are talking about a bicycle chain? These things have been around for many, many, years and are about as hi-tech as a fork or spoon. Chain lube is not rocket science, never has been, never will be. Just put some lube on it, wipe it down
regularly, add new lube, and ride the bike.

simon_e

dennisn wrote:

Does everyone realize we are talking about a bicycle chain? These things have been around for many, many, years and are about as hi-tech as a fork or spoon. Chain lube is not rocket science, never has been, never will be. Just put some lube on it, wipe it down
regularly, add new lube, and ride the bike.

No Dennis, that's far too simple! We want complicated answers - preferably ones that stray off the subject and go on at length about something quite irrelevant. It would be boring if we all agreed on everything. Well, maybe not but it's not going to happen.

No-one has convinced me grease is inappropriate for putting (and leaving) inside bike chains, which I'd have guessed have loads that are not entirely dissimilar to wheel bearings. But comparing bicycle chain lube to engine oil, which needs to work under pressure at maybe 15,000rpm and from temperatures of -10 to +100°C? I don't get it.

dennisn

Simon E wrote:

dennisn wrote:

Does everyone realize we are talking about a bicycle chain? These things have been around for many, many, years and are about as hi-tech as a fork or spoon. Chain lube is not rocket science, never has been, never will be. Just put some lube on it, wipe it down
regularly, add new lube, and ride the bike.

No Dennis, that's far too simple! We want complicated answers - preferably ones that stray off the subject and go on at length about something quite irrelevant. It would be boring if we all agreed on everything. Well, maybe not but it's not going to happen.

No-one has convinced me grease is inappropriate for putting (and leaving) inside bike chains, which I'd have guessed have loads that are not entirely dissimilar to wheel bearings. But comparing bicycle chain lube to engine oil, which needs to work under pressure at maybe 15,000rpm and from temperatures of -10 to +100°C? I don't get it.

Well put. As was your previous post. I have to admit, in all fairness, that I used to be really anal about chain cleaning, but somewhere along the line the whole idea of getting a chain perfectly clean, of any and all things not chain, seemed a complete waste of time.
However, anyone who wants or needs to be like I used to be is more than welcome to go right ahead and clean until your heart is content.

P_Tucker

Simon E wrote:

With large scale agriculture producing biofuel crops for cars, power stations etc I'd agree, although there doesn't seem to be a shortage of food in the shops... yet.

Yes, thats right, the barometer of world food availability is indeed your local Waitrose. Obviously because you can't see the hundreds of millions of brown people unable to afford staple foods, they don't exist. FFS.

MattC59

The bottom line is; any lubricant, be it chain lube, motor oil, wax, extra virgin olive oil or lard will lubricate your chain. However, some are designed for the job and will work better than others. Those which are designed for the job and the conditions wil do a better job. It's a balancing act between their viscosity, shear force capacity and lubricating properties.

Taking it to extremes, there used to be a fantastic grease called 'Black Gold'. It was superb on bearings, but there's no way I'd use it on a chain. Then there's WD40 (sorry to bring up the mother of all contentious subjects), whilst I wouldn't use it on a chain, I'd be more inclined to do so than to use black gold, but there's no way I'd use it in bearings.

Both would lubricate the chain and bearings, but you can guarantee that the Black Gold on the chain would attract loads of dirt, prematurely wearing your chain and/or decreasing the maintenance interval. The WD40 on the chain would also lubricate the chain and wouldn't attract the dirt like the grease, but it doesn't have the shear force capacity and would be 'worn away', prematurely wearing your chain and/or decreasing the maintenance interval.

Ok, so these are at opposite ends of the spectrum and there is a plethora of bike chain lubes in between, but I'm sure you get my point.

How many BSOs have you seem with filthy black, or rusty squesking chains ? That's primarily down to using 'any old lube' on the chain and not maintaining it accordingly.

Though it may seem it, I'm not anal about this (I think ) I just happen to know a fair amount of the detail of the subject, and as a question was asked, I thought I'd impart what I know.

But hey, it's your chain

MattC59

Simon E wrote:

No Dennis, that's far too simple! We want complicated answers - preferably ones that stray off the subject and go on at length about something quite irrelevant. It would be boring if we all agreed on everything. Well, maybe not but it's not going to happen.

simon_e

P_Tucker wrote:

the barometer of world food availability is indeed your local Waitrose. Obviously because you can't see the hundreds of millions of brown people unable to afford staple foods, they don't exist. FFS.

This may fall on deaf ears as you've already assumed far too much about my post and leapt eagerly to a silly conclusion, but it should be obvious that it wasn't meant in such a simplistic, literal way.

There may not be a direct connection between the number of starving people and the stock levels of supermarket shelves in rich countries (and everywhere else)... except that the presence of lots of food on our supermarket shelves, much of it imported from other countries, suggests that it is CONTROL of RESOURCES, not merely the total quantity of food available worldwide, that determines who eats well and who doesn't.

We can eat until we burst (or get obese) because we can afford to. Therefore it makes sense for those providing the food ensure we get it. The amount of money spent on marketing processed foods is obscene and you can bet the people doing it know why they're spending the money. It's certainly not altruism.

Rich countries and businesses keep poor countries poor and even put in place mechanisms to increase the divide in their own population. The USA, for example, is the richest country in the world but it has a huge number of poor and homeless people (none of whom surely give a flying one about which chain oil to use and whether to degrease their chain).

noiseboyfeetman

I recently used the "green oil" (Finish Line XC) and my bike seems like new, the mysterious clunking that was coming from my crank area which my LBS couldn't fix has disappeared and the gear changes are smooth as you like.