Motor oil as chain lube

rodgers73

I bought an oil can from Poundland and put some spare motor oil in it so I can lube my chain.

Is this a bad idea? I cant be arsed to pay £6 for some expensive stuff.

Erudin

I use Prolink and Finish Line Wet, but might try a cheaper lubricant on my winter bike as I'm having to clean/degrease the chain a lot anyway after riding salted roads/wet muddy lanes, and re-lubing all the time is getting expensive.

Some on this MTB thread and Nordic Group - Bicycle Chain Cleaning and Lubing use chainsaw oil.

From Yahoo Answers:

You don't want to use motor oil because it will:
1. Sling off the chain as it it made to film off of parts and be pumped though a filter and back into engine parts. Engineers worked really hard to make it perfect for that job.
2. Attract dirt. Another property that those good petroleum engineers did was make a product that carries the contaminants to the filter. Bikes don't of course have that filter so the gritty material will wear your chain and gears.
3. It is wash out resistant. Good for resisting rain, but it resists mild chain cleaners too. Oh, you can cut it, but usually to remove it all you need a solvent not detergent.

Mossrider

Is this a wind up question?

Depends how much you like unworn gears. £6 is cheaper than a new chain and cassette regularly. You'll be picking up all sorts of crud with the poor quality motor oil and I doubt it will work its way in to the rollers effectively.

MichaelW

The only time I have used motor oil was on tour when I didnt have any lube with me. I squeezed a few drops out of a discarded oil container at a garage.

Its better than nothing, but not much.
It is sticky and attracts dirt.
If you have a choice, use something better.

Buckled_Rims

I also use Finish Line Wet and it's lasted me ages and I've three bikes I regular use. If I were to have a ghetto bike I might be tempted to use engine oil. When I had my Allez with 8 speeds I used to just use cheap light cycle oil and had no ill effects, but that was when 8 speed chains were a £5 and not £25 for my 105 chains.

balthazar

Extraordinary comments! Motor oil is a perfectly good lubricant for a bike chain. Foaming chainsaw oil is arguably even better, but I wouldn't buy it especially, when I have plenty of motor oil already, for the car. The little bottles of oil from the bike shop are fine too, but they're expensive and I find all the "woo" claims distasteful.

Any useful chain oil will pick up dirt. It's inevitable with this exposed mechanism, but you can not make it worse by not fiddling with it: dressing the outside of the chain so it appears clean, only pushes the grit into the rollers where it creates a grinding paste. Leave it, until you can clean and re-oil properly.

wyadvd

ive heard that chain-L- number 5 (which is aclaimed as the ultimate miineral chain lube) is in fact 80-90 automotive gear oil which i now use and its lovely. if you only apply oil to the rivets them selves one rivet at a time as per the blue book,, and wipe the chain after every ride, the picking up muck arguement is spurious. degrease and relube twice a week at the mo. iMHO most of you are marketting victims. the markup on chain lube must be something akin to the markup on potatoes to make crisps (about 2500%)

rodgers73

I just sprayed on some WD40, wiped off the excess and then put on some 3-in-1 instead of the motor oil. Mainly because the applicator is better on that oil can than the Poundland one. Any thoughts on 3-in-1 as an alternative?

Cheers

andy_wrx

Motor oil, no, very quickly picks up all sorts of crap and is a sod to actually remove from the chain when you come to clean it.

Automotive gear however, excellent
- but it does smell horrible, sickly and unpleasant. Not an issue on the bike, but not nice at all I'd you transport the bike inside the car.

wyadvd

Hence chain l number 5 .....say it quickly!

wyadvd

i do think maybe 3 in one is a little too thin. go to halfords and get a liter of the smelly stuff

sturmey

I clean and lube the chains on my bikes after virtually every ride as any visible detritus on your transmission is tantamount to being slovenly.

I use motor oil on my cheaper chains and I have no doubts whatsoever that it is sufficiently oleaginous a substance to perform acceptably as a chain lubricant.

In comparison, the superior molecular adhesion of an expensive, cycle specific lubricant probably helps your chain live longer if you are a maintenance-shy cyclist.

wyadvd

nice vocab :,....

sturmey

nice vocab :,....

It is as nothing, compared to my chains...

wyadvd

sturmey wrote:

nice vocab :,....

It is as nothing, compared to my chains...

ahh the mark of a true cyclist. i bet you rotate 3 chains per bike dont you every 500 miles?

sturmey

i bet you rotate 3 chains per bike dont you every 500 miles?

Good Lord, no! I simply make one chain last a very long time.

In fact, I relegated a 9 speed one to commuter bike last week after 3000 miles and my chain checking tool (a ruler), if it was to be believed, registered no discernible chain stretch whatsoever.

wyadvd

you are indeed an elite amoung men ..... I salute your lack of stretch sir !

senoj

Poundland 3in1 oil.
Used it for years,ride regularly,clean regularly, mtb and road.
A cyclist of some 40 years told me to use it instead of the expensive stuff I was using.
He also thinks energy drinks are the devils work, and will only drink water with salt and homey when on a long sportive.
Sturmey,are you are in your library sitting in your wingbacked chair buy the fire?
Lovely use of the english lamage.

wyadvd

complete with smoking jacket:......

sturmey

Indeed I am!

And a most subliminal but accurate portrait of my recreational environment, I have to say.

I have rung the servant's bell to ask the maid to bring a night-time tipple, purely for medicinal purposes of course.

Though I would venture that some unfortunate happenstance has befallen her as she is taking ages with my can of Murphy's.

I will have to have her flogged as she is taking the p*ss now.

TuckerUK

You're better off using car gearbox oil (as recommend by both Honda and Regina on motorbike chains, and I think it's fair to say that's a tougher environment than a bicycle).

A proper gear oil, to international recognised standards is about a tenth of the price of some boutique bike chain oil that has no published data proving it's effectiveness. I used to use Finish Line Green, but found gear oil more effective by far. In fact, there is one cult bike chain oil that (my solicitor told me to say 'so rumour has it') is actually just re-bottled gear oil, hence the identical smell and consistency. It's laughable that everyone that has tried it and days it's the best lube they have ever used. I don't doubt it, millions has gone into it's R&D, not sure of any bicycle lube that can claim the same.

When you look at the plethora of bike chain lubes on the market, and the complete lack of proven repeatable test results, all I can say is a fool and their money are soon parted.

meanredspider

Hmm - interesting - I have loads of various gear oils kicking around the garage. I can't stand the hypoid smell (especially as it reminds me of when a 'box fell over and left a huge slick on my garage floor as the oil leaked out the breather :roll: )

dennisn

TuckerUK wrote:

When you look at the plethora of bike chain lubes on the market, and the complete lack of proven repeatable test results, all I can say is a fool and their money are soon parted.

I like your way of thinking. Only question I have is. Are these high end cycle lubes actually tested by any third party other than some bike mag's, who have a vested interest
in saying that these fancy(or not so fancy) lubes are the greatest thing since sliced bread? I doubt that the magazines do anything other than give a bottle of whatever they are testing to one of the staff who rides. He uses it for a couple of weeks and finds that
it keeps the drivetrain quiet. Next months issue has a glowing report about it. In the meantime the tester is out riding around on the next "Lube of the Week" and about to deliver another glowing report.

krima

I don’t recommend using either motor oil or 3in1 oil to lubricate the chain. Motor oil is too heavy and won’t fully penetrate the rollers, and 3in1 oil is vegetable based and will gum up the chain. I also don’t recommend using wax lubricants because while they don’t collect as much dirt, they are a lot of hassle to apply correctly, and wax is simply not as good a lubricant as oil. I do recommend mineral based chain oils like Finish Line Cross Country or Phil Wood Tenacious Oil because they do the best job of fighting corrosion and don’t wash away when they get wet.

CiB

I buy green pots of oil from a reasonably local DIY shop*, a proper one that really is an Aladdin's Cave of stuff all the way from military spec combat gear for rural murderers to turkey basters for their wives. These green pots are cunningly labelled Cycle Oil & cost £1.50 a pop. So far I've eked out about 7500 miles over two winters & summers using this stuff, keeping the chain reasonably clean and rotating it with Chain #2 every 1500 miles or so. It seems to work.

*Castles in Stony Stratford High Street, if you know it.

Pseudonym

TuckerUK wrote:

You're better off using car gearbox oil (as recommend by both Honda and Regina on motorbike chains, and I think it's fair to say that's a tougher environment than a bicycle).

the point you are missing here is that gearboxes rely on a reservoir of oil which is transported around the gears by the movement of the transmission, before running back into the reservoir and being picked up again - so the oil is constantly re-lubricating the gearbox components. You put it on a bicycle (or indeed motorcycle) chain and most of it will just drip onto the floor, or fly off in use...

MattC59

dennisn

MattC59 wrote:

Very well put.