Lubrication

markdavidhill

What oils and lubrication do you use and on what do you use it? (relating to bicycles!)

Thank you,

Mark

centimani

Cheap engine oil for the chain. Used it on all sorts of bikes since i was a kid, tried Finish Line Dry a couple of years ago, my chain didnt last any longer and it cost twice as much (at the very least) to find it out.

BelgianBeerGeek

That's a fair comment (OP). The lubes I use now attract crud whereas in the good old days that never happened. But my memory is not as good as it was (remember washing chains in petrol!).
Cleaned my drivechain a couple of weeks ago and now it is beyond belief disgusting

buckmulligan

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

That's a fair comment (OP). The lubes I use now attract crud whereas in the good old days that never happened. But my memory is not as good as it was (remember washing chains in petrol!).
Cleaned my drivechain a couple of weeks ago and now it is beyond belief disgusting

Are you sure you're not just paying more attention to it now! As I get older, I get more OCD about keeping my bike spotless and despite what people say, I *do* feel the difference when I have a nice clean drivetrain!

I won't enter the 'Which Lube' debate, but the the number one piece of advice that everyone forgets is to WIPE OFF THE EXCESS!!!.

You can use whatever lube you like, but if it's caking your chain and sprockets, it's going to attract dirt. You only need a *very* thin coating, so get a cloth and wipe off the excess. Don't think 'Well it looks ok, a little extra can't hurt'. </rant>

al2098

After using most brands I have settled on a lube called 'squirt'.
It is a wax based lube which does not attract much dirt and is super smooth.
Very easy to clean the chain as it is not oil based therefore requires no solvents, just soap and hot water. in the summer you don't need to clean it because it doesn't get dirty.
I imagine it will be poor in the wet but I only ride when its dry..or sort of dry.
I think it may be sensible to use specific products due to them being engineered for the specific purpose. Engine oil has properties relating to high heat and long term use whereas bike chain oil would have properties more relating to its intended use.
What I want to say is you wouldn't put fairy liquid in your dishwasher.
(maybe not a good analogy)

markdavidhill

BuckMulligan wrote:

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

I won't enter the 'Which Lube' debate, but the the number one piece of advice that everyone forgets is to WIPE OFF THE EXCESS!!!.

</rant>

SO true!

Sleeping_menace

personally the best I've found are the Rock'n'Roll lube products.
The 'Gold' chain lube and the 'CableMagic' cable lube are miles ahead of anything else I've used. They're very much worth a go if you've never used them.

I did a mini-review of them on my blog if you're bored:
http://anotherdooratthe.endoftheinternet.org/2011/06/07/rock-n-roll-cablemagic-and-gold-chain-lube-5-minute-reviews/