Which of these make a good chain lube??

rodgers73

I've clearing out the garage and have a range of lubes that I'm weighing up keeping or binning. Which are worth keeping on as a chain lube?

1. Spray on 3-in-1 oil
2. Chainsaw oil
3. Motor oil
4. WD40 (nah, just joking!)
5. Spray on silicon lubricant
6. Spray on white lithium grease
7. Spray on motorbike chain lube

Cheers

Tom

topdude

I would say, 1, 3, 7, 2, in order of preference.

chris_bass

I'd agree with the above but you'll need to clean it a lot!!!!

DavidJB

lard.

Kingy 123

Dont use dry lube ,it wears off to quick and your bike will end up sounding like a tank.

I use all weather oil the only draw back is ,it gets dirty quick .

Sentral

Wet lube attracts all the shit and turns into black gunk. Dry lube will shed it off.

As long as you clean and grease after a wet day you can't go that wrong though

99thmonkey

I use White Lightning Clean Ride, never had a complaint or problem with it

butcher of bakersfield

Sentral wrote:

Wet lube attracts all the shoot and turns into black gunk. Dry lube will shed it off.

Some wet lubes are stickier than others. I recently bought a secondhand bike that had done very few miles - we're talking in the region of 100 miles. All immaculate, except for the chain, which had obviously been very enthusiastically oiled with something thick enough to attract its own weight in dirt - it was black.

I put off giving it a good clean and just done my normal routine of oiling after every ride and running a rag through to remove any excess. It always remained black. Thick grime on the cassette and chainset too.

Anyway, after 700 miles I noticed the cassette was beginning to wear. And so I stripped it and degreased everything. It's sparkling now, but the damage is already done. The cassette is a bit of a mess and the bike's merely a few months old. My other two bikes are both clocking up nearly 2k miles with no wear, and always wet lubed. The chains on both of them always look reasonably clean.

Bike specific lubes you'll often find are quite thin and don't make a lot of mess if you wipe off any excess.

diy

Motor oil attracts dirt and will make a nice grinding paste. Wd40 would be a good way to clean the chain, but paraffin is cheaper. Motorbike chain lube is fine but avoid the sticky stuff. I use finish line wet and dry or whatever chain wax I have for the motorbikes

rodgers73

I bought the chainsaw oil specifically for the bike after some recommendations on here!

diy

I thought chainsaw oil was just slightly thicker motor oil in an ecologically friendly form?

I learned the hard way not to use motor oil, cost me a mech and and mech hanger on my mountain bike. The oil clagged with grit and jammed the mech which rotated around the hanger bending both. You could probably get away with it on a road bike though, where there is less chance of picking up dirt.

Personally I find Wurth High performance dry lube (at about 9 quid for 500ml) to be pretty good at both jobs. if you use it sparingly.

DavidJB

Kingy 123 wrote:

Dont use dry lube ,it wears off to quick and your bike will end up sounding like a tank.

I use all weather oil the only draw back is ,it gets dirty quick .

Use dry lube when its dry and wet when its wet.