Chain Lubricant

What is the best lubricant to use on chains?

 

Depends on the conditions and the type of riding you do.

 

I ride on a paved trail so serious dirt is not an issue. Pro link works great. I find I need to clean and relube much less often. Try it. bk

 

For dusty conditions a Moly based dry lube works fine, a little noisier however.

 

I don't like moly for two reasons:
---one is that I have been told (online) that it attracts moisture, so it is only really good as a lubricant for a piece of machinery that will always remain warm-to-hot. The places I read it were firearm and airgun forums, but reports of its use were pretty much the same. Of course nobody ever said that moly was suppposed to be a water-repellant, but it still doesn't weather as well as a lot of other lubes.
---the other is more practical, all the moly lube I have seen was jet black, and it STAINS everything it gets on. If it gets on your skin it will wear off eventually, but if you get it on your clothes it won't come out.

Teflon-based lubes are easier to live with, the teflon powder is usually white or clear, and doesn't suffer the water problems or the staining problems.

I use Tri-slide on my chain, but first time I used it I had the bike sitting on the asphalt driveway, and the overspray of the tri-slide left a big semi-permanent stain on the asphalt. (I prefer chain lubes in dropper bottles for this reason)
~

 

I use it and haven't had any problems with moisture. Of course I don't live in Seattle either. After application just wipe off the excess. What is inside usually stays inside, and there is no collection or buildup of crud. http://www.russack.com/view_doc.php?view_doc=9&PHPSESSID=cdad361b2e44a42ee7c9f9feace9e974

 

Last summer I had contact with my bike chain manufacturer after one of the side plates cracked. They had a recall on certain date codes of the PC-41 chain. Mine was not covered by the recall, but after some wear measurements by my LBS, SRAM agreed to replace mine too.

They eventually replaced the chain (3 standard lengths), but they were very curious about what I had used to clean mine (dishwashing detergent), and what I had used for lubricant (Pedros Road Rage).

The instructions packaged with the new chains recommend only using oil to lube the chain.

Degreasers and citrus based cleaners are NOT supposed to be used, according to SRAM.

One of my friends has had good luck with T-9 Boeshield, which is available in a drip-bottle or a spray can. His chain stays much cleaner with Boeshield than mine does with oil.

By the way, I've found that sticking a section of newspaper behind the brakes and cassette as you lube the chain helps keep the lube off the rim. Brakes work better without lube.

Tackdriver.

 

I use white lightening. It is more of a wax. Whatever you use make sure you clean the new chain well to remove the heavy grease. I just used simple grean and a chain cleaner. Hope that helps.

 

Rock 'n' Roll is good.

 

TMQ Doc:
I would recommend checking the chain manufacturer's instructions for cleaning and lubrication. SRAM wants that "heavy grease" to stay right where they put it. They do have a motivation to sell chain, but they sure treated me well by replacing mine when it broke.

 

I recently tried Finish Line Teflon. Apparently it was too slippery, because I lost 2 Quik-Links. They just popped off while pedaling. I really hate it to be stranded in the middle of a century ride because my chain came apart for no good reason. I've since gone back to White Lightning and have had no further problems. The black flecks clean off with Pledge(tm) and I scrape the chainrings and cassette when it starts to build up.

 

What do you use on yours? I did the same thing to my road bike when I got it new and have never had a problem. I guess I never thought about it.