Chain oil

[Just Zis Guy]

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 19:46:05 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Penetrating oil is good for chains!

Unless you ride in the wet. And want the lube to last more than ten minutes. Years and years ago I
did a "scientific test" of lubricant life on my paper-round bike. Of the three, graphited
penetrating oil, 3-in-1 and engine oil, engine oil lasted best but was messy. That wasn't a problem
because it had a chain guard.

>I used to use some of the fancier lubes (e.g. Finish Line Cross Country) but they attract just as
>much muck and can be rather difficult to clean off and renew. 3-in-1 comes off pretty easily with
>detergent.

Ah, well, you may not ride the same way I do. My bike lives in the kitchen. Each weekday morning,
rain, snow or shine, I ride it 7.5 miles to Henley and park it inside at the office, then I ride
home and park it back in the kitchen. The chain gets drenched when it rains and covered with crud
because the bike has small wheels. My favourite lube at the moment is White Lightning Raceday, which
needs topping up relatively frequently but seems to shed all the crud. Chain life is looking good (a
plus since 9-speed chains are not cheap and I need three joined end-to-end).

>Urban myth (which may be true) - Pedro's Syn lube, which was raved over by mountain bikers a few
>years ago, was pure unadulterated Mobil 1 engine oil. All the synthetic techno-waffle on the bottle
>was true, but it wasn't actually developed for the purpose in hand.

No idea. I tried some Pedros but it lasted about ten minutes and made a vile mess everywhere. I
still have most of the bottle left somewhere.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

 

[Ningi]

Garry Broad wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:49:09 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Mark wrote:
>>
>>>Does anyone have recommendation for chain oil? My precious last bottle of "Black Gold" is about
>>>to run out & the LBS hasn't been able to get it for about a year. It was made by a company called
>>>"Ebony Lubrication", but a search using Google has brought back nowt but a few, er, "interesting
>>>but not relevant" matches...
>>>
>>>I need something good - the lanes round here (rural) are chocablock with muck for the 6 months
>>>between Oct - Mar inclusive & so I don't want anything which is going to be washed off after a
>>>couple of spots of rain.
>>>
>>>The ability for online ordering (e.g. Wiggle) would be a bonus, too.
>>
>>3-in-1 is as good as anything.
>
>
> If you ride bikes at the 'cheaper end of the market' like I do then then you might be quite happy
> to buy a litre of chain-saw oil from the sheds. It's about 3.50 for a litre, and does the job
> just fine.
>
> gb

I use 30 weight motor oil. about £12 for 5 litres, same as my car uses. I never seem to have less
than 10 litres in the house, so regular lubing has become pretty much routine.

Pete