Cycling Forums - View Single Post - Can anyone please recommend a good chain lube?

01-30-2007, 05:41 PM

In article <10774-45BAD7B7-81@storefull-3112.bay.webtv.net>,
KGWebby@webtv.net writes:
> Right now I'm getting by with a spray lube called "Rem Oil." Seems ok,
> but it's on the light side. I've tried motor oil, but that seems to fly
> off and makes a total mess. Any suggestions please?

If you're going to use motor oil or chainsaw oil
or the like,
~and~
if you take your chain off the bike to clean it:

try warming the chain up after it's been cleaned,
before you apply the lubricant. This actually
takes care of /two/ treatments -- drying the chain
after rinsing the cleaner & gunk out of it, plus
prepping it for lubing.

I like to stretch my warmed-up chain straight, on a
junky old plank to lube it -- with the rollers, /not/
the plates, facing up. An old squirty decongestant
bottle (or something like it) makes a fairly plausible
fine-holed oil can for aiming discrete drops of oil
into each plate/roller interface. Hope it works its
way down to the pins[*]. That's why the warming: on a
cold chain, the drops of oil are more likely to just
sit where they land, in uptight little surface-tensioned
mounds.

Wipe the excess off with a clean(ish) rag, reinstall
the chain, and yer off 'n runnin'.

Anyways, oil flows better on warm metal. I suppose
also warming the oil itself would help too, but I can
see that becoming a stinky, smoky hassle if done on
direct heat. Maybe immersing a heatproof container
of oil in hot water would loosen it up a little.

My favourite chain-warming techique is to just leave
it on a very sunny windowsill for a while. A
crapped-out convection oven or toaster oven that you
don't use for anything else works, too. I like to
get it just a little too hot to handle (i.e: I can
touch it, but not for more than a couple of seconds.)
On the right kind of sunny day, with a good angle of
incidence, even the windowsill approach gets it there.

cheers,
Tom
[*] I guess chain lubrication is a little faith-based.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

01-30-2007, 05:41 PM	#20 (permalink)
Tom Keats Guest Posts: n/a	Re: Can anyone please recommend a good chain lube? In article <10774-45BAD7B7-81@storefull-3112.bay.webtv.net>, KGWebby@webtv.net writes: > Right now I'm getting by with a spray lube called "Rem Oil." Seems ok, > but it's on the light side. I've tried motor oil, but that seems to fly > off and makes a total mess. Any suggestions please? If you're going to use motor oil or chainsaw oil or the like, ~and~ if you take your chain off the bike to clean it: try warming the chain up after it's been cleaned, before you apply the lubricant. This actually takes care of /two/ treatments -- drying the chain after rinsing the cleaner & gunk out of it, plus prepping it for lubing. I like to stretch my warmed-up chain straight, on a junky old plank to lube it -- with the rollers, /not/ the plates, facing up. An old squirty decongestant bottle (or something like it) makes a fairly plausible fine-holed oil can for aiming discrete drops of oil into each plate/roller interface. Hope it works its way down to the pins[]. That's why the warming: on a cold chain, the drops of oil are more likely to just sit where they land, in uptight little surface-tensioned mounds. Wipe the excess off with a clean(ish) rag, reinstall the chain, and yer off 'n runnin'. Anyways, oil flows better on warm metal. I suppose also warming the oil itself would help too, but I can see that becoming a stinky, smoky hassle if done on direct heat. Maybe immersing a heatproof container of oil in hot water would loosen it up a little. My favourite chain-warming techique is to just leave it on a very sunny windowsill for a while. A crapped-out convection oven or toaster oven that you don't use for anything else works, too. I like to get it just a little too hot to handle (i.e: I can touch it, but not for more than a couple of seconds.) On the right kind of sunny day, with a good angle of incidence, even the windowsill approach gets it there. cheers, Tom [] I guess chain lubrication is a little faith-based. -- Nothing is safe from me. Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca