Chain lubrication
Proper chain lubrication is critical to a longer lasting drive train. I like to say that there are three kinda of lube;
- Wet lube – goes on wet, stays wet, repels water but attracts dirt and gets messy.
- Dry lube (and waxes), goes on wet then penetrates and dries out a bit, repels dirt, cleans the chain, but must be reapplied often.
- No lube, is an easy and maintenance free way to go, its clean, and repels dirt, but components must be replaced much more often.
We use the following:
Rock N Roll holy cow dry lube (either normal, absolute or extreme)
Periodically any chain should be cleaned and we will often take a chain off, to clean it in our ultrasonic cleaners, then I blow out the chain to fully clean and dry it.
Here is a good list of the various chain lubricants and what other people have to say:
Pro-Link: Will not survive 3 hours in the rain. Easy to clean up, but requires re-application every ride in winter.
Finishline Dry: Washes straight off for me. Basically useless. IMO if a lube is a “dry” lube it is useless in the Lower Mainland winter.
Finishline Wet: Normally my go to winter lube. Can get 300 km if there is not any significant rain.
Finishline Ceramic Wet: A slightly more expensive version of the above. No big performance difference IMO. I like it for summer use and getting 400+ km between cleanings.
Muc-Off Ceramic Wet: Pricey, but fairly good. Much like Finshline Wet but more expensive.
Muc-Off Wet: Heavy wet lube, does not wash off easily but is also fairly dirty.
Chain-L: Very heavy wet lube, does not wash off easily but is also fairly dirty. Can survive a long session in the rain better than any other lube I have used, but it is messy.
Phil’s Tenacious: Heavy wet lube, much like Muc-Off Wet.
There is no one right lubricant because there are such different ride conditions, and maintenance styles. I have used waxes, which require heating up a pool of wax and hot dipping the chain, and I have tried no lube – but for higher end bikes a good dry lube regularly applied is fine. Most of the bikes we see use wet lube.