Proper chain lubrication is critical to a longer lasting drive train. I like to say that there are three kinda of lube;

1. Wet lube – goes on wet, stays wet, repels water but attracts dirt and gets messy.
2. Dry lube (and waxes), goes on wet then penetrates and dries out a bit, repels dirt, cleans the chain, but must be reapplied often.
3. 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)

Pedro’s Synthetic Wet Lube

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.