Chain lube

I find it's more important to lube the chain/sprocket than the actural chain itself. After all an o-ring chain shouldn't need lubing. With the Scott Oilier I doubled the life of my sprockets and tripled the life of my chains. When it's pissing down I increase the flow and in those conditions the oiler really helps.
 
There realy is rather a lot to lube on an O ring chain. 106 rollers running around 59 hardened teeth on your average triple, the internal bushing of the chain has it's lube "sealed for life" but unless the outside bearing surfaces are kept clean and well lubed things deteriorate fairly quickly. WD40 is not up to the job as a high pressure all weather lubricant, fine if you want to ponce around on say a modern MV amd not get your nice wheels dirty but no good if you actually want to go anywhere further than your hair stylists on a sunny Saturday. :D


    Keith.
 
Love some of the replies but they all prove my point that you should do what works for you. My teflon chain spray, fork lift truck variety, comes in 500ml cans and costs ?7.

Andy
 
Try your local bearing distributors you might be surprised, most spray lube whether it is industrial or motorcycle is similar. It seems that if you put motorcycle in the title the quantity halves and the price doubles. I would add that most peeps use lube in copious amounts where it should be used sparingly.

Andy

PS Another use for a toothbrush is to rmove those stubborn shit stains near the waterline in the bog....but do use the wife's.
 
I second that of Keith. I spray it sparingly, to protect the outer surfaces. It can clearly be felt - that is the difference between a clean x-ring chain and a lubricated ditto. The roling resistance is lower. The wear is lower.

Cheers,
Jacques.
 
On my non-"O" ring chain I found that an industrial Moly chain lube works well. Molybdenum Disulfide  is great stuff for metal to metal bearing surfaces.     Moly exists as microscopic hexagonal crystal platelets Several molecules make up one of these platelets. A single molecule of Moly contains two sulfur atoms and one molybdenum atom. Moly platelets are attracted to metal surfaces. This attraction and the force of moving metal parts rubbing across one another provide the necessary thermochemical reaction necessary for Moly to form an overlapping protective coating like armor. This protective armor coating has a number of properties that are very beneficial.

   The Moly platelets that make up the protective layers on metal surfaces slide across one another very easily. Instead of metal rubbing against metal, you have Moly platelets moving across one another protecting and lubricating the metal parts.

Here is the USA, Liquid Wrench sell an industrial chain lube #L716 that goes on very watery and gets inside the chain bearing surfaces. Its very dark an will stain your floor, so I use old newspapers under the chain. The carrier is naphthenic oil and evaporates in about an hour.

So the good news is it is very effective and only needs to be reapplied every few thousand miles. The bad news is it is messy.

If you use an "O" ring chain they make a moly chain lube (ML2S) that will not eat the "O" rings too. Probably no naphtha in the formula.
 
I use WD 40 only to clean the chain and somewhat keep it from rusting (unplated chain), I don't really expect it to lube anything, maybe keep the O, X rings from sqeaking. These are roller chains are they not, where does the shear come from? Its been a while since I've used  chain lube, and maybe the latest stuff is different, but it seems to me loading up the chain with grease or oil is only going to attract dirt and act as a grinding paste on the sprockets, if there is shear, and the O rings and side plates. IMHO.

Stu
 
interesting post Stu, but I bet you dont ride the bike for 500 or 600 miles in a day or maybe 1000 miles as a non stop trip, especially with ten hours of hard rain thrown in.
I do, and I have seen my chain bone dry and getting very hot (steaming) after only 100 miles when rideing in heavy rain, that bike has clocked 200,000 and hasnt actually had that many chains replaced, cant remember precisely and cant be bothered to look in the files, but I am going to guess at (maybe) between 8 and 12.
CLEM
 
4 tanks available, standard pathetic 13 litre 1200 tank, an extended Jota 18 litre tank, which is now 25 litre and a one off 42 litre, all three interchange with each other,then there is my 28 litre, one cubic foot cube (which fits on the luggage rack) with the cube and the 42 litre, that gives a theoretical
890 kilos/560 miles, my arse could not take that, and neither could an unlubed chain.I aim to relube after a max of five hours
CLEM
 
It seems to me there are a lot of varying opinions on this matter. No one idea seems to be best. I for my part only lube the chain after I have just ridden ( I use ChainWax). While the lube is still wet I wipe it all off. This way it cleans the chain as well as getting into the pins. I spray the chain from the inside out. I also clean the teeth of the rear sprocket.
The interesting thing is that I can get over 30K miles out of most chains. New chain and sprockerts might cost $180 US. I often wonder if the $30 in chain lube I spent was ever worth the investment. I would probabyy have the change the chain after 25K if I never lubed it. :D
 
Mar, I 'dunno about getting 25K miles out of an unlubed chain. I've had several customers who have managed to destroy theirs in the space of 10K kilometers. One of them even had the nerve to say the chainset was garbage to begin with. Pointing out properly lubed chains are not completely dry and rusty and if he had used any of the chain lube he purchased along with the chainset he wouldn't be having this problem didn't help. Nobody home in the brainpan. See Bob's "power of idiots..." comment.

Tom
 
Tom that is part of the reason that many bike shops will not fit chains/sprockets. I offer a free fit service if peeps will come round and if the sprockets are not good I will send them away. I also know that the bike will go away with a properly fitted chain at the correct tension and at the same time will lecture the owner on lube and adjustment. Only ever, in nearly 40 years years, had problems with self fitted chains. I do of course refer to O ring, as the majority of non O ring chains are simpler.

Andy
 
I do, and I have seen my chain bone dry and getting very hot (steaming) after only 100 miles when rideing in heavy rain,
Click to expand...

Summat wrong with your chain lube there then.  Try PJ1 Black.

Reggie
Who does ride 500-1000 miles from time to time  :D
 
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