Chain Wear

There is this stuff they sell in a can called chain lube, I believe it?s specifically designed for motorcycle drive chains...
 
Cosi said:
There is this stuff they sell in a can called chain lube, I believe it?s specifically designed for motorcycle drive chains...
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So true, Cosi. Yet despite religiously using the favourite brand, chains o-ring or non, rarely seem to wear evenly and often develop tight spots, and that is what we are discussing. On my bikes I degrease all the accumulated chain lube gunk with kero about once a year. I am a recent convert to Scottoiler. From my experience tight spots in o-ring chains are caused by tight dry links, and chain lube doesn't seem to penetrate o-ring chains.
 
Remember what Andy the chain main said.
Lubricating an O ring chain serves no purpose.
Of course chain lube won't penetrate an O ring chain, there's O rings.

I never clean my O ring chains. Makes no difference to chain life whatsoever.

Paul
 
Me too, but then you get the LOOK, and they then say YOUR CHAIN LOOKS VERY DRY. So It gets the occasional squirt to appease the boys.
 
There was a conversation on chains some time ago, and yes, the o rings prohibit the pins and bushes being lubed. Thats when I went to diesel and gearbox oil. Diesel to clean it/keep it clean, and gearbox oil to lube the rollers as they slide into the sprocket.

Chain lube, when it's dirty, reminds me of valve grinding paste.....

 
I've always been in two minds about lubing an o-ring chain too, for the good of the sprockets. There's any gods amount of opinions on the subject, but has anyone actually done a proper study or test to see if lube makes any difference to sprocket wear?
Or would it depend too much on the roads and weather you rode in...?
 
martymoose said:
One customer religiously sprayed his chain with wd40, o rings had fallen out.
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Needs clarifying. The chain's o-rings fell out because he used WD-40 (ie WD-40 NOT good for chain) or it wore so well by using WD-40 that the o-rings eventually gave out before it wore out (WD-40 wunderhausen stuff that gives almost limitless longevity to chains)??
 
WD40 is almost entirely composed of kero, so they say, with a small amount of oil. Great for cleaning your chain I would have thought. I have never seen an o-ring chain with all the o-rings falling out though.
The chain on my race bike was stiff (at the links) after the 2018 season, but not particularly worn, and I figured it had some dry pins. I bought a new chain, but the grease on it out of the box made it far stiffer than the one on the bike. I cleaned the one on the bike with kero, when it was dry I gave it a hit of my favourite spray lube and it was as good as new. Now I have a spare chain.
 
The spray lube I bought goes on so thick and sticky it's hard to imagine it freeing up anything - I think I'd prefer a wet lube where the solvent evaporates once it's penetrated a little into crannies - similar to bicycle chain lube. Sticky gunk on the outside of a chain just doesn't seem all that useful to me - except to act like a fly strip and attract (grit)!
 
Paul Marx said:
Remember what Andy the chain main said.
Lubricating an O ring chain serves no purpose.
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I can see the logic of Andy's comment. The rollers on a chain are mis-named because they don't actually roll. As the chain goes around a sprocket, the rollers just lie into the valleys between the sprocket teeth and lift out again - very much like the teeth of a toothed belt. So there's no sliding or rotating motion that needs a lubricant. However, that's in a perfect world, and things don't remain perfect in reality, there would be some rubbing on the sprocket teeth, especially as the chain stretches a bit and the chain pitch doesn't perfectly match the sprocket.

The pins inside the chain links obviously need lubricant because there is movement between the links as the chain bends around the sprockets. But that's what the O-rings are for - to keep the grease inside.

Anyway, I prefer to use a bit of spray-on lubricant on O-ring chains. Not so much because of mechanical necessity, but more because a dry chain just doesn't look right to me.
 
helicopterjim said:
Kerosene or mineral spirits to clean it ..... then slather it with Yak fat.

Jim
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That's a new one on me .......... beer chain lube?

shopping


 
chrisk said:
That's a new one on me .......... beer chain lube?

shopping
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My wife has a T shirt, says "Take back the Yak", in front of the Tibetan flag.
All about various symbols of Tibet being misappropriated by multinationals.
We contacted the makers of Fat Yak for some friendly sponsorship of various Tibetan doos but they weren't interested. Shame
we love the Fat Yak in our household but, damn fine beer.
very tasty :)
 
Its handy that this thread pops up just as I am about to remove the swinging arm and chain from my bike to give both some attention. I would like to give the o-ring chain a clean up. It sounds as if submersing it in kerosene  is the way to to do it right  ?

Come to think of it I have had this chain on the bike for the best part of 20 years. I seem to remember splashing out on the best one I could lay may hands on. Hardly ever needs adjusting, but I must have done 20,000 miles in that time.
 
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