Chain lube and noobs...

[bart]

The chain on an adventure/dual-purpose bike cops a flogging. Chain lube itself can be a problem because it attracts grit, but my reality adventure riding is that it just doesn't last very long anyway, so the chain stays dusty & muddy most of the day. ScottOilers help in these conditions because they constantly clean and lube the chain.

Keeping a modern sealed o- or x-ring chain clean is more important than any lube, IMHO. After a wash and de-gunk, spray with wd40 or crc5.56 to dewater and leave a light lube. Only if riding on-road for any length of time, I'll also apply some chain lube, but only because old habits die hard. Next chain, I will test the "wd40 only" method, foregoing chain lube completely. Many, many road riders report very good results from that. Cheap, quick, easy, clean & effective, by all accounts.

I'd be interested to see how you go with that. I also think over lubricating can be bad (in dusty conditions), hence the problem with the wax not being visible.

I have my chain off the bike regularly, so clean well (with kero) and leave in a bucket of waste oil over night. Seems to run awesome after that......for a couple of hundred km.

[Sully60]

Yes, there are multitudinous threads on this topic. Just find what you like to use, and use that.
MY current lube is Motul Chain Lube, which is a spray-on grease, but I prefer Spectro Chain wax. It's not quite as good a lube as the Motul (apparently), but it's less messy, as the Motul is quite sticky so tends to gather road spooge (and is harder to clean off).
In the past I've used 80W oil (which is what the manufacturers recommend) which is messy; Shell Motorcycle Chain Lube, which is very tacky and crappy; WD40, which has minimal lubing prtoperties but is good between lubes for cleaning the excess chain lube + spooge off.
Always use kerosene (or WD40, which is mostly Stoddard solvent, derived from kero) to clean your chain. Don't use degreaser.
Apply the minimum lube to the chain - only the side plates where the pins are need the lube, and do it on the bottom length of chain, on the side facing the swingarm, after a ride when the chain is warm. This will help the lube to penetrate and evaporate the solvents quicker.
If you use the lube itself to clean off the old lube (the spray-on lubes contain solvents which will do this) spray on more than you need, and wipe it off with a rag.

+1, Spectro is the best I've used.+2 Excellent advice from the vifferman there!
If I can add a third it's that it's important to keep a very regular routine for cleaning and lubing, it takes minimal neglect to shorten the life of the driveline considerably.

The Shiver's chain has got this like grey stuff on it. Is that a good thing?

Is it hairy in nature?

[cave weta]

The chain on an adventure/dual-purpose bike cops a flogging. Chain lube itself can be a problem because it attracts grit, but my reality adventure riding is that it just doesn't last very long anyway, so the chain stays dusty & muddy most of the day. ScottOilers help in these conditions because they constantly clean and lube the chain.

Keeping a modern sealed o- or x-ring chain clean is more important than any lube, IMHO. After a wash and de-gunk, spray with wd40 or crc5.56 to dewater and leave a light lube. Only if riding on-road for any length of time, I'll also apply some chain lube, but only because old habits die hard. Next chain, I will test the "wd40 only" method, foregoing chain lube completely. Many, many road riders report very good results from that. Cheap, quick, easy, clean & effective, by all accounts.

Totally with warewolf on this - I have 11 bikes and they all run O Ring chain.
when you are out in the mud nothing stays on.
Now I just wash my bikes and chains after a ride and CRC the chain to stop surface rust. I am experiencig no ill effects. (niether is the chain)

[Hitcher]

Is it hairy in nature?

No. But it's sticky.

[Sully60]

No. But it's sticky.

That's ok, if it had grey hairs it was obviously old and needed replacing.
As you were.

[Woodman]

I clean mine with crc or similar, and use tac2 as it sticks to the chain real good. A guy who used to race formula 3 put me onto it after normal chainlube flung onto his tyre and he crashed.

[slofox]

Have a can of Rock Oil Chain WAX (yes, WAX, not LUBE) which seems to work OK - not too much flogs off onto the rear tyre as long as you apply it little and often to keep the chain oiled up. Will probably try something different next time just for comparitive purposes...maybe...if I can be bothered...or remember...

[vifferman]

I clean mine with crc or similar, and use tac2 as it sticks to the chain real good. A guy who used to race formula 3 put me onto it after normal chainlube flung onto his tyre and he crashed.

He must've had a shitload of chainlube on his tyre for it to lube his tyre enough to make him crash!
Just another note: if you're going to use CRC or WD40, choose the latter.
No, I don't have shares in the company, but (IMHO) CRC is crap for both cleaning and lubing the chain.
I agree with Warewolf's comments regarding stuff sticking to chain lube - I've found the same thing when riding on gravel roads in The Far North a few years ago. I went to the local service station to buy some WD40, and they had only CRC5-56. Not only did it NOT remove the chain spooge+grit paste from the chain, but it seemed to have minimal lubing and waterproofing properties as well when I tried to rinse the chain using the motel's hose. I was really pissed off. Now I make sure I take a small spray can of WD40 on longer trips, so I can apply it if I ride in the wet and/or on unsealed roads.
If you ride in the wet, you'll find that even on the road you'll get some road spooge (including sand and grit) splashing off the swingarm and onto your chain. In these circumstances, a tacky chain lube can actually cause your chain's life to be shortened.

[XF650]

Oh great, another chain lube thread. But since someone else has started it....

I'v often wondered if chain lube helps reduce sprocket wear.
We know the o rings help keep the chain internals lubed, but what about where the roller outers and sprocket teeth meet - a high stress area I would have thought, especially with a thumper.
I mostly ride gravel on the Freewind, with all the associated dust / grit / road crud. Plus it goes places it wasn't designed for incl river crossings & mud.
So last year I fitted a Loobman & since then minimal chain adjustment required & sprocket wear seems to have stopped. The chain looks dirty but most of that is oil (I even stopped cleaning it).

There are too many variables in my obsevation to draw a scientific conclusion but with the XF at least, continueous oiled chain & sprockets (by whatever means) seems to help reduce wear.

[warewolf]

I'v often wondered if chain lube helps reduce sprocket wear.

I think so, but most of the wear comes from the chain elongating.

[Scouse]

Maxima chain wax is the best shit, does not fling off like most of the other products.

[vifferman]

I wish my bike was belt drive...
Although chains still look better. Form before function FTW...

[vifferman]

Maxima chain wax is the best shit, does not fling off like most of the other products.

No, I disagree.
There's lots of shit that are better shit, like cowshit, dogshit, wombatshit...

[Bass]

Beware of automatic oilers off road.
Beware of sticky chain lubes off road.

Mate and I did 18000 km in Oz last year including heaps of deep dust and deep sand.

As we left Cooktown we fitted 13 tooth sprockets, a new one for me and a used one for my mate. I was running a Scott oiler, he was using an aerosol chain WAX (dries non-sticky).
I had the oiler set to dispense its whole contents every day. I figured that putting all that oil on the chain would flush the crap away.

Just short of Darwin, we fitted the 15 tooth sprockets again as we were in for a long haul on the seal. At that point we had done about 6000 km.
My 13 t sprocket was Fucked. It was close to turning inside the chain. My mates sprocket which started this leg second hand was pretty much untouched.

I can only conclude that the theories are right, that sticky chain lube + dust and dirt = grinding paste

Note that I said off road. I also have a Scott oiler on the Trumpy. The first chain and sprockets there, did 65,000km

[Tony W]

Right. Here we go.

On my DRZ400SM, used for on and off-roading, depending on what wheels are fitted, I went through my first set of O-ring chain and sprockets in 13,000km. The next O-ring chain lasted only 5000km before it started stretching and was dead at 10,000km.

So I bought an X-ring to see if I could get more longevity. The sprockets were good so I used them.

Now this is where it gets interesting.

I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BOX THE CHAIN CAME IN !!!
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Use 80W oil for lubrication. (good old gearbox oil)

(For the short lives of the previous chains I had been using an assortment of aerosol sprays only - I didn't want chain oil messing up the bike ! What a mistake that was)

The most important thing is to keep the O-RINGS LUBED.
If they are not they dry out and with heat and friction start wearing, making them thinner etc.
The factory lube then escapes and then gets repaced with all the nasty elements from the outside: dirt, water and more lube to make a beautiful grinding paste which wrecks the chain.

The instructions also state that the solvents contained in aerosol chain lubes DRY OUT the O-rings.

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Well that was enough information for me to immediately change my ways !

I made up a "semi" automatic oiling system using a small plastic squeeze bottle, a length of car windscreen washer size clear plastic tubing and two BIC biro refills.
This is a "twin" oiling system which exits at each side of the rear sprocket and drops lube directly on each row of o-rings. It uses common 80W/90 gearbox oil as recommended. One just needs to give it a squeeze occasionally to get the oil flowing when needed. This also has the benefit of lubing the rollers and sprockets too.
Total cost about ...$5....!!!

Chain condition now after 11,000km: wear undetectable...

I rest the manufacturer's case.


To Scottoiler owners, if you haven't got a twin oiling system, only a single sided one, modify it to get even better results.