Photo – Cycle Portland Bike Tours
(Not My Chain!)
Over the years I must have tried just about every lube on the market. Wet Lube, Dry Lube, Ceramic Lube etc but always I’ve seemed to end up with a pretty gunky chain and rear cassette after a couple of rides. Worse on many wet rides I’ve lubed the night before and during the ride had the horrible dry rattle of a no-lube chain kick in. Don’t know about you but the sound of a “dry” chain drives me nuts – as well as the reduced chain life. Why is it that it always kicks in when you are starting to fatigue and so adds to the “I’m knackered and how much extra effort is that dry chain costing me……?” thought process.
Well, it’s been over a year now that I’ve been using Squirt Wax Lube and it’s been a bit of a revelation.
Chain and Cassette have not been cleaned in a while
Not only does my chain and cassette stay remarkably clean but also I get a good mileage (multiple rides) from a single lube. I’ve been applying just by dripping onto the chain in the normal manner but plan to buy a bigger pot of the stuff and put the chain in a bath to let it really soak into the rollers and see if that gives even better mileage.
The only drawback I have found is on the rollers/turbo. The blurb does tell you that wax cleaners tend to flake off the chain as you ride. I can vouch that that does happen as I ended up with wax flakes on the conservatory tiles that were a pain to clean off so now have the rollers on a large piece of cardboard with a box at the rear to catch any flying flakes! A bit Heath Robinson but much better than scrubbing the tiles after an indoor session.
Hopefully now that Spring really does seem to be here I’ll be shedding the flakes out on the road for a while.
I’ve also heard really good reports of Wend chain lube but it is pretty expensive, though if some of the reports are true that it lasts a massive amount of Km that maybe it is cheap enough in the long run.
I’m not an (intentional) wet weather rider nor do I ride indoors on a trainer. Big fan of Finish Line Ceramic dry chain lube. All in all, a relatively clean chain lube. Based on usually riding 100+ miles per week, I wipe my chain clean and lube pretty much every week. I also try to wipe the chain sideplates clean after every ride (especially with my bling gold KMC chain). I pull the wheel and clean the cogs less often (but should probably do it more often). This is my first season using KMC chain with quick-link connector, so I… Read more »
I have tried a bit of wax lube but found it quite strange to use – but perhaps I haven’t given it enough of a go. I was using Dry Lube on my main bike and getting some squeally squeaking, which turned out to be the chain. Switched back to wet lube and there is no noise, but my chain is pretty black.
TBH I’ve just been lazy cleaning my bike recently.
You do need to shake the stuff up to make sure the wax is mixed and I have seen some where the wax has more or less solidified and needs warming to get it into solution. Dribble on in the normal way (or spot link to link) and then I do find it helps to spin the chain slowly for a bit to work it in. It then needs to be left to dry before riding (ie overnight) – this is the same for all dry lubes.