Nikon Fan

Ok, settle down everyone; I just placed an order for MucOff 872 C3 Dry Ceramic Lube and also an order for Finish Line Wet Bike Lubricant (thanks Drisotope!). I'll try them both to see how they work. ☺

Thanks!

FBinNY 

The problem with a "what's the best chain lube?" thread is there's no one answer. Simply put, THERE IS NO BEST CHAIN LUBE, including the stuff I make.

The reason is that there are too many considerations, like; lubrication (duh), viscous drag, ease of use, service life, cleanliness, weather resistance, cost, etc.

So, each person will answer based on how he prioritizes these, based on conditions and personal preference. If you're in a desert, you may not care about wet performance or rust, but would not want anything that adheres dust. Also, some people are willing to reapply lube every 100 miles, while those who ride lots of miles might consider that a nuisance.

So, the answer to what's best, is whatever is best suited to where and how you ride, and consistent with you preferences.

There are plenty of published chain lube reviews, search the out and scan them, paying the most attention to those testing in conditions like yours. Then make a short list and toss a doin to decide which to try first. If it works for you, stay with it. if not, decide what you liked and didn't, go back to the short list, and try the one that seems a better match.

Chain lube is cheap enough that trying and switching is a logical way to go.

drlogik 

Oh, good grief he is a troll! He's a Canon guy, doesn't he know we are all Nixon fans?

To the topic I use Squirt and love it!

canklecat

I thought the trollicon meant "try popcorn butter".

Does it need to be butter, or is margarine okay? Land O'Lakes, Kerry Gold or Amish?

HillRider

Wow, this thread got to two pages in only one day! Usually they take longer but go much further.

Nikon Fan

If we had the option of pressing a "like" button on this site I would definitely have pressed "like" to your response! ☺

Yes, you are 100% correct regarding all the variables. I really didn't give it much thought when I started this post, mostly because I really have no clue about bike chains.

I got back into bike riding this past couple of years for fitness purposes. First bike I purchased when I got back into biking was a cruiser since that was what I remember riding as a kid. I then purchased a Fuji Tahoe 27.5 1.5 Disk mountain bike because "it looked cool". I quickly discovered there were almost no trails near my home, so I ended up buying a hybrid (Trek FX 7.2). Now I have my eyes set on a touring bike as I discovered I like the idea of long rides.

In other words, I am a totally clueless, late-to-the-game newbie with very little knowledge of what to get when it comes to biking.

With what I learned since starting this post, I probably should have been more specific about the best chain lubricant for the riding conditions I encounter every day plus the potential riding conditions I will encounter when I start riding in the rain this summer.

I honestly had absolutely no idea this was such a hotly contested topic!

Anyway, after reading some of the recommendations here I ordered two types of lubricants; one for dry, one for wet. I'm assuming (here I go assuming again) that I can't go wrong with either one. My current goal is to ride 100 mikes per month with my Trek until I buy a touring bike. Once I get the touring bike (still doing the rearch on which one to get), I will be riding in all sorts of weather conditions here in Florida.

Nikon Fan

No, I'm actually one of those rare folks who owns cameras and lenses from both systems! I can troll comfortably in either Nikon or Canon forums now! ☺ However, the only "system" I truly dislike is the m4/3 system. Hated my Olympus and Panasonic m4/3 cameras and lenses; didn't live up to my higher image quality expectations... See what you've done now? You got me trolling about camera formats now! 😊

drlogik 

Too funny. I'm a Nikon guy and a Mamiya guy. Love my film and digital.

Hey, look on the bright side, at least you didn't ask what grease is the best. Oh man, that really brings out the claws and fangs. ROFL..

Nikon Fan

I promise not to open that can of worms! 😂

Too cool, I have a Mamiya 645j, 645E and an RB67 with a metered pentaprism! Beastly cameras, but absolutely awesome! Haven't used them in a few years, but love them nonetheless!

JanMM

I mostly use ProGold ProLink but would suggest that what's most important is to use something consistently.

I just recently started scanning our cache of slides from the 70's - 90's. This one from the Hilly Hundred tour in 1980 demonstrates that in 1980 in the Midwest it was common for cyclists to wear Bell Biker helmets or no helmets. Oh, wait, I forget this was a chain lube thread and not a helmet thread..............................................

canklecat

Oh, serious question about chain lubes?

Okay, with new chains I'm taking the advice of a couple other folks in previous threads and just leaving on whatever KMC applies at the factory. Wipe down the outside plates as much as possible without stripping it completely so it doesn't rust. Just enough to prevent buildup on the chain rings and cassette -- that's what usually gets gunky the worst when I lube the chain on the bike.

So far, so good, with a chain I put on back around September-October 2016. Still runs quiet and smoothly. All I do is wipe the chain with a blue paper shop towel once a week or so. Not as much buildup of crud on the sprockets.

Reminds me, I just installed a used but still good chain on my errand bike last night. I need to take it off again and oil it, wipe it down and reinstall it. Fortunately that's what Missing Links and the like are handy for. If I get lazy and dribble oil on the chain while it's on the bike I'll be hassling with that whole mess again of the sprockets getting covered in gritty gunk.

DrIsotope

I generally get about 300 miles out of the chain coating that comes from the factory. Week, week and a half.

Ronno6

I use Chain-L. One application about every 1000 miles and chain wear is about zilch.
Just my opinion...............

fietsbob

Cabin fever with the Internet connection..

DrIsotope

The assertion that choice of lubricant does anything to mitigate chain wear, and thus prolong life, is specious at best. So long as the lubricant as applied often enough to prevent the chain from becoming dry and enduring more friction, pretty much anything will work. Butter or olive oil would probably work just fine. Service interval would probably be horrifying, though.

I have experienced absolutely zero difference in chain life from any of the lubes I've tried. My chains last 3000-3500 miles, or ~3 months.

Shimagnolo

Virgin?
Or Extra Virgin?

3alarmer

.
...****. Has anyone said oil rendered from the blubber from endangered sperm whales yet ?

fietsbob

Sacrifice virgins on the Branson Alter..

DrIsotope

Extra Virgin, obvs. Maybe even Light Extra Virgin. Savez moar wattz.

Well, EcoSheep is literally made from rendered sheep, so why not? Japan should have a dolphin-based lube by now.

fietsbob

Minke is Kinky.

3alarmer

...you are the guy I've been waiting for. Once you get 50 posts, ask to be let into the P+R section so I can finally get a totally unbiased view guns.

3alarmer

...you don't often hear it, but the guys who manufacture chains go to a lot of trouble to lubricate them with some pretty solid stuff in such a way that it actually lasts quite a while if you don't **** with it.

I do occasionally clean and relube a chain, but because I am a 1%er, I am as likely to take one off that is really offensive and just replace it with a new 10 dollar KMC chain, bought in bulk packs of five on the internet.


It's like I just don't care any more.

kcblair

Nice, I'm a Oly 4/3 (not m4/3), is what I cut my teeth on, when we pros converted to digital back in the , waaaay early 2000's. My Hassy 500C and Gowland 4x5 sit in the closet. Several years ago, my daughter got into helping
me with weddings and went on to college to study Digital Arts and asked about my film cameras. In 2000 , I sold all my dark room equipment, and last year, she wanted to learn B&W developing and printing. SO, to ebay, to buy darkroom equipment. Now my "ManCave" is a darkroom on weekends, or when ever she comes to visit. Any way, it is fun to breakout the old Hassy for shooting.

Her peers drove her to Nikon...... I'm old school, not partial to name brands, after all, a camera is a light tight box with a piece of glass attached, it's the idiot behind it, that creates the image.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled program. I was installing new chains on all my bikes on a yearly basis, until I discovered the park chain checking tool. Now I replace as necessary.
Just wipe down the outside of a new chain (as noted here) and install. A wipe and re-lubing as necessary after that is all I do, usually 300 miles. I only ride on pavement, so my chains don't get too dirty. All my bike computers have a maintenance reminder function, that I set @ 300 miles.

Just enjoy the ride. KB

Nikon Fan

You are extremely lucky to have a child who likes photography. I have a ton of old equipment I hoped to pass on to my kids, but they dislike anything photography related. I still have a glimmer of hope as I recently found out that a niece of mine is starting to like photography. Hopefully she will some day be interested in film photography so she can dust off my old Nikon S2 rangefinder and F collection!

I ordered two chain lubricants to see which works best for me. Funny thing is when I'm riding around my neighborhood I don't see the sand, however when I arrive back home from riding there seem to be sand particles all over my chain and under my bike. My Trek started making a bit of noise recently, so I attributed it to a dirty chain. That got me thinking about what lubricant I should be using, so I wrote this post to get a simple response. No clue it was going to spiral out of control this way! 😊 It reminds me of the old heated debates on photography fourums (film vs digital, Nikon vs Canon, full frame vs crop frame, square format vs rectangular format, etc.) 😊

kcblair

What part of the country do you live, desert ?? Coast ?? Maybe some of the forums members that live in your climate can offer suggestions to remedy that situation. I would diffidently go with a dry lube, but lube is cheap, so experiment. Don't bring up "chain cleaning methods", you'll crash the site. Just use the search function. I learned that from the photography and audio forums I belong.

Way back when my daughter was in high school, she want to help me with weddings. Getting older , I could use some "free" help , so I brought her along.

When she finished HS, I retired my wedding business. Now that she has assisted several weddings, she is on her own, with me assisting, carrying the heavy stuff .

In 20001, I bought a Oly E-1 , sold all my film cameras and equipment. But I hung onto the medium and large format, for old time sake. She loves the medium format, for B&W, but would never, never photograph a wedding with that stuff. Wonders how I did it, but that's all we had, I tell her. She wants to try the 4x5, but I'm not buying her and enlarger and tanks for that format. My bikes are more important, I tell her. Man, I could buy a Campy groupo with electronic shifting for the cost of a large format enlarger , used.