Favorite lubes/cleaners/products?
Shop mechanics (and home too), I would love to hear what products you swear by. This is mainly regarding lubes, cleaners and other consumables, but if there's some life-changing, high-quality tool you know about (EVT shop clamp comes to mind for me), I'd love to hear!
The ones that stick out for me are Pedro's Bike Lust (miles ahead of the Bontrager stuff), Phil Wood Tenacious Oil and Dri-Slide Bike Aid. The Dri-Slide is magic in a bottle. |
Boeshield T9 for chain lube
WD40 for chain cleaner Lemon Pledge as frame cleaner/polish |
Two products I like to use are the Home Depot brand heavy duty citrus cleaner. Which is probably the same stuff as the name-brand citrus cleaners they sell…but just a little cheaper. It works well. I also recently discovered that the Dawn Platinum Powerwash foaming spray is pretty good degreaser.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...88e6d39af.jpeg https://www.target.com/p/dawn-platin...E&gclsrc=aw.ds Dan |
Pedro's Bio degreaser. Pretty much any chain lube that isn't White Lightning. Blue Dawn for the rest of the bike. If the frame finish is gloss Lemon Pledge works great. Tools? I love everything Jason at Abby makes. With the exception of the barb pusher/hose holder thingy and maybe the internal routing kit I pretty much hate everything Park makes. Knipex: great. PB Swiss: great. Wera: great. Wiha: great.
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Favorite lube huh? As far as bicycle lube goes I’m trying to love Silca Super Secret liquid wax. So far I like it more than anything I’ve used thus far. I still don’t love it. It’s not as waterproof as advertised and requires frequent reapplication. I use Castile soap and water for the ultrasonic cleaner
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I use Lemon Pledge on my motorcycle as well. I like.
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I feel like we haven't had one of these in a while so why not.
For degreaser I like citrus stuff or the Rock N Roll Miracle Red (which I mainly use for grease stains on clothing these days) Lube: Anything is good but I do tend to go for the Finish Line Ceramic Wax but really any is good. Cleaner: Dr. Bronners for everything but I got a bottle of the Muc-Off pink stuff because I can spray it and it was on sale. I did enjoy the Bike Lust and should still have some but I don't really clean my stuff as well as I used to so I probably use it less. Grease: Phil Wood though I also have some purple Pedro's Grease that I use sometimes. Though probably most of that stuff is pretty good especially if you are greasing and lubing with regularity and checking things. I try to avoid SC Johnson and Proctor and Gamble if I can. it is never bad to skip that crap. For tools: Snap-On, Abbey, PB-Swiss, Wera, Knipex...all generally really good stuff. Park Tool makes some decent stuff here and there but there generic tools are not worth it for the most part and yeah there are generally better tools for a lot of stuff but I have used a lot worse tools. For generic tools like say Hex Wrenches buy the absolute best ones out there don't skimp. Tools you use infrequently and especially those that don't require much torque you can buy lower initial cost stuff but if you are planing on wrenching professionally or want to have these tools for years again buy the best stuff you can buy it slowly and do not buy sets (unless it is a set of hex wrenches or sockets or something) get the tools you know you are going to use individually yes it may cost more initially but you won't be stuck with crap. |
ACF-50 for chain lube and all round corrosion protection. Also makes cleaning down a simple wipe down affair.
Quicksilver 2-4-c with teflon marine grease for bearings. Urior wrenches. And a proper crimping tool for cable ends. |
Originally Posted by Tawraste666
(Post 22542010)
ACF-50 for chain lube and all round corrosion protection. Also makes cleaning down a simple wipe down affair.
Quicksilver 2-4-c with teflon marine grease for bearings. Urior wrenches. And a proper crimping tool for cable ends. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...225ac9ad2b.jpg |
Like politics and religion, talk of favorite lubes can make for some spirited discussions. Here goes from a home mechanic:
Chain Lube: Boeshield T9 Grease: Park Polylube 1000 (yes, I know it's costly marine grease but I use so little and the squeeze tube is so convenient. One tube lasts me years). Cleaning: petroleum based solvent for chains, water-based orange cleaner for parts needing a scrubbing (think chainrings, cassette cogs....), and whatever dishwashing detergent for the frame/forks/wheels. Tools: Park for bicycle specific tools, Craftsman for generic tools (wrenches, sockets, hex wrenches/bits, all hold overs from my car wrenching days). Cable ends: secure the ends with silver solder (for stainless cables) |
A recent convert to SuperLube grease for wheel bearings. I had been using blue marine bearing grease, but the SuperLube seems better after using both. Hint. Go to eBay or Amazon and get 2 or 3 of the small metal grease guns and similar type for light oil. After years of slopping grease all over I find the little pump guns to be really nice. The tips let you get the grease into deeper hub races, etc.
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Originally Posted by cxwrench
(Post 22542027)
You can buy tools made for stamping rings and such (18k, 24k, etc) that are custom. Brad Copeland has one that crimps his name. I think they're only about $150.00.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...225ac9ad2b.jpg I must have one.... |
Originally Posted by cxwrench
(Post 22541644)
Tools? I love everything Jason at Abby makes.
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My Krazy Grease is almost gone. The company died 3 years ago and I can't find it anywhere. :cry:
HELP !!!! My IGH bikes need it. |
For general oiling/chain lube, I use TriFlow.
For grease, I used Phil Wood grease exclusively since the 1980s until last year when pulled apart my 1984-vintage Dura-Ace pedals, and saw that the grease in them was as viscous as if it were new. Since then, I've been using the Shimano/Dura Ace Special grease (Phil is still highly recommended). In shop practice, we used white lithium almost exclusively. But I do remember opening up old hubs and whatnot with dried white lithium grease inside. |
https://www.amazon.com/Dualco-Grease...%2C131&sr=1-10
You can find these in two packs and less expensive, but are great for keeping the shop clean |
I'm surprised at the enthusiasm for Lemon Pledge for the paintwork. I don't know it not to work, but it never occured to me to try it, either.
To the Pledge users, it works better than something like a liquid or spray wax detailer? I presume you're not cleaning a muddy or dirty frame with Pledge, but using it as as final step/wax/polish? I'll be sure to try some in the future. Thanks for the lead on this. |
I use Chemical Guys ceramic car wax, but probably any ceramic wax will do.
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I've met some motorcycle tourers that claim Lemon Pledge attracts bees. Kind of amusing and not sure if that's an old wives tale but if you notice an unusual amount of bees stalking you, it may be something to consider.
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Park Grease
WD40 to remove sticky icky stuff Tri Flow lube...love the stuff and not expensive MucOff chain cleaner in my Park chain cleaning tooly thing Lemon Pledge...the best bike shine stuff evah and it smells so good too Bike Lust...good all purpose cleaner/polish |
Originally Posted by Tawraste666
(Post 22542349)
That is awesome.
I must have one.... |
Favourite cleaner? Muc Off soap/wash. Whatever the pink spray bottle is.
Degreaser? Some bio-degradable stuff I buy from the local co-op. Does an OK job, not great. I recently started using the Muc Off degreaser and man. That stuff removes grease! I do not think the de greaser is that safe though, as it ate through some rubber brushes I was using. Totally disintegrated them. Lube: Rock 'n Roll gold. |
One of the best "tools" we had in the shop was a solvent tank, which had a pump that squirted the solvent out a hose, so we could really flush stuff out. It was in no way biodegradable--just pure solvent! I'm sure the toxicity was off the charts. It was recycled through a filter. A guy came by once every week or two and changed out the solvent tank. That thing was a Godsend.
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Light bike cleaning: Meguiar's Last Touch Spray Detailer
Normal cleaning/degreasing: Orange Goop Ruff Towels Heavy cleaning/degreaseing: Extreme Simple Green Aircraft and Precision Cleaner Campagnolo Grease: Kluber Isoflex Topas NB-52 |
Pedro's Bike Lust for dry cleaning and shine
Rock n'Roll Holy Cow chain lube T9 for drip lube on pivots etc around the bike White Lightning Clean Streak as a degreaser once in a while 3M teflon spray for cleats |
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