socalrider

I recently came back from a 17 day trip to Australia. We were on the coast 14 of the 17 days. After a few days, almost every bike on the tour was starting to rust. The chains looked like they had been in rainstorm for weeks. The lube we had was synthetic and just wasn't cutting it

Anyone have a great oil based lube for the chains in a salty air conditions like Tasmania and Australia?

I am going to bring phil wood tenacious oil for the bolts and springs. My springs on SPDs started to rust as well.. But what oil based chain lube do you recommend. Anything synthetic is not going to cut it..

veganbikes

Probably would use a wet lube, and for that what I have been using is the Finish Line Ceramic Wet but probably any stuff could work. Tenacious oil might do the trick as well and you are carrying one less lube around. It is thick stuff but it will hold well and should coat nicely.

Andrew R Stewart 

The first Scotland tour had our bikes splashed with sea water a few times, besides being in the damp air 24 hours a day. Within a few weeks our Campy NR hubs showed surface corrosion bubbling up in spots. My 6 months in Santa Cruze saw my chromed Fuji Finest rusting at each nick or scratch. 15 years of working in LBSs in Cleveland (which had a huge road salt mining site just off shore, thus it cost next to nothing for the local highway depts to use way too much). The next 10 years were in NC and only a couple hours away from the Outer Banks. We saw way too many rusted bikes that lived out side during the season.

I agree with a wet lube, usually they have a better ability to coat surfaces and reseal contact points than the dry lubes I know of. But the biggest gain will be from periodic washing/rinsing and lube/waxing of the complete bike. Those Campy hubs would have likely not corroded if I had rinsed them off in a day, even if that was from a water bottle. Letting a salty surface sit in a damp atmosphere for many days is the issue IMO. Andy

10 Wheels

Texas Gulf Coast for my rides.
Use Chain L

Crankycrank

+1 for Chain-L. Not the only lube that will do but I live 3/4 mile from the ocean and ride in the occasional rain here in Southern California and this holds up to wetness and salt air better than most other lubes and I get over 500 mostly dry miles from each lube. Never got more than 120 miles or so from any other of the many lubes I've tried. Home Page Chain-L High Mileage Bicycle Chain Lubricant

Andrew R Stewart 

I totally agree with Chain L use. Been using it for quite a number of years. However I'll add my too often said statement about lubes: they are like body soap. I don't care which brand or type of soap you bathe with. It's the act of bathing that counts far more than which soap is used. So use what evet lube you like but clean and maintain your bike as often as in needed to have your partner not kick you out of bed Andy

KerryIrons

Not sure what you mean by synthetic. For example the synthetic motor oils (e.g. Mobil One) are just as corrosion resistant as conventional. They are both petroleum based but the synthetics just have a narrower molecular weight range because they are ethylene based. I've had great luck with dissolving oil in odorless mineral spirits as a chain lube. The reduce viscosity of the solvent allows the lube to easily penetrate everything and then when the solvent evaporates the lube is where it needs to be after you wipe off the surfaces.

pdlamb

In dry areas, this sounds great. How would you approach the Scottish (or similar) environment, though? Would you lube the chain then wash, or wash and try to dry everything before re-lubing? Seems like you could rinse the salt off, but you're left with a wet chain -- possibly with oil sitting on top to keep the moisture from evaporating.

Iride01 

The rust you see on the outside of your chain isn't really an indication that the lube you use isn't doing what it's suppose to do on the parts of the chain that really count for chain wear. And those places you can't see without disassembling your chain and ruining it.

Though I will agree that loose iron oxide particles from the surface rust might get worked down into the places on your chain where you can't see and cause some additional wear. But going by the rusty chains of my kids bikes and my own years before I ever cared, it's probably not a lot of concern. Except for just cosmetic and aesthetic reasons.

So simply wiping your chain off more often after riding in those conditions probably will have helped a lot no matter what lube you used.

Andrew R Stewart 

I don't worry too much about chain rust as all it takes is a quick freshening up of lube to address the chain's rusting. My comment was more about the rest of the bike and the corrosion (Fe or Al oxides and galvanic ones too). I have seen far too many bikes with frozen adjusting screws, packed up der pivots, cables no longer moving in their housings and stems/posts that won't move to not mention them too. At the risk of others flaming me I'll say that it is these other areas of potential corrosion that will keep the bike from working in a safe and consistent manor. It is only when the chain has been allowed to rust so much and the bike hasn't been ridden that chain rust will prevent function. This is a very high bar to neglect a bike to (again: no riding with no lube and a long time just sitting in a moist space). It just happens less often than most will think. By taking the time to rinse off your bike, touching the bits and parts and add small drops of oil here and there one will not just make stuff last longer/work better but also have a greater chance of noticing the bud of a problem before it grows into a huge tree of a problem.

Like I suggested when I was in Scotland I should have simply poured water over the bike to remove the salt left behind from the sea's splashes. BTW both times I have been there it has only rained one day per tour. When I mention this some have asked "which part of Scotland was that? I want to go there as the last time there it rained every day on us". Andy (whose late wife had the gift of good vacation weather, over and over year after year)

Camilo

Agree on the recommendation of Chain L for what you're looking for.

squirtdad

Chain L or vegemite

FBinNY 

Please read this with awareness of the inherent conflict of interest. Nor is it posted intended as an advert.

IMO the number one priority of a chain lube, or ANY lube for that matter, is to be where it's needed when it's needed. After all, no lube can do anyone any good if it's no longer there. Wet weather riders are more aware of this issue, because rain so easily washes lubes out of chains. As a lifetime wet weather rider, I first got the idea to make a lube because I was dissatisfied with general move towards clean lubes vs. durable lubes, and formulated CHAIN-L to meet my needs.

If your needs align with my objectives, then it's a logical choice. If not, or if you're happy using something else, than you should stay with what works.

Lombard

Any oil based wet lube will work well for your purpose. They are all pretty much the same basic ingredients and claim to have some proprietary extra ingredient that will take your chain life to the next level. All lubes in this category work equally well. If you want to save some $$, you can make your own homebrew lube of 50% motor oil and 50% mineral spirits. It will work just as well as any of the "miracle lubes" out there.

Avoid "dry" wax lubes. They don't last, don't lubricate as well and wash away easily if you get caught in the rain.

redshift1

Tasmania is a part of Australia.

MarcusT

Boeshield T-9 Offers great rust prevention. It tends to coat things, so do not apply to parts you do not want to have a protective coat applied

Camilo

It's like saying "like the US and Alaska (or Hawaii)"

pdlamb

While it's more correct to say CONUS or mainland US -- and Alaska and Hawaii, I've seen a lot of shipping costs broken out as "US $ Alaska and Hawaii $$$.

Of course, the strait between mainland Australia and Tasmania is narrower than the Pacific between CONUS and Hawaii -- by quite a few kilometers.

canopus 

Your taking Phil oil, just use it. No reason to pack anything else.
Contrary to everyone's belief, oil is oil. It wears off, you put more on. No oil is going to protect much better than anything else, especially if it gets washed off by rain and dried with dirt. My usual now is just my Amsoil gear lube I use in my trucks diff.

Lombard

^^^This.^^^

PhilFo 

ChainL is great but it coats, moves, looks, smells, and tastes just like hypoid gear oil. Go to a car parts store and get a liter of pretty much any hypoid gear oil, and save some money. Even if you buy the most expensive gear oil you can get, you're still way under cost of any bike specific wet condition lube.

Sy Reene

Vaseline

Sonofamechanic 

I grew up on the SW coast of Australia in the 70s (100 yards from the beach) and the only bicycle (or motorcycle) in that town that escaped the ubiquitous and almost immediate sheen of rust and corrosion was my dad’s bike—he’d spray down the entire bike with a sticky coat of LPS-3 and I swear his bikes never rusted. Might be an idea for those visiting coastal towns? You can detergent-off the LPS-3 once you are back home—it never really dries so we hated it as kids but it sure beat having a rusty bike like everyone else.

Lombard

Holy Schmidt! I remember the LPS line of products in my youth, but haven't seen them here im the U.S. in ages. I remember one of their penetrants would free just about anything when WD-40 couldn't. The stuff came out of the can brown. I have no idea what extra ingredient was in there that made it work when all other penetrants failed. But that stuff worked.

Kontact 

Boeshield clogs things up to the point where solvent won't get it out. I hate working on bikes that have been T-9'd.


I would also vote for washing and frequent lubrication whatever oil you feel happy putting on liberally. Oiled steel pretty much can't rust. The rust starts when the oil has wiped or wicked away.