lungimsam

What's your experience with it?

My spokes seem to be alot dirtier on the rear wheel since I started using it. I wonder if it is somehow coming off the drivetrain and gumming up the spokes.
I don't overdo it upon application, and I wipe off the chain.

FBinNY 

Wipe it off more, but more likely some spun onto the spokes when you applied it, and even the thinnest (invisible) film will hold dust. It could also be hub or cassette oil/grease weeping out because of rain or summer heat.

Either way clean the spokes with a rag dampened with mineral spirits.

Jed19

And don't ride right after lubing. Sometimes, the right after lube ride results in oil flying everywhere.

Persdonally, I lube when I have to, the night before a ride.

Camilo

After putting on the Chain L and letting it soak (usually overnight, on a newspaper), I wipe it down thoroughly with a rag dampened (not soaked) with mineral spirits. Really wipe the heck out of it, but note that this is only removing the external oil. I never have problems with it tossing off oil to the other parts of the bike. Then, I wipe it thoroughly again same way a day or two after riding. The second wiping is just to clean it up because it does tend to pick up dirt as the chain oozes a little more oil to the outer plates, and it's sticky. After that, it stays pretty clean. I'm not a clean chain freak though, but only clean it up when I have nothing better to do or if it strikes me as being too messy.

But to answer the question in the subject: I do like it a lot. It's a little "fussy" to apply and clean up at first, but it indeed lasts a long time and works well (at least it seems to - quiet, good shifting, everything a chain should do).

I've followed the directions in thoroughly cleaning the chain before application, but recently have been cleaning it more superficially and just re-applying the chain-L (which is what I do with regular oil - pretty much just wipe the chain, reapply the oil and re-wipe). I've found that this might not be optimal, but it works pretty well considering the less effort.

kenmcchord

+1 for liking it.

I've tried so many different chain lubes and I think chain L is the best for my money. Completely quiet drive train now, and both my Litespeed campy equipped and my SWorks shimano equipped seem to do well with it.

Regardless of how much I wipe it after a thorough cleaning I get that oil splatter on my spokes. I have accepted this as normal, and I usually wipe down my chain and spokes/wheel after a ride, then re-apply a very thin coat if the chain looks like it needs it. Either way the stuff works for me.

jyl

I love the stuff.

I do this: first I spray the chain and the rest of the drivetrain with cleaner. Then use a pressure washer to blast the chain clean. Dry it in the sun. Warm the bottle of Chain-L in the sun or in a pan of hot water. Apply just one drop to each link. Go for a short gentle ride. Wipe off the chain. Thereafter I wipe off the chain every week or do. I haven't noticed a mess on the spokes. My chain disappears with that stuff, it is like I have no chain, so soundless. I don't reapply it until I notice my chain again.

davidad

Are you lubing a dirty chain on the bike? https://draco.nac.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/8d.2.html

Jed19

After every ride, I wipe down my chain with a rag. It takes all of ten seconds. I always lube my chain on the bike. Sure, the first ride after cleaning a chain is always special, but I see no reason not to lube the chain on the bike.

flanso 

I think it is the best chain lube I have used.

JonathanGennick 

Chain-L is good stuff. Took two of my own bikes and one for my son on vacation last week. Rode the bikes every day. Didn't even have to think about lube. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I lubed my 26er that I've been riding.

My usual approach to applying the stuff is to remove the chain from the bike, wipe the chain as clean as I can get it, put on the lube, go for coffee, then wipe the chain as dry as I can get it, and finally put the chain back onto the bike and wipe some more.

ping jockey

another +1 for liking it

AlphaDogg

I use chain-l and I love it! The other day, I wanted to go for a ride and I decided my chain needed lube (though it had a mixture of factory lube+chain l on it), so I put a thin lube (ProLink) on. What that did was it wicked all of the dirt from the outside of the chain onto the inside, so I had to soak the chain in OMS and start from the beginning with some chain-l. I wanted to take a shortcut so I wouldn't have to do any maintenance in the morning (I did this stupid thin lube thing at 10pm), but it ended up costing me the opportunity to take a ride.

When applied correctly (ie take the chain off the bike, soak in solvent and then apply), it lasts quite some time IME. Because I

Great product, FBinNY. My order for a full 4oz bottle will be in when I finish up my 1oz trial.

Shimagnolo

This. Many lubes contain a solvent in addition to the lube, to thin the lube so it can penetrate tight clearances. Riding right after lubing is a guaranteed mess, because the solvent has not yet evaporated. I use Tri-Flow, and it is easy to tell when the solvent has evaporated: If I can smell it, the solvent it still there. The lube is essentially odorless.

lungimsam

The Chain-L smells like car engine oil to me for a week or so after lubing. I can smell it standing next to the bike.

DannoXYZ 

It's not auto-engine oil. Many lubes use an engine-oil base and that's completely the wrong lubricant for the job (not to mention the wrong pH). Car engines use a sealed pressurized oiling system that floats the parts away from each other. There is hardly ever any rubbing of hard-parts and the oil is really just an incompressible fluid to generate buoyancy with pressure (around 50-70psi).

Bicycle chains on the other hand, DO have parts touching each other and in a modern flexible bushingless chain for index-shifting, the contact areas are extremely small and experiences extremely high-pressure. Easily 10x more pressure than the fat 1/8" bushing chains from just a couple decades ago. A proper lube for chains would require an additives package that deals with extreme pressure and heat. Not something engine-oils have in abundance, especially since these additives destroy catalytic converters and drive emissions through the roof.

After using every single lube on the market since 1982, and working in a shop for 10-years trying out the latest and greatest, I'd have to say that Chain-L #5 is the best I've ever seen. It's the only lube that's allowed me to get over 10k-miles out of a chain before 1/16" wear. Provided you clean your chain and apply it properly of course...

Camilo

It smells like gear oil to me.

JonathanGennick 

If I really had to soak the chain in solvent each time, I'd switch to a different lube in a heartbeat. That'd be too much fiddly work.

Looigi

+1. Sulfur based EP additives.

Metaluna

I've tried many lubes, including dry lubes, wet lubes, "self-cleaning" solvent lubes, homebrew, etc. I'd definitely put Chain-L at the top of the list in terms of longevity and quietness, with Phil Tenacious as #2. Whether it actually makes chains last longer is hard to say. I'd say I get about the same chain life, but I'm oiling much less frequently, maybe every 200 miles. I don't get nearly the long life that others have claimed, though. Probably depends how picky you are about noise, shifting performance, etc. Also, being a clyde, maybe I put more stress on the chain causing the lube to wear out faster (due to being saturated with steel particles). It definitely is a pain to apply properly, but I recently tried switching back to homebrew and ended up back on Chain-L after a few rides. The homebrew-lubed bike had noticeably poorer shifting on the rear, and if I grabbed the chain with my fingers and flexed it, it always felt far grittier in the links than it ever does with Chain-L.

FBinNY 

Some mix of truth and other, especially as it applies to Chain-L.

Chain-L has no solvent to evaporate, and I carefully balanced the viscosity to be the thickest that will wick in at room temperature. The initial spatter you get with a new chain is because it's impossible to wipe the area between the plates so this needs to either drain to an edge with time, of get flung off as the chain comes around the pulleys at high speed. Allowing extra time between lubing and riding, then doing a quick pass through a rag reduces the initial spatter to very near zero.

When I'm in a rush, I tear off a strip of paper towel and run it up between the chain and largest rear sprocket, then pedal a few seconds wiping off the insides of the plates. Then I can pull the strip free as I back pedal.

As for the odor. Pure oil has almost no odor (smells like drug store mineral oil). Solvents have their own odor, and evaporate quickly, with solvent odor a good indicator that you still need to wait. Chain-L's odor comes from the sulfur additive which is there to increase the film strength. If you don't over apply, the odor dissipates fairly quickly (or you get used to it?).

However some people are more sensitive to sulfur's odor than others, and I'm considering an odor-free version of Chain-L with a different blend of additives. Unfortunately the next best choice makes the oil black (in the bottle), which is OK by me since that happens fast enough anyway in use, but I suspect may put off others.

JonathanGennick 

I embrace the odor as part of the process. Maybe I shouldn't admit that.

ThermionicScott 

You wouldn't be the only one. Part of the reason I like changing the oil in my car is the great smell of fresh Rotella.

Old'N'Slow

Yep...I'm a fan! Especially living in the Seattle area and biking in the winter. Nothing better.

wroomwroomoops

Hey, now you're just bragging

Crankycrank

Chain-L is my favorite lube. I've been lubing chains since the late 1960's and used just about everything; 3 in 1 oil, motor oil, gear oil, WD-40, Phil's tenacious, Various wax lubes, Immersing in melted wax, Motorcycle chain lubes, Chain saw oil, Pro Gold, Various Finish Line products, etc., etc., and never was able to get more than 200 miles out of any of them before needing to re-apply. Most were around the 100 mile mark. Now I get over 500 miles between lubes and only re-lube at that point because the rest of the bike needs a wash and lube. I'm sure I could go much farther before more Chain-L is needed though since I have never heard a squeek or a noisy chain yet. One bottle goes a very long way. At the rate I'm using it I'm guessing I'll get about 30K miles worth of applications out of a 4oz. bottle. Thanks FBinNY.