Originally Posted by
milkbaby
FB, thanks for the info. I just Prolink'ed a KMC gold chain that is on a used bike I got, and black gunk was coming out of it forever. It smelled very "industrial", so I'm suspecting it was Chain-L on there? The chain and cassette were both so dark that I couldn't tell the chain was one of those gold ones, and it took forever to get the cassette decent looking, still not shiny...
If that was Chain-L in there, I have to say that I was impressed how much of it was in there and didn't come out until I hit it with the Prolink. Does Chain-L migrate back out of the chain innards that much, or was it probably that the rider before me didn't bother to wipe down the chain enough? From the review by Ed Pavelka and seeing the amount of stuff coming out of the chain, I'm very tempted to try it...
Chain-L has tacking agent (glue) in the formula. that helps keep it where I want it to stay. OTOH Prolink is like home brew oils in that it has a high percentage of solvent. The solvent breaks down Chain-L and makes it wash out. I can't say whether what came out is Chain-L, or any other residual oil including old Prolink.
If you subject a used chain to the right solvent, black oil will weep out. The oil isn't necessarily dirty, but is black because of wear by product. If you drain the motor oil out of an engine it'll also be black, even after only 200 miles. That doesn't mean it isn't still good for 3,000 miles, just that it's died black. It also isn't necessarily dirty or gritty, the oil filter takes care of that, but is is black.
The color isn't an indicator of lube condition, the most important is probably sound. A well oiled chain runs smooth and quiet, (that's why you oil it). A poorly lubed chain sounds and feels like a poorly lubed chain.