Originally Posted by
Sy Reene
Yes, that's one major source for one side of the continuing debate. As you referenced:
"A myth that is difficult to dispel is the story that grease on a new chain, fresh out of the package, is not a lubricant but rather a preservative that must be removed. This piece of bicycling myth and lore thrives despite its illogic."
I agree with Brown that the
wax on the chain is a lubricant but I remove it prior to use because of past experience with the material. I use wax-based chain lubricant and if the factory lubricant isn’t cleaned off first, the chain is almost as greasy as if I use oil. Removing it results in a clean drivetrain for the entire lifetime of the chain.
I believe that the stuff that comes on a chain is BOTH a preservative, and a lubricant. However I believe it is sticky, and probably not a very good lubricant (but certainly better than a dry chain would be). When the manufacturers' coating is spoken of as 'best', I think it's from the standpoint of protective ability and it's tenacity to remain on the chain for a long time. However, I don't think it's clean running, nor the most frictionless option out there. I would like to see the Friction Facts or Silca whatnot lube/chain studies actually include factory prepped chains. Curiously they haven't, isn't it?
Tests done on chains have shown that bicycle chains experience very little heat during use which means that friction is of little concern
to the ordinary rider. It may make a difference in races where 100th of a secon are important but not out in the real world. The “stickiness” of the factory lubricant is a plus. The lubricant stays in place and doesn’t act as a vehicle to pump the grit into the chain. Since it doesn’t move, all the grit stays on the outside of the chain.
As to Clean running chains.. FWIW, I think it's also not correct when Sheldon says this a little further down in that article:
"The black stuff is oil colored by steel wear particles, nearly all of which come from pin and sleeve wear, the wear that causes pitch elongation. The rate of wear is dependent primarily on how clean the chain is internally rather than visible external cleanliness that gets the most attention.
Only when a dirty chain is oiled, or has excessive oil on it, can this grit move inside to cause damage. Commercial abrasive grinding paste is made of oil and silicon dioxide (sand) and silicon carbide (sand). You couldn't do it better if you tried to destroy a chain, than to oil it when dirty."
No. That is exactly correct. Oil isn’t black. It is amber colored or colorless. The grit on the chain isn’t black. Silicon dioxide...quartz...is usually colorless. Sand is only tan because of other minerals in the sand. Silicon carbide
is black but it isn’t likely to be out in nature much because it’s a relatively rare mineral. The only thing that can produce the black oil that is so common on bicycle chains is the wear products of the steel of the chain. The black substance is probably close to a
ferrofluid although the particles probably have too wide a size range for it to react to magnets the same way a ferrofluid would.
I would disagree with him on the “excess oil on it” statement.
Any oil is going to be able to trap and move grit into the chain. The constant wiping that oil-based lubricant users go through is due to the oil flowing off the chain. Oil flow is oil movement which means grit is being carried with it.
Wax and wax-based lubricant don’t flow so the grit doesn’t get moved into the chain. There is no pumping action like with oil. Wax and wax-based lube chains don’t necessarily last longer...about 3000 miles for both types of lubricant...because of other factors. The lack of movement of the wax means that the metal-to-metal interfaces have less lubrication than with oil. But oil carries grit so the chain wears at about the same rate. I find that I’d rather not have to clean all the time to get the same mileage.
]So, I agree with the first paragraph, but then I'm scratching my head as to why he thinks that none of the grit would also be inside the chain causing wear.. unless you happen to oil the chain without cleaning it first? Anyone who has ever soaked even a clean-looking, fully wiped down used chain, in some mineral spirits, should be able to attest to how much black stuff comes out with a bit of shaking.
I don’t think he is saying that none of the grit gets inside the chain. It obviously does since every oil lubricated chain is going to end up black and oily. Wax lubricated chains wear but the mechanism is different.
I also wouldn’t give too much credence to the grit you see in a mineral spirit wash. The grit you see isn’t a problem. The gap between the plates is too small for grit that would go past it to be visible. The damaging minerals are likely on a micrometer to nanometer scale. Anything in the millimeter range isn’t going to cause damage.
Running a chain out of the factory packaging for a few hundred miles, I'm thinking is a good way to jumpstart internal roller/pin chain wear.
Not really. Chains are going to wear no matter what you do to them. Leaving the factory lubricant on for a couple of hundred miles keeps the grit out for the most part. Removing it and replacing it with an oil is just a way to get the grit into it earlier.