Originally Posted by cyccommute

And that is a stupid statement. The “factory lube” is a wax. The wax being by wax being used to lubricate used in most cases is still a “wax”. “Like dissolves like” is something that chemist use to decide if one compound will dissolve another compound. It is usually used in the context of polar vs nonpolar materials but, in this case, they are the same material that differs only in molecular size and “like dissolve like” is even more applicable.

The factory lube doesn’t prevent lubricants from “bonding” to the chain mostly because the lubricant doesn’t “bond” in any way at all. There is no chemical reaction between the metal and the lubricant of any kind. There is a physical adherence but having something else on the chain doesn’t interfere with that adherence if the two lubricants being used as similar in properties which most are.

There are reasons to strip the factory lubricant off, however. Squirt, being water/surfactant based wax, is not likely compatible with the factory lube. The surfactant modifies the properties of the wax in the mixture but it doesn’t have enough dissolving power to modify the factory lubricant on the chain so it would sit on top of the factory lube and be ineffective. I remove factory lube prior to using White Lightning because leaving the factory lube in place results in a much dirtier chain than if I remove it. But I’m not removing the factory lubricant to enhance “bonding” that doesn’t exist in the first place.