Originally Posted by
cyccommute
According to
this history from WD-40, the mixture is the same as it was when first introduced. I suspect that some components are more highly refined than they were in 1953 so that reactive double and triple bonded hydrocarbons have been removed as well as the solvent contains less benzene. As to “anti-wear additives” in chain lubes, they don’t do a whole lot. Additives to wax or liquid lubricants don’t really seem to increase chain life. Plan old Gulf canning wax provides just about the same chain life as oil does. There’s not much that can be done to a bicycle chain to extend life much past about 3500 miles on average. If “anti-wear additives” actually worked, I’d expect a significant increase in chain life…on the order of at least 25%…but that just doesn’t happen.
Motor oil additives are to prevent break down under the high temperature conditions that motor oil is subjected to. At low temperatures, the oil really doesn’t do much in the way of preventing wear.
I am not an expert on motor oil, but my understanding is, some additives are to reduce viscosity breakdown at elevated temperatures and duration, and (among others) there are anti-wear additives, what my father used to call "high pressure additives". The bike chain laboratory lube tests (of bike specific lubes) I read some years back, showed an increase in chain life with those lubes that had what they called anti-wear additives. Which is why I stopped using 3-In-1 oil.
For a time, I used ATF, but upon reading those tests, decided to go past motor oil and use synthetic 75W-90 gear lube which I happened to have a bottle of; It flows like motor oil, and stays very liquid even when cold. It thickens with metal particle buildup just like any wet lube.
Wax has been proven superior. Like I said, I went away from it for quite a while, thinking oil was better, after all, wax is dry. But tests show it is better. On the outside of the chain, it just flakes off, leaving no deposits. So if it's actually superior, I can only imagine it is because the hard wax inside the inner plates and rollers, stays in there and actually keeps the metal parts apart, and seems to be durable. Back when I used wax, I think I needed to lube the chain maybe once a month after it started to squeak? Most days I rode 35 miles.