Originally Posted by
LV2TNDM
ZeroFriction's testing is the best available to the bicycle consumer at present. Is it perfect? Nope. But does he have an objective, systematic chain wear system in place to compare lubrication options? Sure does. I'll add that he has no true axe to grind or skin in the game. Sure, he sells the high-performing products he tests, but he isn't a manufacturer or exclusive provider of any product.
Stating that he doesn’t have an axe to grind nor skin in the game belies the fact that ZeroFriction sells products. Some of them appear to be sold at a significant markup. For example, 520g of Speed Wax can be had for around $30 from various places. ZeroFriction sells the same amount for $70. I’m not sure if there is a USD vs AUSD thing going on but if the price is in US dollars, that’s a lot of markup.
As to the testing, read the Hamblini article. I’m not a follower of Hamblini and I find him to be rather annoying most of the time. But I noticed several flaws in the ZeroFriction data long before I read Hamblini’s article. Most particularly, real world testing of wax doesn’t stand up to the bench test data. In real world testing, wax under performs by 2 to 3 times less. ZeroFriction extrapolates from bench tests that wax can make a chain last in the range of 25,000km (15,000 miles). Divide that by 3 and you end up with 8000km (5000 miles) which is just about what you get with any lubricant.
Funny how exactly ZERO chain lubrication companies have done what Adam at ZFC is doing. If someone wants to develop a good product, wouldn't they want to develop an objective testing apparatus to help achieve that goal? Seems to me they would. And if they did and they discover a fantastic product, it seems that they'd want to share their data with others. In other words, their testing results would be fantastic advertising.
Can you say with certainty that no one else is testing lubricants? Maybe they are doing the tests but just not publishing the reports.
Friction Facts did testing as an independent lab back in the teens for various corporations . That’s where the chart I linked to came from. Ceramic Speed obtained them in 2016 and appears to continue to do testing for companies. The Friction Facts chart showed that there really isn’t much advantage to any lubricant.
I think that because chain lubes have been absolute garbage for the last 50 years. Objective testing would quickly reveal just how bad wet lubes are overall. So why publish this fact when you're in the lube business and your product isn't great? Plus, everyone's happy shilling the latest product and making money. And the bike industry is VERY happy knowing that the lubes on the market ensure ample, repeat customers for bicycle components defined as "consumable." Chain, cassette and chain ring sales will remain very strong as long as people are using lubes that last maybe 1,000 miles off road.
Bicycle lubricants don’t need to be much more than they have been since 3-in-One oil was introduced 1894 as one of the first…if not
the first…bicycle chain lubricants. There is no magic elixir that performs far better than any other magic elixir…including wax. Frankly, people give ZeroFriction too much credit. It is not “objective”. If it were, it would look at its bench data that says a chain will last 25,000 km and it’s real world testing that says chain last 8000km and ask “what is the problem here?” If real world says one thing and bench testing says another, you go with the real world and redo your experiment.
Immersion wax has proven to be head and shoulders above everything else when it comes to performance and chain longevity. Performance in dry, dusty, abrasive conditions is simply amazing. What normally would require mid-ride relubing with traditional lubes, translates to 4-10 rides without any cleaning or relubrication. The fact that high-grade wax does not create abrasive paste is the key to its performance advantages.
That is just a ridiculous claim. Wax lasts about the same as oil, although for very different reasons. Wax is cleaner and I’m no fan of oil but it is not vastly superior. A chain is only going to last a certain amount of time and no lubricant is going to make it last any longer than any other lubricant.