Originally Posted by
cody k
i have not ran into an unlubbed chain that has not been squeaky, have you ever seen a chain that has been out in the weather for a long time unlubbed it gets dirty and rusty then it gets froze up and wont bend but as soon as you take a little wd40 to it it frees right up and becomes bendable again why does it do this? becaus the oil loosens up dirt and rust and slowly works the dirt and rust out of the chain, yes the outside of the chain collects dust nothing you can do about that, i rebuild and restore antique engines and tractors i have seen the kind of dirt and rust it can work out of a stuck piston that has been stuck like that for 80 years, when you have metal to metal rubbing together it wears when you throw some dirt in the picture it wears faster now lets throw some oil in thier now the metal is not rubbing on the metal no more and now the dirt has a harder time sanding away the metal caus thier is lubricant between the dirt and metal so the dirt has a harder time rubbing against the metal, its like taking a piece of sand paper to raw metal it will sand away now if you put oil on the metal and try to sand it it does not sand nearly as easily, its also like taking the oil out af the transmission on your car and drivin off first it starts not shifting right next your walking, its the same with a chain no oil it breaks down the chain and sprockets wheather its a single or 27 speed bike, i would rather lube my chain to keep my $50 chain and $100 9spd cassette from wearing out it gets expensive replacing this stuff all the time, i have been wondering if you do not oil your chain how much oil is in your car, you may be walkin soon
You're confusing rust and wear. The chain of a bicycle (or any other machine) left out in the rain is no more prone to rust than any other part. I suppose oil would help with rust, but I haven't found rust to be a problem if you don't leave things outside in the rain.
I'm not trying to be combative here, but your conclusions just don't match up with what I see on my bikes (and I don't care if every other bicycle in the world works the way you say it does...if it doesn't work with my bikes then it's worthless).
Could it be the case that the real problem with your antique tractors and engines is that they
are left out in the rain; And the real problem with not oiling a car engine is that the loads and mileage are much higher; And the real problem with not oiling the chain on your 9spd cassette is the metal/metal sliding caused by sideways flexion (after all...the reason chains have rollers is because the friction is presumably much less than regular metal/metal sliding); And that all these things more expensive to replace than a simple single speed chain (which is most likely cheaper than a bottle of oil)?
Sorry to be difficult, but I'm asking for an explanation of the facts here (why I haven't found the smallest disadvantage to not oiling a chain without a derailleur) and what I'm getting are explanations for the opposite of the facts (why not oiling a chain creates a big disadvantage). It's frustrating.
Originally Posted by
stevetone
Finally, someone has figured this out! I can't believe that we have been using lubricants on our bike chains since 1874--what a bunch of chumps we are!
Seriously, anyone thinking that they have "discovered" something new about bicycle chains has a lot of history to contend with. But hey, what do I know? I am just one of about a billion bike riders that came before me...
And that, sir, is why I made this thread. Who's the guy that figured it out before me that all the chumps wrote off and what else did he learn? It wouldn't be the first time that the empty headed cyclolemmings squandered some nugget of cycling wisdom.