cyccommute 

Yup. What is inside matters. Keeping the outside from moving inside also matter (marginally).

Removing all the lubricant inside the chain is only "BAD" if you don't replace it with something else. But, let's not forget that most lubricants are fluids even after the carrier solvent has evaporated. Fluids flow under gravity so lubrication applied in a thin oil form will migrate to the outside of the chain. If you have to wipe the chain before every ride, you are reducing the amount of lubrication that the chain has. In other words, you are losing lubrication if the bike is just sitting still. Yes, some lubricant may flow back into the chain but it can't flow there if you remove it.

Dry and wax based lubricants stay put. No, they can't flow back into the chain but they don't flow out to begin with.

The problem is keeping the chain clean. Any oil on the outside of the chain is a trap for grit. And, because the point of an oil based lubricant is that it is supposed to flow back and forth from the outside to the inside, some fraction of that grit is going to be small enough to move into the interior of the chain where it starts to act as an abrasive. Applying oil to the outside of a chain that has been exposed to the world is quick but it is also dirty.

Wax based lubricants don't act as a trap for particulates so even when you apply new lubrication, you are less likely to move grit to the inside of the chain. But...there's always a big but, Simone...wax lubes don't move around as much and can starve the surfaces needing lubrication. There can be metal on metal wear. There can also be metal on metal wear in oil lubricated chains as well along with the abrasive wear.

And here in lies the rub. Oil lubricated chains wear because they trip grit and are ground up. That's why oil lubricated chains are so black and gunky. It's not the grit that is black but the finely divided metal that is being ground up that is black. Wax lubrication also had metal bits that are ground up but, since they don't have a trip for the metal bits, they aren't black and gunky.

In the end, however, it doesn't matter how you treat your chain. All chains are going to wear out in about the same amount of mileage...or, perhaps more accurately, trips around the drivetrain...no matter what you do or what secret sauce you use or how often you clean it. I take the most minimal approach of just about anyone who posts on the Bike Forums. I get the same results as someone who cleans their chain on a weekly basis...I haven't seen any daily cleaners yet The only main difference from my minimalist approach is that I don't waste a lot of time on cleaning and lubricating the chain nor do I lose a lot of sleep over my chain.

My method works for me and has worked all over the US in a whole lot of different conditions. Will it work for others? I can't say but one never knows until they try it.

cyccommute 

Or you could be removing it every week, cleaning it (which wastes a different material), drying it, passing chicken bones over it, sacrificing goats to it, using a secret recipe of oils and fats rendered from unicorns on it, and wasting sleep over whether or not the chain is clean enough. After all that, you might get another 500 miles out of the chain. Of course you might not and all you did was waste unicorn fat which is an essential ingredient in Unobtainium refining.

Do you really want to be responsible for keeping Unobtainium for the world?

trailangel

I hear the new cars coming out with timing chains are going to be housed in a bath of liquid wax, because it is so much better than oil.

fietsbob

On the bike chain bath tools, like Park, work. Chain Gang Cleaning System | Park Tool

hankaye

Howdy All;

Years ago the Navy Aircraft maintenance shops used Freon to clean-up oils of all varieties, then it was banned.
Now the solvent that has taken it's place can be bought at your local pharmacy. Rubbing alcohol. Cuts right
through, cleans up easily, evaporates in an instant and it's cheap. My 2¢ worth.

Also, let me add that the Navy's gunners mates quit using WD-40 when it was discovered that it actually attracts
moisture, they switched over to Break-free. Which is a Cleaner, Preservative and Lubricant (CPL)

hank

ptempel

+1 Same here. I jumped on the wipe after every ride and oil once a week (or when it needs it) bandwagon. Also just use air tool oil (the 8oz one with plastic flip top from Husky for less than $3) for the lube. Works just fine and dandy. Learned both of these tips from BF. Thanks to all here.

cyccommute 

Technically, there isn't clear distinction between what is "wax" and what is "oil". A "wax" can be thought of as a thick oil or an "oil" can be thought of as a thin wax. Motor oil is just part of a homologous series of compounds that are separated from petroleum by distillation temperature. From a molecular point of view, they are very similar with only minor differences. Waxes just happen to be solid at ambient temperatures. And some of them...petroleum jellies, for example...are only slightly solid at ambient temperatures. Thick gear oils, on the other hand, could be considered slightly liquid at ambient temperatures.

Of course most new cars are equipped with timing belts for various reasons which are run dry. The belt material doesn't do well in oil.

Wheever

Two words: Wippermann Connex.

gsa103

What's your recommended oil for low usage bikes? My mountain bike gets taken out ~1-2 times a month, or friend's who don't cycle regularly, but don't want to do a full cleaning when they're only riding every other week on a hybrid.

I've switched to wax lubes because it seemed like oil-based was evaporating faster than I was riding. I've been using Boeshield, any thoughts on that vs White Lightning.

trailangel

Use Chain-X instead. It's a new waxed based chain lube.

morgothaod

I do what this guy does... I hope it's ok!

cyccommute 

Do you have a link or are you confusing it with Chain-L?

I'm not sure what you are doing but oil-based lubricants don't "evaporate". The oil in them doesn't have a high enough vapor pressure at normal temperatures (0°F to 150°F) to evaporate like, say, water or some other solvent will. They might be polymerizing over long periods of time but that's more on the order of years than weeks. You might also be trapping particulates in the oil which makes it less mobile.

Personally, I use White Lightning on everything and I have many bikes that don't get used regularly. I wouldn't store the bikes outside in rain and hope that the chain would be protected but I wouldn't store a chain treated with oil out in the rain either. Both are going to rust in fairly short order.

I really haven't tired that may chain lubricants since I've started using White Lightning about 20 years ago. I've tried a couple...Finish Line and WD-40's chain lubricant come to mind...but I haven't been pleased with the results. WD-40's chain lube smells like Hai Karate after shave but doesn't work like it It's kind of vile and messy. If it got the reaction in the video, it might be worth using but it's probably more a repellent than an attractant.

cyccommute 

If you think it's okay and that floats your boat, go right ahead. But my experience with chain cleaners like the guy in the video uses are exactly what you can see in the video. They are incredibly messy! He has to put a plastic sheet down to catch all the crap that he flings off the chain. I can clean and lube a chain without flinging solvent all over the floor, the walls and the person holding up the bike. In fact, I don't need a person to hold up the bike.

Problems I see with this method:

-It uses a water based degreaser. That's fine but if you leave the degreaser in the chain...especially the water bit...you are asking for trouble down the line. The water promotes rusting on the inside of the chain which isn't good. To get the degreaser out, he really should be rinsing the chain with clean water and then following that with a rinse of an organic solvent like acetone or denatured alcohol to remove the water.

-I could clean about 20 to 60 chains with the volume of solvent in his bottle that he uses to fill the cleaning machine. Based on the amount of stuff he flings off, he'd be lucky to clean 3 chains with his "biodegradable" degreaser. To repurpose an old crass saying..."the solution to pollution is dilution"...the solution to pollution is using less. Let's assume that I can clean 20 chains with 200 ml of solvent. He can clean one with 200 ml of solvent. Over time, I generate 200 ml of waste. He generates 4000ml of waste (about a gallon). And let's not forget the water and solvent rinse...that's another 2 gallons of waste. Which is less polluting...even when you take into account the "biodegradability" of his solvent?

- Even if your oil is "biodegradable", you really shouldn't spray it all over the ground. You may be able to "give back to the street what came from the street" but even biodegradable oils take time to degrade and cause the same problems as oils that aren't as biodegradable.

miamijim

Ultrasonic cleaner with Dawn dish detergent.

trailangel

Chain- X is a new waxed based lube. Maybe you should try it, as you are using a 20 year old lube.

gsa103

Do you have a link? I tried a google search and it didn't show up. Who makes it?

trailangel

Only Available in Colorado right now. You go into a shop and ask for it and they give it to you in a brown paper bag.

davidad

I you haven't read it before, I remove my chain every 800 miles and clean it in an ultrasonic cleaner with Simplegreen and water. I dry it reinstall it and lube it before I pass chicken bones over it.

leob1

I think is smells rather pleasant. To each his own.
It also like the way it works, it silenced a noisy chain on my wife's bike. And less messy than some other stuff, no more messy than others.
For the record, I used to do the strip in OMS and re-lube a few times a year, but that take too much time. So now I just do a wipe and lube whenever I can't stand to look at a dirty chain.
I also used a chain cleaner in the past. It worked somewhat on the chain, but made a big mess on the floor, bike, and every thing else. And then you have to clean the cleaner.

Hai Karate- how old are you?

FullGas

I'll pass on the unholy mess that goofy method makes...

noglider 

I've cleaned chains. It's icky work. If my chain gets unusually grimy, I replace it. I'm sorry Planet Earth, but I try in many other ways. I'm too old to de-grime chains any more.

HillRider

The timing belt is going out of fashion and timing chains are returning to favor due to their longer service life. Honda, for one, dropped timing belts back in the early '00's and my wife's '03 Accord has a timing chain. The belts were less expensive initially and a bit quieter but required replacement at anything from 60,000 to 100,000 miles and that's an expensive job. Timing chains last almost indefinitely.

cyccommute 

Ah. An attempt at humor. The sound of crickets is such a sad sound.

cyccommute 

Old enough to remember Hai Karate after shave.

+1

I most certainly agree which is why I don't use a product that makes my chain grimy. Prior to using wax based lubricants, I used WD-40, Triflow, Phil Woods Tenacious Oil and maybe a few other products. All of them were oil based and left my bike a filthy mess...Tenacious Oil was the worst. I've also had some experience with home brew on a bike that I bought off Fleabay about 5 years ago. The bike is my daughter's "home" bike so it doesn't get ridden often but when it does we still find left over motor oil on the frame in places where I swear I've cleaned.

I will say that no matter what product I've used...Tenacious Oil, White Lightning, WD-40, etc...I haven't seen any real differences in longevity of the chain. They all last from 3000 to 4000 miles but since I have switched to the method I use now (see above for details), I don't do anything to the chain other than put lubrication on it at about the same frequency as most people would with an oil lubricant and I don't have to de-grime my chain or bike anymore. It's quite liberating.

fietsbob

On Long bike tours I Just wiped off the outside (rag) after oiling the chain, then Put a New chain on when I returned .