Substitutes or replacements for Chain-L?
 

Hi, all. I've been very happy with Chain-L for years. Last week I washed my bike and chain and reapplied it and noticed my bottle was running low.
Dropped by the LBS and they said they haven't had it for years. None of the shops on the Chain-L Dealers List in the Boston area seem to have it.
FBinNY, the inventor, appears to have been silent on these forums for the past few years, and there's even a thread about that: (slash bicycle-mechanics slash 1152726-fbinny.html) *

Sent an email through the Chain-L website mid-week and have not heard back.
One 4oz bottle is for sale on E-Bay at 2x retail + shipping.
So it seems like the worst :(
(I did not try using the purchase link on the website, although I'd be happy to do that if anyone thought it would work)

What are the recommended alternatives for those of us who have been very happy with Chain-L?
Thanks!

* Sorry, new account, can't post links without 9 more posts.

It should work purchasing the Chain L directly from the website. I just checked and looks like no issues. I think FBinNY might be a little slow responding to emails sometimes. His dealer list needs some updating I think. I say just order it from the C-L site. Chain-L Lube Buy Now

I just bought Chain-L from the website maybe a month ago

Sounds like you can get your Chain-L ok. If you'd like to try a substitute, though, I am very impressed with Fenwicks Professional Chain Lube.

This is the closest stuff to ChainL and probably better. https://www.nixfrixshun.com/

Thanks, squirtdad! You were right, I just got an email notice that my order from yesterday has shipped, so clearly someone is minding the store, whether it's FBinNY or someone else.

I had been afraid that Paypal would charge me and then nothing would happen (obviously this is not Big Money, but it seemed worth posting an inquiry).

Thank you all!

Chain Lube Smackdown !!
 

...:popcorn

Chain-L looks like STP to me.

I was a little concerned that the Chain-L shipment label was generated on Monday but the package did not ship (and, apparently, stamps.com gives bogus timestamps to USPS; Monday at 6:30pm Eastern, the USPS website reported the label was created at 9:06pm in New Rochelle, NY — weird), but it finally shipped today.

I…don't understand what this could possibly mean, unless it is tongue-in-cheek?

I'm not an automotive gearhead, but I understand STP sells scores of products (I see 67 on their web page), from fuel additives to motor oil to flat fixers. So I'm not sure which product that means.
But also…looks like?
I'm sure we can make any 2 oils look alike by thinning one to make the viscocity the same and then adding the right dye. But the whole point of this stuff is they have different properties under extended use, different detergent additives (probably not so much on bikes but for sure in cars), dispersants, corrosion inhibitors, polymers for temperature independence, &c.
But I am no tribologist!

He's undoubtedly referring to what's probably the original STP product, and what us oldsters know as "STP". To me, when you say STP it's that product, a very thick (VERY thick) oil additive. Like three times as thick as any oil you've ever seen. Thick honey thick. When I was a teenager in the 60s, it was sometimes used to temporarily reduce burning oil in $hitty cars. All the race cars had STP stickers on them.

As far as what Chain-L is like: I went through a couple of bottles a few years ago and gave some sample bottles that FBinNY gave to me to my friends. The consistency and, especially the odor, reminded me of hypoid gear oil. It's a great, tenacious product. But I've switched to a wax-based product for two reasons. First, we just don't ride in the sort of harsh conditions (rain, etc.) in which Chain-L's tenacity pays off. Second, we load our bikes daily in and out of our Subarus and/or the back of the pickup. With that much handling, minimizing the amount of dirty oily stuff and odor on the chain is a good thing. Waxed chains are less likely to tatttoo legs or the inteior of a vehicle. But I wouldn't say anything bad about what Chain-L claims to do - it does it very well.

Thanks for that lead on the website, Crankycrank. I bought some and just cleaned and re-lubed with it last week. I had heard real good things about it a decade ago. It does seem a lot like the hypoid gear oil I used in the differential when I drove gas burning cars. Clings really well!!

LOL More like often times in my youth of driving $50 beaters during the Granatelli years.

https://www.stp.com/about-stp/stp-history

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I bought a used high mileage, poorly maintained '60 Chevy Biscayne the summer of '64 when I started graduate school. It was fed a steady diet of "STP" with every oil change to keep the oil consumption in check and it did help.

I recall reading that that STP was medium molecular weight polybutadiene thinned with light il to make it flowable and it acted as a VI (viscosity index) improver to reduce the thinning of the oil as it got hot. Probably buying SAE 40 or 50 weight oil would have accomplished the same thing but multigrade oild weren't nearly as developed as they are now.

Remember Casite "Motor Honey"? :D