I like the concept but ours are free from the recycle bin and we don't loose the cap (its hinged).

Good point, but nobody in my household has contact lenses, and I'm not about to root through the neighbor's trash looking for discarded bottles. Besides, the needle nozzle makes it easy to reach the oil ports on my Sturmey-Archer hubs.

Neither dripped nor drizzled. Wicked on with the needle oiler bottles shown or an eye dropper, and I use a 3:1 wool wax/ballistol blend.

Rock ‘n’ Roll lubricants are wax in a solvent. When the solvent evaporates, a wax “membrane” actually is left behind.

Most all wax based lubricants have you flood the chain with the solution. The solvent in the lubricant has limitations on how much wax is can carry. However with a lower loading, more of the mixture has to be used with wax in order to get enough lubricant into the chain. In an oil based lubricant, the percentage of oil carried by the solvent is higher and less can (and should) be used.

Wax lubricant does, indeed, cause wear of the chain but the mechanism is different. Wax, as a solid, blocks the infiltration of dirt into the chain. However, because of the solid nature of wax, the pressure points in the chain get less lubrication resulting in more metal on metal wear. The worn metal either falls out of the chain or is trapped in the wax with the former probably more prevalent.

With oil, the pressure points aren’t starved of lubrication but the oil as it flows around the chain picks up grit from the environment which results in grinding of the chain surfaces but not through metal-on-metal wear. The removed metal remains in the oil/grit/metal bits paste which is why you can pick it up with a magnet.

I butcher my own dinosaurs and render them in a Crockpot to create my own oil. I then submerge my chain in the fresh dino-oil, then hang the chain and allow the excess to drip off. I keep two chains so I can always have one ready to go.

In other news i found out what this pink lube is and it’s not wax based after all, and has controversial fluoropolymers in it so I’m passing.

I see. What good does it do to spread the lube on the outside? I just drip onto the rollers, which does drizzle a little on the outer and inner surfaces. I follow by wiping thoroughtly. But I don't see the point of spending that time, material and effort painting the chain like that.

Prevents rusting by having that thin coast of oil. Chain is cleaned, oiled and wiped down in less then a minute

My definitive method using Squirt:

Put the Squirt bottle in a hot water bath to reduce the viscosity. Leave in for as long as it takes to wipe off the chain and/or tune in to ESPN on my basement TV.
Shift the bike to cross chain in the big-big combo and drip the Squirt onto the top of each roller just before it goes over the cassette. Silca has a video showing how the links spread and allow the lube to get in there. Back pedal a few times to set the stuff in there and run it through the gears.

If it has been a while, or has been noisy, repeat but this time dripping on the other side of the chain, cross chaining small-small.

Squirt says don't wipe off, so I don't.

Let dry overnight. Turn off TV while swearing that the whole time was just commercials and I missed the Sports Center Top Ten Plays, again.

And Importantly, before turning off the light, look back and admire how great my bike looks.

A "COG" is a complete sprocket. A tooth is individual projections on a cog. A drop on each cog doesn't do much. Beside the fact a cog is what the chain runs on and the chain is what you're lubing.

He must have meant link

A 5 quart bottle of automotive lubricant that meets the needs of a cash-strapped coop is not a good choice for your average cyclist. That should be fairly obvious.

I don't consider co ops and non profits "your average cyclist".

I never suggested my reply was for anyone but those who deal with large numbers of cash strapped riders and provide their services for free. Apples and oranges. Andy.

For chains that I lube with drip-type lube rather than wax, I patiently put a drop on each side of each roller link in the chain - on the inside of the chain, not the outside.

Apparently not. A 5 qt jug of Mobil 1 or a similar product is maybe $25-$30 if you get a good deal, maybe add a mfg coupon on it, still a lot more expensive than a synthetic lube of lower viscosity that will be far superior as a chain lube. Sure motor oil will work in a pinch, but even a 0W-20 is going to collect a lot of grit unless you apply it correctly, and wipe off all the excess. You can make a DIY drip wax lube for $30-40 per gallon if you know where to look.

It not just the cost but also the time involved. No mixing or measuring just a funnel to fill the small squirt bottles and we fill 10-12 at a time.

Please don’t use motor oil. It leads to foolishness like this




I think this person just poured it over the bike. It covered the shifters, the wheels, the brakes, the frame…everything. Dirtiest bike I’ve ever worked on. It’s the most extreme but I’ve seen many others…including the guy who oiled his disc brakes because they were squeaking…I kid you not!

You gotta warn someone when you post photos like that...that bike is in my nightmares. I have seen some similar bikes but I think that one takes the cake.

People oiling disc brakes or other brakes is common enough, I wish people would do a modicum of research before doing it especially the ones that say "I don't want to spend money" yet they need new pads and rotors because Iso and fire won't work.

That is not because they used motor oil, that is because they don't know how to clean their bike and obviously don't care.

When I was about 12, I remember our school teacher asking what parts of a bike we should oil and I said brakes (and I meant the pivots on the calipers) and they kind of made fun of me as I recall - I remember being embarassed anyway because they misunderstood what I meant. A grown adult actually oiling a brake disc blows my mind.

I have started to use 5W30 too, and so I now have some spare snake-oil if you're interested. It was quite expensive so it must be good.

I don't want to take this thread down the rabbit hole, but... When I was on my job, a worker at my facility approached me and said the disc brakes on his car were squealing, so he sprayed them with WD-40. How do you respond to that?

You know their vote is worth the same as yours, right?

Give him a generous head start when leaving work; you don't want him behind you.

Nope. It’s because their daddy told them to be generous with lubricant because how can extra oil hurt?