Drop or drizzle
 

When lubing the chain with wet lube, a drop on each cog or move the pedal slowly and apply a consistent drizzle. Drizzle is faster, but AI prefers drop.

Al knows best.
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I think I know why the OP is so dependent on ARTIFICIAL Intelligence.

Drizzle when I use wax such as Squirt or Super Secret Sauce. Drop on each roller when using oil because it is easy enough. Drop with wax is a hassle.

If the chain is on the bike I usually do what is termed "drizzle" although I might say "wipe". I place the tip of the wet oil bottle against one "corner" of the chain, do a few back pedals while slightly squeezing the bottle to allow a slow application to transfer. Then repeat of the chain's other "corner". Wipe off the chain after.

If the chain is off the bike and if I'm at home I'll lay the chain in my "lubing trough" (a long stretch of steel channel) and go link by link, dabbing the bottle tip on each pivot. Then wipe off after before installing the chain.

A drop per pivot/link is too much IMO often but if my chain is off the bike it has been just cleaned and is dry of anything, while a mounted chain generally hasn't been truly cleaned (and wiping off a chain isn't cleaning in my world) and generally has some residue of old lube still. Either way the after lube wipe off is about removing excess lube than dirt removal. (And some will say that wiping off a dirty chain will drive some grime into the link pivots...). Andy.

Either is fine. You wipe off the excess don't you?

If you are concerned about waste, then maybe that's a different question. Reasonably a drop will seem less wasteful. But a proper study of the two techniques might surprise us.

Probably a little anal, but when you're old you have time.
I use a hypo to apply Chain L.
You can kind of "wipe off" a 1/2 drop or so at each pivot.
I'll usually do about 12" or so at a time during TV commercials.

This thread is going to be a great spin on the oil vs. wax debate.

I was doing drip but videos I watched after getting Park Tool chain cleaner showed backpedaling and drizzling. AI says drip. If you need oil between the cogs then drizzle is the way to go. Drip takes me a while. Either way, I can’t always tell where I started so I now put a tiny piece of duct tape on the side of the first cog.

God forbid I have a TV in the basement :) Andy.

Most of our lubing of a chain is on the bike, We use the drizzle method and then a soft brush (shoe polish brush) to evenly spread the oil. Finally wipe off the excess with a clean cloth so it doesn't drip on the floor.

That sounds like a good and fast method for a shop, brush is good in case you missed some links, provided the chains are always clean to start and the brush stays free of dirt.

I drip: During the pandemic, I discovered that the dropper vials from the rapid test kits, are excellent for chain lube; Fill with lube (currently using 75W-90 gear lube, but plan to go back to wax), start at quick-link, put a drop on each pivot/roller, no need to wipe off excess as that is perfect amount to wick into the pin and roller.

Cleaning the chain on-bike is easy with the devices for such, but that doesn't clean the cogs, chainrings, or RD pullies, and those get sludged up over time with any oil. Wax was cleaner, I want to go back to that.

Always start at the quick link

I “paint” a drip across each link roller & plates. I watched a guy in a shop drizzle pink wax based stuff onto a bike i was renting from him. It worked really well. I should ask him what it was…

Depends on the actual brand and formulation. Skip to 1'34"

I use Rock-n-Roll Gold ^^^^. I use the drip method. The video recommends lubing every 100 miles. Well, I average about 250 miles a week, so I'd be lubing almost every other day. I only lube when the chain asks for it. Every 2-3 weeks. I never clean my chain. I only wipe it down after a lube. With that said, I still get about 4,000 miles out of the cheapest KMC chains. I can't ask for anything more.

I disagree with him saying that after drenching in oil and wiping off excess, a "membrane" is left behind. A membrane is different, something solid and thin, like a drum head or many parts of the body. What he should say is that a thin film of oil is left behind.

Second, he's drenching the chain in excess lube, ostensibly to dissolve and lift the dirt inside to be wiped off. That's fine if the lube is not expensive. If it is expensive, it would be more economical to use an on-bike chain cleaner with low cost solvent, wipe and let it dry, then relube, and I'll bet that also results in a cleaner chain before lube. On a road bike, most of the wear contaminant is extremely finely ground steel from the chain, you can easily verify this with a magnet in the cleaning solvent, it will be covered in black sludge. Those particles are what turns the lube to paste, no matter which oil lube you use, or how thin. Wax lube seems to avoid this, so either no steel particles, or they are shed into the environment.

Cog? How are the "cogs" (you probably mean sprockets) involved? Do you lube the chain when it's on the sprocket? Or are you referring to the chain links?

I don't get the spreading the oil thing. Are you spreading the oil all around the chain, or just from roller to roller?

The whole chain, outside surface, inside surface, left side & right side. 4 separate passes. then wipe off any excess.

As we service over 2,200 bikes a year. We use Mobil 1 Synthetic 5W30. We buy it by the 5-quart jug and fill small squirt bottles (Contact lens cleaner type)

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I use "precision oiler" bottles, like this:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...L._SL1066_.jpg
https://www.amazon.com/Hicet-Bottles...=sr_1_4?sr=8-4

If it wasn't for the 75w-90 guy, this would be the worst answer here.....

Please explain your thinking. Worst because of what? I have long been of the belief that any lube on a chain is far more the goal than any specific type of oil would be. Co Ops and non profits generally can't justify expensive solutions and do so much good for so many with so little. At what point is good enough not OK?

I've worked the retail service for decades and spent many volunteer hours at events and our city's non profit and know well the differences and standards either sector has. There are procedures I can do that I don't in the retail shop and others not done in the non profit settings. Being a doctors kid I might analogize to the difference between a specialty hospital/clinic and a MASH unit. Andy

Thank you Andrew, We identify as a MASH unit

Maybe you would like to help us upgrade our lubing by a contribution to buy the best chain oil out there to service the 2,200 bikes we annually work on at no cost to the client.

You can find donation information at our website listed below, look for the QR code or follow the link, we even accept Zelle..