Myosmith

Went parrafin, went back fast. Way too much PITA, doesn't lube any better IMHO, and only last 50-100 miles before you have to do it again. I ride way too much to be pulling the chain off the bike, heating up the wax, etc. etc. every 100 miles. I went to Dupont Silicone lube with Teflon. Easy to apply on bike, gets sucked into the rollers very quickly, wipes quite clean, and doesn't attract dust and grit. Also lasts 100 miles or so, but doesn't get stiff in cold weather and takes 30 seconds to apply. I only have to take the chain off the bike about once a month for a thorough cleaning. You can still get a chain mark but it's a lot cleaner than any petroleum based lubes I've used. I think the mark actually comes from the teflon which gives the lube a slightly gray cast and since you also use teflon with paraffin, I'm guessing it isn't any better.

StanSeven

He needed to be high to numb the finger pain from all that typing

StanSeven

Read the test. White Lighting was just about the test loser

storckm

Where can we find the results of this test?

Did they test chains by actually riding them on the road, or by running them in a clean room?

Ferrous Bueller

Yesterday I wrote a heartfelt and supportive comment related to this topic. A recipe suggestion and personal experience were shared. Unfortunately, a moderator saw it as unfit for these forums and erased it.
Too bad.

bikerjp

It was in the March issue of Velo. I don't think it's available online.

Racer Ex 

Punditry.

danvuquoc

They tested 3 chains top of the line for Campy, Sram, and Shimano. They were cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner first in mineral spirits, and then immersed in 100F bath of each chain lube in an ultrasonic machine for 5 minutes. Dried for 30 minutes, wiped clean, and mounted to a test rig with chain tension of 250 watts for 5 minutes, accuracy within +/- 0.02 watts.



Mods feel free to take this down if you see fit. You should buy the magazine or go read it in a store if you want all the details.

danvuquoc

Friction (efficiency test), you still haven't said which White Lightning you're using. Again, neither of the White Lightning lubes in this test were wax based.

hikerinmaine

Is that waxing gibbous or waxing crescent? Or would that be wax-on or wax-off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for posting the chart, I appreciate it.

I tried many of them, but am currently happy with Chain-L. It's thick (and very smelly) but stays and is super quiet. I ride long distance (50-100 miles) on my fixed gears and haven't found anything that holds up as well on a 1/8" chain, but am always willing to try another product. Most of the others lubes I tried seem to lose adhesion quickly and the chain gets loud. I tried it on the wife's new Cannondale and it seems to work well on the thinner chains as well, but time will tell. I've never tried the paraffin though, might have to give it a go for myself.

gregf83 

What happens when you ride for more than 5 minutes?

happybday29475

Mod - please delete the chart, it is a clear violation of copyright, and it directly hurts a guy who is just trying to make a living.

canam73

Shimagnolo

Whoa!
A chain-lube thread with *data*???

So what I am seeing in the graph is they are measuring for efficiency here.
Did they test for other variables like: wear, durability, etc?

Also, is that "WD-40" the traditional product, or the new "WD-40"-branded lubricant?

thirdgenbird

Epic ride. Completely different product. I couldn't care less how epic ride scored as it had absolutely no relavence to clean ride.

Sorry, I loosely inferred that I used clean ride. Again, surprised they didn't test it.

Clipped_in

Cylists are an interesting lot...

Ok, so parrafin reduces friction a little better than the commonly used chain lubes on the market and may save you a few watts of power. Unless you are riding in a real race, "BIG DEAL!!!!"

In reality the margins are pretty small, and its mostly recreational riders getting all worked up over this report. As such, we really need to get over ourselves.

canam73

I thought it was nice to see that both motor oils did middle of the road.

bikerjp

Actually, it might fall into fair use as it's for non-commercial use and rather than harm the magazine might actually encourage others to read it. The fact that it's an image might be a sticking point.

Shimagnolo

Indeed!
I just added the March issue to my shopping list.

NWS Alpine

Chain-L will be the only thing on my chains until they invent lube free drivetrains. Applied and used properly it lasts much longer than anything else and the chain is silent.

Clipped_in

It's a good magazine. I think you'll like it.

thirdgenbird

Im very tempted to go chain- l this spring.

Nagrom_

Do it. I switched during the Fall, Never going back. I'm about 1500 miles from my last lubing. I'll probably get another 500 easy.

Brian Ratliff

Color me skeptical. Also, 1+ on the question about what happens after 5 minutes. There are tradeoffs between staying power and resistance that drive most lubrication decisions. I would also question the decision to immerse each chain in a bath at 100F. That is wildly different from the conditions most people use to apply chain lube and probably benefits lubes which don't use a solvent as a delivery system. The use of only three chains for all the lubes means that the initial wear conditions change from lube to lube. You might dismiss this as nitpicking, then again, I'm not the one claiming +-.02W accuracy in my measurements.

You want a real answer, you pony up $2k for 30 chains and run them each on that machine for several 10's of hours making measurements along the way, characterizing how the chains wear and how the resistance curve changes in time. But this is a magazine study that had to be done inside a day or two so the author could make the submission deadline. This information is actually worse than no information as it is almost certainly wrong. I would rather have acknowledged uncertainty than false certainty.

Brian Ratliff

Or it drew the short straw and was the first test they ran on a brand new chain newly stripped of its factory lubricant. What, you all didn't think that a part made from a hundred bearing surfaces breaks in after a bit of use? We are talking about a 1% difference in a big number subtraction problem.