What lube?

[coffeebreak]

I am curious what lubricants community here is using on their bikes? I started with T9 Boeshield, kept at it for a long time. Then switched to Squirt wax lube and finally to Rock'n'Roll gold type for past few months and quite happy with it. Squirt was good but I found out that it flakes out pretty quickly and doesn't last as long as they say especially if you ride on dusty trails. RnR has been good from that aspect. Anything else that you had good luck with?

[kbernstein]

I'm using some wax based zefal lube which was the first I've bought. I wonder how it compares to the real wax. I'll admit I don't take care of my drivetrain much and I keep procrastinating using real wax. Maybe next chain (tm)

[Serge_K]

Been waxing my chains for years, it's awesome. So clean! It's meant to save a few watts too. Followed the videos from that autistic Australian guy.
Have i mentioned how clean they make the bike?


I use a metal bowl over boiling water (bain marie in french), instead of a rice cooker. As far as i can tell, it does the same thing.

[coffeebreak]

Been waxing my chains for years, it's awesome. So clean! It's meant to save a few watts too. Followed the videos from that autistic Australian guy.
Have i mentioned how clean they make the bike?


I use a metal bowl over boiling water (bain marie in french), instead of a rice cooker. As far as i can tell, it does the same thing.

I have always wondered about this process and then procrastinated like kbernstein above lol. Is there a process to remove factory lube from chain before boiling it in wax soup? And do you replace quick-link every time you wax the chain?

[s3si1u]

Currently on Silca Synergetic oil. No complaints so far, but nothing to write home about either. I'm not super picky about lube or meticulous about a spotless drivetrain, so this oil is good enough for me. It doesn't need to be reapplied too often.

FWIW before this I was using the RnR Holy Cow and I didn't care for it. Also gave White Lightningn a shot some time ago and noped that stuff right off my chain.

[jannmayer]

I've been using Squirt for a while on my road, mountain, and gravel bikes and am happy with it. If you leave the bottle in the sun for a while it seems to flow a bit better onto the chain.


I use White Lightning Epic Ride (the dry stuff) for the low-mileage bikes because it's cheap and seems to work well even when applied on a somewhat greasy chain.


I tried Rock 'n Roll Gold and it was OK on my road bike, but my mountain chain got really noisy after about 15 miles.

[kbernstein]

I have always wondered about this process and then procrastinated like kbernstein above lol. Is there a process to remove factory lube from chain before boiling it in wax soup? And do you replace quick-link every time you wax the chain?

You should always remove the factory grease on a new chain. I typically let the chain in a jar of mineral turpentine/white spirit for ~36 hours, shaking it every couple of hours and it works perfectly. I believe I have also learned this trick from the "autistic australian guy" video on home wax, except I was too lazy to do the next step of melting wax

[jefflinde]

I was using squirt but have switched to smoove.  Smoove seems to leave much less wax residue on the derailleur and chain ring.  I don't ride in the wet much so no experience in that aspect but lots of dusty conditions and I am very happy with the performance of smoove.

[carbonazza]

I use wax too, for years now + the "australian's" additives

Then when travelling I tried: squirt, then smoove, and now UFO Drip.
Each step was an upgrade.

And I always reuse the same quick link(Eagle link on Eagle and Campagnolo chains, and SRAM road)

[coffeebreak]

I use wax too, for years now + the "australian's" additives

Then when travelling I tried: squirt, then smoove, and now UFO Drip.
Each step was an upgrade.

And I always reuse the same quick link(Eagle link on Eagle and Campagnolo chains, and SRAM road)

Have heard good words about UFO Drip, but never heard about Smoove until this thread where its mentioned twice! I will note it. Many thanks!

I was using squirt but have switched to smoove.  Smoove seems to leave much less wax residue on the derailleur and chain ring.  I don't ride in the wet much so no experience in that aspect but lots of dusty conditions and I am very happy with the performance of smoove.

Good to know. I will try Smoove once I am out RnR gold.

I've been using Squirt for a while on my road, mountain, and gravel bikes and am happy with it. If you leave the bottle in the sun for a while it seems to flow a bit better onto the chain.
I use White Lightning Epic Ride (the dry stuff) for the low-mileage bikes because it's cheap and seems to work well even when applied on a somewhat greasy chain.
I tried Rock 'n Roll Gold and it was OK on my road bike, but my mountain chain got really noisy after about 15 miles.

Personally, I didn't have good experience with White Lightning. RnR gold is good for road. I think RnR blue is a MTB specific, heavier duty lube.

Currently on Silca Synergetic oil. No complaints so far, but nothing to write home about either. I'm not super picky about lube or meticulous about a spotless drivetrain, so this oil is good enough for me. It doesn't need to be reapplied too often.

FWIW before this I was using the RnR Holy Cow and I didn't care for it. Also gave White Lightningn a shot some time ago and noped that stuff right off my chain.

RnR gold has been good for me. Wasn't aware of Holy Cow though. And same for White Lightning, didn't work for me.

[jannmayer]

Personally, I didn't have good experience with White Lightning. RnR gold is good for road. I think RnR blue is a MTB specific, heavier duty lube.

I know White Lightning gets a bad wrap since the Epic formulation does very poorly in the friction and wear tests, but it works well for me for keeping a drivetrain quiet with a minimum of work. I'm only using it on the other family bikes that will never see enough miles to wear out a chain.

[jannmayer]

On a related note, what do people recommend for removing the factory grease? I'm interested in finding the least nasty stuff that will do the job.

[eeney]

I sonic clean and wax.  Before waxing I used Smoove for a long time quite happily.

First step was when I bought a heated sonic cleaner from Aliexpress, so sonic clean then Smoove.

Then I bought some wax and a $10 mini slow cooker/crockpot.... never looked back.

10 minutes in the sonic cleaner, a dip in the wax and the chains dry amazingly.  The effort involved is less than a standard chain clean and lube, but you do need more waiting time, eg. 30-60 mins for the wax to melt, then 10+ hours to leave it to fully cool & dry (it could be less, I just leave it all day or overnight). But the results are brilliant, I have 3 bikes all with waxed chains, and the one bag of wax I bought looks like it'll last ages.

[AzureEssence]

I am curious what lubricants community here is using on their bikes? I started with T9 Boeshield, kept at it for a long time. Then switched to Squirt wax lube and finally to Rock'n'Roll gold type for past few months and quite happy with it. Squirt was good but I found out that it flakes out pretty quickly and doesn't last as long as they say especially if you ride on dusty trails. RnR has been good from that aspect. Anything else that you had good luck with?

Sounds like you're already using 3 of the very best wax-based lubes. T9 was magical on my latest bikepacking build, but I just used the regular spray can after spraying my steel frame. I need to get the squirt bottle.

Currently I'm using Rock n Roll Gold as well, also great stuff.

[nickobec]

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/ is the rabbit hole of looking after your drive train (ignore those other Australians, they are not nice people).

Guides on how to remove factory grease, how to immersive wax etc and well as test details on most the major chain lubes both oil and waxed based.

Personally I immersive wax, as it is cheaper in the long run (chain, cassette and chain rings last a lot and I mean a lot longer), quieter and cleaner too.