Alternative to wet lube

[T4tomo]

I use Squirt on commuters / kids bikes etc, it's good stuff. But it doesn't work as well in the real world as it does in tests, as tests it is fully immersed and the lube forced into every last crack. The problem with drip lubes is that they often don't actually get in to all the places you want them to, so their tested performance is miles away from real performance. I still highly recommend Squirt to people, but it is still just a drip lube.

Squirt does claim to be anything other than a drib lube. The tests / reviews I read basically say:make sure your chain is clean, apply, allow to dry, and ride. I agree its pretty decent as a reasonable priced lube.

has Titanium Disulphide in it..........It is basically magic.

verging on snake oil

I am a big Silca fanboy!

yet from what I've read you haven't actually tried this yet as your posts imply future tense of trying Silca??

I would be very interested to hear your experience after you have been using it for a while.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Back in the day, maybe 40 years ago, the late, great, Richard Ballantyne waxed (see what I did there) lyrical about the virtues of LPS3. It came in a spray can and had the most distinctive smell.

In those days (jumpers for goalposts) I cleaned my (5 speed) chain maybe once or twice a year, when I visited my parents and had access to a garage. I'd clean it in one of the hideous solvents that my dad had in rows of cans, labelled dubiously with marker pen (Trichloroethene or Trike being a favourite). I'd then treat it with the strong smelling LPS3 and that would be it for another 6 months to a year, apart from being dabbed with 3 in 1 occasionally.

LPS3 still exists, and I'm tempted to buy some just so I can have a sniff of the stuff. I see it's not actually advertised as a lubricant, just a rust inhibitor.

https://www.itwprobrands.com/product/lps-3

Edit ... as does its lighter sibling, LPS2, which is advertised as a lubricant. Maybe I'm getting them mixed up and that was what I used.
https://www.techsil.co.uk/lps2-lubricant-369ml

 

[nlmkiii]

Yes, I love Squirt! Just not for my main summer bike It goes on literally everything else, from winter bike, to kids bikes, to commuter, the whole lot. I'd be tempted by Synergetic from Silca too, but cost difference, and none of the aforementioned bikes benefit even a little bit from performance increases. Nor do they get ridden thousands of miles a year so the chains aren't exactly wearing out anyway!

verging on snake oil

I come from a background in physics, with interest in material science, so the science behind how chemicals react and the resulting properties is my jam! I understand why some people think it is snake oil because waxes visually don't seem much different. The best argument is to think carbon fibre. Is Trek 800 series OCLV carbon snake oil, when the 500 series OCLV carbon is still carbon? The frames can be thousands of pounds difference!

I've worked with a graphene company before so I've seen enough to be confident that the graphene stuff from Absolute Black is going to be wonderful stuff. But looking at the science behind titanium disulphide it looks like it's going to have even more of a major impact on high-performance lubricants for metals, so the Silca stuff should be a league above the graphene stuff. I know some people who use Silca, and are even more nerdy about this stuff than me, and they absolutely swear by it. So I'd take their word for it ahead of mine!

The science bit:
The idea behind titanium disulphide is that it bonds to the very outer layer of the metal, and fills in the minor imperfections in the surface (we're talking micro-scale though, it's not going to fill in a big gouge!). It's super slippery too! This means you have created two super smooth surfaces at the molecular level coated with something super slippery.
The wax itself provides almost no lubrication itself as the nanolayer coating is doing it all. BUT, the wax replenishes the coating as it gets worn away, and a chain chock full of the right type of wax keeps dirt ingress to a minimum.
So you're literally saving watts that you would otherwise be using to eat up your chain!