Chain oil for bikes - cheaper alternative?

[Drago]

Any one tried lard?

 

[DCBassman]

Any one tried lard?

Ha, made me spit out me bran flakes!
Enjoying the blog, BTW.

 

[DaveReading]

Any one tried lard?

I seem to recall that as ranking somewhere between Vaseline and axle grease ...

 

[Milzy]

I mickel, personally.

In what oil?

 

[raleighnut]

It's a good way of preserving things. I'm quite partial to mickeled onions. (Preserved by covering with oil, then wiping it off, then covering with oil, then ...)

 

[Blue Hills]

Let's say you switch from fancy woo woo lube at about £5 for a 120ml bottle to chainsaw oil at £5 a litre. Wow, quite a saving you might think. It's an eighth of the price. I'm in the money! Where's that expensive holiday catalogue?

Well, it's going to take a year or more of extremely enthusiastic chain lubing to accrue enough savings to buy, say, a large cod and chips with a can of ginger beer. If you're looking for financial savings, chain lube is hardly the first place I'd look.

Sure the more expensive one is unlikely give you any benefits of performance (this comes from your legs) or chain longevity (this comes from your maintenance regime) than the cheaper one. I'm not disputing that.

The penny-pinching obsession is a bit like the weight weenie obsession. Both are concerned with searching for the cheapest/lightest stuff just for the sake of it.

Edited to add: Amusingly enough, in chain-sawing circles the same debate is going on. Why use this expensive chainsaw oil? More money than sense! Why not use old sump oil, it was good enough for my granddaddy. Linky

calm yourself dogtrousers - I was replying to your point about Weldtite, not chainsaw oil. I do lube fairly generously and tis true do resent paying over the odds for micro packaged bike lubes etc. Hence I have some big pots of grease as well. But I repeat that I rate Weldtite.

 

[Drago]

Ha, made me spit out me bran flakes!
Enjoying the blog, BTW.

Thank you! The cheque is in the post.

 

[Gravity Aided]

In what oil?

3-in-1, but the liquid wax oil they make for bike chains.

 

[Milzy]

3-in-1, but the liquid wax oil they make for bike chains.

I’m after wet lube as I find wax comes off when indoors all over my trainer & floor.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Oh, I see. I use a separate bike for my trainer, but it's in ye olde undercroft.

 

[froze]

I don't like chainsaw lube either, it's too sticky and everything gets on the chain and I had to clean it like crazy and it was difficult to get off. Cheapest way I know of but is also the most work extensive is to wax treat your chain using cheap store bought block of Gulf wax, a bottle of teflon oil, melt the wax and in about an ounce of the teflon stir real well while the heat is on to keep the wax melted, drop the chain into the molten wax, let the chain set in it for about and hour, remove the chain and let it drip and dry. There are directional YouTube videos that show you how to wax your chain; but I don't do that anymore because it was too time extensive.

A good alternative to wax is TriFlow, it's been around forever, in fact it's the original PTFE bike chain lube, and it's cheap to buy but works really well. I happen to use 2 different Rock N Roll lubes, one is the The Absolute Dry I use on my road bike, it holds up ok in the rain but does have to be reapplied when I get home otherwise it holds up the best in dry conditions that I've used so far, I do have wipe the chain down after every ride but you should do that anyways no matter the lube brand. The other Rock N Roll lube I use is The Gold, this one is combination wet/dry lube, I use it on my touring bike because it holds up really well the rain without getting black and messy fast like other wet lubes. Both of these lubes keep the chain cleaner but the The Absolute Dry keeps the chain the cleanest. Read the directions for more details, but it's different than other lubes and needs to be applied as they say.

Also keep in mind that a clean chain will last longer, I clean my chain very cheaply, I simply use Dawn For Dishes (non citrus) applied to a damp synthetic sponge and scrub the chain real well, then rinse the chain with a soft spray and wipe dry then let it set overnight to air dry before applying any lube, and any lube once applied needs to dry overnight as well.

 

[slowmotion]

Yes, expensive bike oil is an utter rip-off, but you don't have to hose the chain/carpet/pavement/tiles with it, and it needed cost you much.
Get on to eBay and buy a few disposable plastic syringes and some 18 gauge hypodermic needles. If you use them to put a drop on each roller of the chain (there are about 106 on mine), you can do the needful with less than 2ml of the poncey stuff.

Kind Regards,
A nerd.

 

[froze]

[QUOTE 5471328, member: 9609"]jeez - not to night dear I'm caring for my chain.

at £4.95 and the best part of a 1000 mile before 1% wear - without doing anything; half a pence a mile. why bother doing anything other than riding. - but make sure it goes for recycling though.[/QUOTE]
Well my chains typically last at least 10,000 miles before it measures as ready to replace, so do the numbers. I find it funny you made the comment about not tonight dear i'm cleaning my chain...you're night must not last long because it only takes me about 5 minutes to clean the chain.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Vegetable based chainsaw oil isn’t quite as bubblegummy as mineral chainsaw oil if that helps anyone.

I’ll leave you with that. Off out for a 207km ride now. 04:00 on a December morning. Hope I lubed up enough.

 

[Salty seadog]

Vegetable based chainsaw oil isn’t quite as bubblegummy as mineral chainsaw oil if that helps anyone.

I’ll leave you with that. Off out for a 207km ride now. 04:00 on a December morning. Hope I lubed up enough.

Goose fat in this weather.