Great plan, poor execution

[spokewrench]

You people are f*ckin' high.
Buy any chain lube and ride.
If you think for a moment that anything you come up with will make your chain last 30 seconds longer... you can add fool to the equation.

View attachment 171049

After 3,000 miles with Finish Line Dry, I measured. A chain gauge doesn't tell you how long the pitch is. I used a caliper. I lashed the rear brake lever, swung the right pedal until it was forward and level, and weighted it. That put the upper chain under tension. I measured several rollers to be sure they were equal from side to side and with each other. They were. It was a six-inch caliper, so I measured across 12 rollers. That would be 11 links plus 1 roller. I subtracted the diameter of a roller and divided by 11. The pitch was 0.499 inches.

I've read that chains may be manufactured slightly under half an inch. In 3,000 miles it hadn't even worn to the nominal pitch.

I think Radpower estimates about 25 miles per charge for a Radrunner. I would get 90 to 140, so I was doing a lot of pedaling. There aren't many flat stretches around here. Pedaling uphill on a one-speed strains a chain. Good lube!

 

[Gionnirocket]

That stuff is expensive.
$36 plus tax.



View attachment 171055


It's basically the same thing that I made, and I had all the ingredients.


View attachment 171056

Boeshield T9 Lubricant 4oz Squeeze Bottle T.9 T-9 Waterproof Wax Lube Chain Oil 738481901041 | eBay

From the Manufacturer On a seafaring yacht, a dusty ATV, or a shower door, T-9 has you covered. T-9 attacks existing corrosion, loosens rusty parts, and flushes out old lubricants. T-9 dries to a waxy, waterproof finish without leaving a sticky film to attract dirt, dust, or mud.

www.ebay.com

That's the typical price... Pretty much $10 for any brand 4oz chain lube

 

[Gionnirocket]

After 3,000 miles with Finish Line Dry, I measured. A chain gauge doesn't tell you how long the pitch is. I used a caliper. I lashed the rear brake lever, swung the right pedal until it was forward and level, and weighted it. That put the upper chain under tension. I measured several rollers to be sure they were equal from side to side and with each other. They were. It was a six-inch caliper, so I measured across 12 rollers. That would be 11 links plus 1 roller. I subtracted the diameter of a roller and divided by 11. The pitch was 0.499 inches.

I've read that chains may be manufactured slightly under half an inch. In 3,000 miles it hadn't even worn to the nominal pitch.

And?
The day I spend more than 30 seconds measuring my chain is the same day Taylor Swift uses it as a microphone to sing the national anthem at the superbowl.

 

[PCeBiker]

Even the Boeshield T9 says it's best to clean the chain before applying the lube, so I would have cleaned the chain anyway.

I'm pretty sure that my homemade concoction will work fine.
Now I don't have to remove the chain to lube it up again.

 

[PCeBiker]

And?
The day I spend more than 30 seconds measuring my chain is the same day Taylor Swift uses it as a microphone to sing the national anthem at the superbowl.

Who's Taylor Swift??

 

[spokewrench]

And?
The day I spend more than 30 seconds measuring my chain is the same day Taylor Swift uses it as a microphone to sing the national anthem at the superbowl.

Here she is on her way to the Superbowl. I need to check my voicemail. If she left a message asking me to measure her chain and I let her down, there's no telling what she might reveal in a revenge song!

 

[indianajo]

I get 5000 miles to 70% wear on a park gauge, 75% of the distance unpowered. I use sus 46 hydraulic fluid, the $6 a gallon version of the 3-in-1 oil my father showed me to use. I apply every 3-4 weeks with a pump oiler. I only clean the chain if it gets string or grass stems in it. The dirt gets washed to the center of the takeup sprockets, where I scrape it off with a screwdriver whenever I have the bike upside down. KMC bright chain or sunlite, 6-7-8 speed. Because of the extra length of the stretch frame I have to use 2 master links.

 

[spokewrench]

It's tedious to keep ebike chain clean and properly lubricated. I have new KMC e11 always on stand by and used ones soaking in glass jar full of Toyota motor oil. I remove and replace chain once a month pressure washer treatment once a week. Replace with new at 1K miles which equal to new chain twice every year.

I, too, found it tedious, and even more tedious to scrub grime out of my cuffs. That's why I use a lube that keeps the chain lubed and clean. It takes 104 drops twice a year.

I soaked a chain in gas because I couldn't believe the lube was keeping it as clean as it looked and felt. It was as clean on the inside as on the outside.

 

[PCeBiker]

,.. The dirt gets washed to the center of the takeup sprockets, where I scrape it off with a screwdriver,..

That's the part that I didn't want to deal with anymore.
An oiled chain is messy and the grit sticks to it.
I've been scraping crud off my takeup sprockets since I was 12 years old.
Not anymore.

,.. even more tedious to scrub grime out of my cuffs. That's why I use a lube that keeps the chain lubed and clean.

Or when you have to put your chain back on after it fell off.


This is my ebike with 4000 km on it.
(4000 on the tires anyway,.. About 40 km on the chain. )
Everything is clean and rust free,..

I did see some rust though,..

 

[mschwett]

chain lube is one of those things some people
who ride bikes REALLY care about. and some don’t give a F.

here is one of the more definitive studies :

Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

zerofrictioncycling.com.au

the wear rate varies MASSIVELY, especially with wet contamination. i can’t be bothered to use real wax (too many steps and pots etc) so i use ceramic speed UFO drip. super easy and clean to apply, takes like 30 seconds, makes no mess whatsoever and you can touch the chain without getting all greasy and black.

this drivetrain has around 1,000 miles on it, last cleaned well maybe 300 miles ago and nothing since other than a wipe down with a gear wipe.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

chain lube is one of those things some people
who ride bikes REALLY care about. and some don’t give a F.

here is one of the more definitive studies :

Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

zerofrictioncycling.com.au

the wear rate varies MASSIVELY, especially with wet contamination. i can’t be bothered to use real wax (too many steps and pots etc) so i use ceramic speed UFO drip. super easy and clean to apply, takes like 30 seconds, makes no mess whatsoever and you can touch the chain without getting all greasy and black.

this drivetrain has around 1,000 miles on it, last cleaned well maybe 300 miles ago and nothing since other than a wipe down with a gear wipe.

View attachment 171090

Pretty darned clean! What's a gear wipe?

 

[mschwett]

Pretty darned clean! What's a gear wipe?

Gear Wipes Canister (110 sheets)

A game-changing bicycle cleaning product. This two sided wipe is safe on hands, will clean any oil/grease, and is safe on paint without causing streaks.

silca.cc

nice for quick cleaning, and since you’re squeezing it with your fingers around the chain while you turn the cranks, it cleans both sides equally and then ditto the top and bottom. doesn’t even take 30 seconds.

(they mean gear in the general sense, not as in cogs)

 

[spokewrench]

here is one of the more definitive studies :

Lubricant Testing - Zero Friction Cycling

zerofrictioncycling.com.au

the wear rate varies MASSIVELY, especially with wet contamination. i can’t be bothered to use real wax (too many steps and pots etc) so i use ceramic speed UFO drip. super easy and clean to apply, takes like 30 seconds, makes no mess whatsoever and you can touch the chain without getting all greasy and black.

this drivetrain has around 1,000 miles on it, last cleaned well maybe 300 miles ago and nothing since other than a wipe down with a gear wipe.

A chain with no lube wore 90% to the replacement point in one session on their machine. Finish Line and Wend Wax wore about 75%. I don't know why Wend Wax didn't wear 90%. It's a stick used to lubricate rollers before a race. The pins presumably remained unlubed.

I know why Finish Line performed so poorly: the bottle. It's disgusting in four ways. The childproof cap is very difficult to open. The bottle is opaque, so you can't see when the active ingredients have dissolved. There is no agitator ball, which is how aerosol paint manufacturers solved the problem. The size of the nozzle makes application very wasteful.

The first time, I wiped off what oil I could and squirted Finish Line on the moving chain. I was amazed that the chain was quieter and smoother than new. In retrospect, I think the smoothness came from teflon on the rollers. In a couple of weeks, it felt typical of an oiled chain. This time I lubed by adding a drop at a time to a cotton swab. It was a hassle. It dawned on me that the best technique would be to mark off the chain a section at a time and use a hypodermic needle to apply uniform drops.

The unexpected benefit was that when I squirted some into a translucent applicator bottle, I could judge how opaque the liquid was, squirt it back in through the nozzle on the big bottle, shake it some more, and repeat to see if the liquid was more opaque. That was how I discovered I hadn't been shaking it nearly enough. Finish Line failed because there was very little lubricant in the solvent applied in the test.

Properly shaken, it will provide great lubrication and rust protection indefinitely. The only drawback is that if I handle a chain, I'll get gray waxy stuff on my hands that's hard to remove. It's just for bicycle chains. A rat with a bushy tail is still a rat, and I keep a steel trap out in the sun and rain all year. Rust was a big problem. It would limit the service life of the trap, and the friction would keep the trigger from moving. Nothing worked until I applied a few drops of Finish Line. The solvent spread it amazingly. The resulting film protects rusted and unrusted surfaces alike and keeps the trigger lubricated. Unlike oils, it lasts indefinitely and doesn't get dirty. The only drawback is that if I handle a chain, I'll get waxy gray stuff on my hands that's difficult to remove.

The bottle is the problem with Finish Line. For fear of alienating PC, I don't dare disparage Canadian bottling, which, after all, kept Americans happy from 1920 to 1933. Bottling would have made Toronto one of the world's great cities if bicycle smuggling hadn't already done so. You'll have ask to Wilbur and Orville Wright for the details.

 

[PCeBiker]

,.. That was how I discovered I hadn't been shaking it nearly enough.
,..Properly shaken, it will provide great lubrication and rust protection indefinitely, and not just for bicycle chains.

It turned out that I didn't add enough naphtha and the wax in my dropper bottle turned to mush.
I squirted the mush into a glass jar and added more naphtha.
That way I can see if all the wax is dissolved before I use it.
I also put a bit of naphtha in the dropper bottle to see if it evaporates out of the bottle.

It's kinda fun making my own, and it's basically free. I've got half a gallon of naphtha and a pound of wax, so I don't have to worry about being wasteful.
I just need to get the consistency right. I assume it needs to be quite thin so it works its way into the pins?

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

I've ridden my Haibike long enough, worn out enough chain rings and stretched enough chains to learn some things along the way.......

1. No matter how dedicated you are or are not in keeping your chain lubed, it means nothing when it comes to the physical stretching of a chain. And once the chain is stretched, it begins a cycle of wearing out the front chain ring, especially if it is aluminum (which is most modern bikes). And I was dedicated. Before each ride, I'd break out my lube of choice and lube each chain link, starting with the master link. After that was done, I'd wipe the chain with a harbor freight shop rag to catch any extra drops and be on my way. Result? Shifts were much, much smoother than say, starting out with an un-lubed chain. Anal? Yes. No doubt of that! But at the end of the day, if my chain was newish or stretched out to worthless, the chain was always clean and looked new.

2. I began using my old standby from the late seventies/early eighties: TriFlow with Teflon. Good enough, but it picked up all kinds of grit and dust and kept it there, so I began reading up on the next great thing.....

3. Boeshield T9: I immediately saw how it kept the chain clean of dirt and dust. And if it's good for the aircraft industry, it's certainly good for our bicycles

4. DuPont Chain Saver, Aerosol: I've used the liquid and the aerosol and can't recommend the liquid cause it's so thin, there is alot of waste. More control in the aerosol. I actually like it better than Boeshield but reality says it's probably as comparable to the T9

5. Finish Line Liquid with Teflon: Basically just like the liquid version of DuPont ChainSaver. The label says it's even made under license to DuPont. For controlling this ultra think liquid, I use a needle oiler. Drop for each link.

But again, I believe using personal experience, that no matter what lube I used, chain stretch on a mid drive is one of those things that happens. And no matter what oil or wax you use is irrelevant. This is a pick of my Full Speed Ahead front chain ring after about 5 thousand miles of use and doing my fastidious chain lube method prior to each ride. That thing could be registered as a lethal weapon! That pic was taken in June of 2020. That new ring? That's been long replaced due to similar wear.

I've since scrapped the aluminum FSA front chain ring for an all-steel Shimano Alivo 44 tooth front chain ring. Although the inner front chain ring is the OEM unit, 99% of my riding time is spent in the big front ring. So now, front ring, rear cassette and chain are all steel and will wear equally.

LT Colombo moment: One more thing: don't forget to inspect your derailleur jockey pulleys for wear, too. Keep 'em clean too, for good, clean shifts.

 

[PCeBiker]

I have a hub drive and I almost never pedal, so my drive train should last 100 years.

I do like to have a clean, rust free chain though, and when I do pedal, it's nice to have smooth shifting.

I only clean and lube my chain once a year, but now I can quickly and easily wax it up again with my liquid wax.

 

[PCeBiker]

LT Colombo moment: One more thing: don't forget to inspect your derailleur jockey pulleys for wear, too. Keep 'em clean too, for good, clean shifts.

Should I put a few drops of wax in my derailleur pulleys?

 

[spokewrench]

It turned out that I didn't add enough naphtha and the wax in my dropper bottle turned to mush.
I squirted the mush into a glass jar and added more naphtha.
That way I can see if all the wax is dissolved before I use it.
I also put a bit of naphtha in the dropper bottle to see if it evaporates out of the bottle.

I just need to get the consistency right. I assume it needs to be quite thin so it works its way into the pins?

The naptha permeated through the bottle. Short chain hydrocarbons pass through polyethylene. That's how hydrocarbons can contaminate drinking water in pipes. Feng Mao did his PhD paper on it at Iowa State in 2008. Records showed no permeation incidents per million metal pipes, 3.6 for polyethylene, 16.5 for polybutylene, and 2.2 for PVC. When it happened to me, I squirted Finish Line into the little PE bottle, shook to dissolve what I could, squirted it into the big bottle, and repeated until the lump was dissolved. The result was much more viscous than the original, but it still wicked into the joints just fine.

Now after applying lube, I squirt what's left back into the impermeable Finish Line Polyethylene Terephthalate bottle. If I could find a transparent impermeable bottle with an airtight cap over the nozzle, I'd be all set.

 

[tomjasz]

That stuff is expensive.
$36 plus tax.

It cost me about the same and I have some left from a dozen builds and routine maintenance.

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

Should I put a few drops of wax in my derailleur pulleys?

View attachment 171106

Can't hurt, can only help. But do inspect those teeth for wear. On my Shimano XT derailleur, the pulleys are made of some kind of plastic or nylon.