Does anyone know if they make a lube suitable for mountain biking that lasts more than 2 hours and doesn’t make the chain look like it’s been crapped on by the Exxon Valdez?

I’m practicing for the Kielder 101 and am often out on my MTB for over 5 hours at a time and as soon as two hours passes the chain lube seems to clock off and I end up riding lubeless for the vast majority of the ride, stop sniggering at the back.

I’ve tried all sorts and it’s all been equally useless on the MTB chain.

Squirt seems ok for 6hrs or so. Obviously depends on conditions etc.

Squirt is excellent. I find White Lightning Epic Ride good too.

Conditions are pretty much usual mountain bike condiotions mainly dry, the odd puddle / stream crossing etc but not wall to wall slop.

I tried some squirt lube and it was pants. I cleaned, degreadsed, dried and applied the stuff twice and left it overnight before applying it again and I got the same result.

I suppose the common factor in all this is me and my cleaning procedure.

Am I cleaning too thoroughly? Any tips?

Finish Line Wet Ceramic works well for me. Copes well with Peak District grit.

I’v found Juice Lubes Chain Juice Wax to be spot on. Recommended.

So you want sticky oil to lube your chain but not look like sticky oil.

Good luck with that 🙂

Personally Id not bother – remove all the lube from the chain and just ride dry. Each time you wash your bike give the chain a spray of WD40.

That way it stays clean, wont wear out for about a year or more and wont pick up dirt. If it does not pick up dirt it will last for ages. Any sticky lube will result in dirt sticking to it, which wears it out. The small amount of lube in WD40 will stop squeaks.

Simple, cheap and easy. Assuming of course you wash your bike when its dirty.

Not used the finish line stuff before, will see if I can get a sample bottle.

I perhaps should have added that the stuff I have works fine on the roadbike over similar time frames

Just bought some Progold Extreme from the PSA the other week:
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/tools-maintenance/cleaning-lube/progold-prolink-extreme-spray-16oz

Rode for the 3rd time last night still on same coating. No squeeks so far! Seems a bit of a bargain, esp asI used my BC membership to get price down further.

I use Green Oil on all my bikes now, which I’ve found to be surprisingly good. It’s a bit sticky though. Clean after every ride and re-apply.

Never had any problems with it washing off – no noticeable noise/feel. By the time that might happen, the bike’s covered in mud anyway so hard to tell, and I’m probably having too much fun to care.

Also, looking forward to the Kielder 101!

I’ve been geeking out on this recently after buying some UBS and actually riding until the chain runs dry to compare it to my regular dry lube. Conditions recently have been bone dry and dusty with occasional stream crossings.

Muck-off dry lube – 150miles between lubes
Scotoiler UBS – 60 miles

So it’s not as tenacious as a conventional dry lube but it was £16 for 1.5l (or thereabouts) and I’ve not cleaned the drivechain other than wiping the chain with a cloth and re-lubeing seems best done by applying to the chain while spinning the cranks slowly (to avoid flinging it off if too fast or letting it drip off if too slow) untill it can’t absorb any more, then keep turning the cranks until the lubes dry enough not to drip off. That much lube seems to flush out a lot of the grime too so it saves money on degreaser.

Wet lube is harder to quantify, it seems to last until it gets sufficiently rained on to wash off. My winter lube of choice is putoline wax (the stuff that comes in a tin). Lasts for weeks/months until a rides so wet that nothing would stick. I’d use it in summer too but it’s a faff to apply.

We use White Lightening Clean Ride on all our bikes. Have done for years, works well enough for us.

Interested in the comments about the Muc Off stuff, how much do people apply?

I’ve been ensuring there is enough on each link and then using my fingers to make sure it covers the sideplates too. Perhaps repeat application is the key.

Squirt’s great except when it’s not ime- for whatever reason, it’s just awful with some mud, I was really pleased with it the rest of the time but every so often it’d just totally fail.

Putoline melt-in-a-can motorbike wax is the best lube I’ve tried, by really quite a long way. It’s faffy and smelly and you might burn your house down but it outlasts normal lubes by miles, the worse conditions get the better it is. The difference in manky scottish winter races is massive, I can get a full race weekend of perfect shifting when normally I’d expect to have to relube after practice and still have deteriorating performance through the day.

Dry lube i just wipe the chain after a ride and apply it generously. Then its got a day or so to dry. NEVER WASH YOUR CHAIN (unless your swapping lubes from wet to dry or dry to squirt/UBS type lubes). Dry lube accumulates so its best to reapply after a ride without removing the old stuff. If there’s gunk on the drivechain that doesn’t wash off with water then you had way too much oil on it.

If you can’t find a dry lube that works then wet lube is better and can be re applied mid ride. Just be sure to wipe off the excess so there’s nothing for mud to stick to.

Speciality bicycle chain lubes = Emperors newclothesium?

Mucoff wet lube seems about the best I can find at the moment, wipe off any excess after applying and it doesn’t pick up too much crap.

Chain-L. Great stuff.

Surprised that took so long!

Surprised that took so long!

Isn’t that what it is intended to do?

Always ended up back with Finish Line Wet all year round.

Squirt seemed good at first but after a few months gunked up my chain so the links stopped moving freely. Nearly binned the chain but it was salvaged by a couple of white spirit soaks and a toothbrush.

Chain-L Oil.

Done

http://www.chain-l.com

using ubs at the moment. not 100% convinced but as i lube before every ride its not much of an issue.

Got loads of muc off wet lube after buying lots of it on offer. its good as a lube but very quicly turns everything into a sticky grinding mess thats a bastard to clean.