On a particularly dry and dusty day on the South Downs Way my mate and me (both ex-tree boys with a history of chainsaw abuse) bumped into a couple of foresters from the Cowdray estate. We nabbed a few drops of chainsaw oil because, after 60ish miles of chalky downland, our drivetrains were gasping.

And a lightbulb came on. Chainsaw oil is designed to lubricate…. chains. It is anti-fling, mustn’t pick up too much crap (or the drive sprockets jams), comes in eco friendly bio-versions, and is about ¼ the price of a bottle of bike dry/wet lube. I concede it is designed for higher revs and temps but I’m going to test it in real world conditions (my bike, this winter). I’ll report back after a winter’s riding.

We’ve been trying it (a bio version) on our fleet of hire bikes this summer. I won’t be using it at home. Too thin, ends up all over the wheels, doesn’t last very long. Our bikes get cleaned and serviced after every hire so it sort of works for us. Sort of.

I can’t think of a chainlube with worse qualities tbh.

Manky horrible stuff. Fine on a high speed chain contaminated only by wood debris. Call me soft, but I’ve been converted to using Squirt lube. Nice clean transmission….nae clag 😀

I tried it, it was far too sticky and attracted a huge amount of goop.

A worthy experiment but not for me.

I have stuck with it, mainly because it works and I am a breathtaking cheapskate. Tend to remove the chain, clean it up in white spirits, then give it a good dunk in chainsaw oil, using old jam jars…

I agree the applications are similar bike chain / chain saw, lower revs on the bike, more chalkdust, clay and grit, less sawdust and sap. No chain lasts forever…

It picks up crap and grime, but then so do certain “wet lubes” costing much more. It is an MTB so I don’t really care too much TBH, I see my bikes as closer to agricultural machinery than precision ‘weapons’, the aesthetic appeal of a sparkling clean drivetrain is lost on me. YMMV of course.

Occasionally I get distracted by the bullshit marketing and think I should try different chain lubes, so I buy something exotic* which is invariably rubbish and I go back to using Finish Line Wet XC Lube.

*By exotic, I mean it’s not Finish Line Wet XC Lube.

Well on the chainsaw I use vegetable oil, so why not cut out the middleman and just use crisp & dry.

Finish line XC is £7 a bottle but a bottle lasts for years.

Chainsaw lube is stickier so it picks up more crap, and is more draggy.

Motorcycle chain lube is a better compromise if you really want to be tightarse.

I can’t think of a chainlube with worse qualities tbh.

was far too sticky and attracted a huge amount of goop.

This ^^ tried some of the No Nonsense stuff from screwfix, far too gloopy and pics up an immense amount of crap, would rather pay £7 for proper lube tbh :/

tbh I use whatever lube I have lying around, whether its chainsaw, airline, engine, gearbox, motorcycle or cycle.

Still working my way through a litre of MTF94 gearbox oil for my chain.

It’s all about the squirt! Fabulous stuff

Finish line green is my choice for the commuter, but the drive train is like something from the Louisiana swamp, no bloody way I’d use that on any of my MTBs…

Life’s too short to be cleaning that shit off.

A bit of googling shows that people have had a lot of success using chainsaw oil and white spirit mix. Might have a go at mixing up a few potions.

I gave up on Finish Line wet lube a while ago because it picks up so much gunk. I usually use the Finish Lime dry lube but I need a better solution for winter.

Chainsaw oil is just cheap disposable lubricant. The gunky mess in the back of our Land Rover suggests it isn’t that great. Bio chainsaw oil is just something to put in the other tank when filling up, no lubrication properties, just leaves bits in the pump. That was our experience of some yellow bio oil a few years back anyway.
So neither for my bikes.

Did run veg oil in a saw, but couldn’t get the thought of chips out my head whilst working.

I stuck two stroke oil on my chain, rode 600 miles through France on lanes, then did a week in a very wet and muddy Morzine which included evening hoze downs.

Never missed a shift.

Not a fan of FinishLine. Gave up on their red and green a while ago and got some of the wax to try and strongly dislike it.

White Lightning Cleanride is my go to now after liking Squirt until it got too cold for it, I’m toying with the green Epic on the commuter though which seems good. The Purple stuff they do was excellent as a Winter lube in truly filthy conditions with provisos – it did pick up clart (although I think any product on a chain in that sort of goop would have been muddy/gritty) but it also cleaned off very easily.

Ironically, MucOff C3 Wet is the the very dirtiest chainlube I’ve ever used. It lubed ok, but I actually gave up trying to clean it off the chain.