I need a new chain lube for my bikes. The stuff I put on was a disgusting mess which has turned the chain stays black. It appears to have sprayed off in such quanties that I’m surprised Greenpeace haven’t came after me for causing the worst oil leak this side of deep water horizon. – serves me right for using cheap decathlon oil.

Oil needs for touring / everyday bike so needs to be resistant/ easily carried on tour.

Will also be used on the TT bike so needs to be moar aeros and give me all the watts

Ta

squirt.

No black mess. Pretty durable too.
There was also a chain lube resistance test done somewhere that had Squirt on top for minimum resistance, if run wet, instead of the usual let-it-dry first. So MOAR speed for TT.

Rock and roll extreme for me (now available again in uk)

Rock 'n' Roll lubrication

I like/use the muc-off C3 wet and dry ceramic lube, not messy at all.

Finish line Dry for me, use it on all my bikes in all conditions.

+1 Rock and Roll blue

white lightning epic

If we can’t even agree on what chain lube to use then what chance do we have to agree on the best way forward with regard to leaving the EU? 😉

The one I use is best, whatever it happens to be. Sure we can all agree on that 🙂

I’ve pretty much gone back to Finish Line everytime I tried something new.

The Green Wet stuff when it’s wet and the Red Dry stuff for the other two weeks of the year.

Also Tried:
Squirt – build up resulted in stiff links and poor shifting.
Muc Off – degraded into a horrible sticky goo that also resulted in stiff links.

I suspect the terrain you ride and the distance you go has more to do with what works best.

I’m with lunge on this. Finish Line dry all year round no matter where I’m riding. It’s muddy locally , until trails dry up. But use it regardless of where I’m tuning. All offroad but the way. All the wet lubes I’ve tried just become sticky grinding paste, no matter how well I wipe surplus off.

Putoline wax. It’s a little effort, and not cheap initially, but there’s a reason why people who try it turn into evangelists about it and never go back to normal oils.

Lasts many times longer than absolutely anything else (yes, including squirt, UBS, or anything oil based). It’s not even worth arguing over how long squirt/UBS last (IME about 50 dry miles, which means a century on the road bike is a noisy experience), or solvent based wax/dry lubes, or oil based wet lubes, nothing lasts even a tenth of the time putoline does.

None of it flings off onto the bike.

It’s a wax so dirt doesn’t stick to it. But it doesn’t wash off like even wet lube does under normal wet conditions (it will eventually, but it needs to be biblical rain for mile after mile).

It is more of a faff (but not much if you chuck it in a mini-fryer whilst you wash the rest of the bike) once every couple of months. Considering that means 20+ rides at least between lubeing, it’s less faff overall by far, especially in winter when it will last for weeks/months on end of muddy singlespeed riding.

I’m using green oil. Seems fine. Want to know if I can use it fork stanchions though instead of my usual (nasty) silicone.

Viking Juice from Juice Lubes, I use it year round and it doesn’t gum up the chain.

Still got 3/4’s of the litre of B&Q chainsaw oil I got for £4. Works fine.

Maybe it’s me being cheap but fancy expensive oils don’t seem to make any difference. One of the worst offenders has to be the Rock & Roll blue stuff. I got given a massive bottle of it to use.

I swear 98% of it ended all over the floor every time I tried using it. And it lasted about 5 minutes. Total crap.

+1 Squirt

Fancy a bit of alchemy take your chain off and put it into a heated sonic bath filled with an industrial light oil allow it to run for 30 minutes watch all the grime come off your chain. change the oil run again and repeat until no further debris is seen in the oil. remove the chain wipe clean replace on to your bike it will appear fresh and new over the next couple of weeks note how it will appear well lubricated once it start to look dry remove and repeat.

Finish line wet is a nice wet lube.
Using white lightning epic in the summer, doesn’t last as long as i’d like, but keeps things nice and clean.

I find FL green and the MucOff wet turn into messy grinding pastes. Had been using TF2 all weather it’s a bit lighter and cheaper with good results (5l for £42!)

Currently using rock and roll blue extreme. Makes a noticeable improvement over the 3 in 1 I was using previously but it does seem to wear off really fast.

No wet lube is ever nice.

Never use for mud. Road torrential rain wet spray perhaps or riding through rivers. Otherwise dry lube all year round (“dry” and “wet” doesn’t refer to the weather, it’s the consistency of the lube).

I’ve been using Squirt for 4 or 5 years now on both road bike and mtb. Very rarely have to clean the chain just top up regularly. Chain stays I’m much better shape than it did when I used finish line wet.

From what i have heard you would be nuts not to try Joe’s Dry lube at only £2 a bottle. So dry it wont attract any dirt.

Can be purchased from On One or Planet X

How long is your touring for? Usually I recommend putoline but it might not be an option with lots of offroad or seriously long onroad touring, because you can’t top it up. That said, I did my commuter’s chain in about november, and all it’s had since then is some light oil for corrosion resistance.

Progold Prolink here.

If I know I’m going to experience a prolonged dry spell I use squirt.

However, this summer being what it is, last night I treated 3 chains with putoline chain wax. As TINAS says, it’s a bit more involved to apply lasts so much longer and never flings or picks up.

Tf2 dry lube been using it even in this gash wet weather. And seems to work fine. Use muc off wet in winter even if it does make my chain black.