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@molgrips - would you set off on something like the HT550 with a putoline treated chain? Not being confrontational here, just curious if you'd consider it given that even in a dry year there are some full on dunkings with the river crossings.
t’s not just 15 seconds to apply, it’s 5 mins getting all the crud out of your chain if you are quick and efficient, or cleaning off accumulated gunge if you just reapply all the time.
So you're saying you don't need to clean the chain at all for 3 months with putoline??
My application is for road so there's not that much crud, clean the chain every 2-4 weeks.
Putoline time to remove and reapply: 30 min,
nope - less than 5 mins of stuff yo have to do - most of the time is waiting time you can do something else in.
Chain off bike - 30 seconds. find tin put on stove and turn stove on 10 seconds. Put chain in tin 2 seconds. Take chain out of tin and hang up to cool - 5 seconds refit chain to bike 30 seconds wipe down chain a minute maybe if I have to look for a rag
and yes - its a huge improvement in chain longevity. I have gone from 4 chains a year with associated drivetrain replacments to a chain every year or so
This would, I presume, be compared to someone who neglects their drivetrain – i.e. Putoline once per 6 months vs slapping some 3-in-1 on at the same interval. I could definitely believe this, but for those of us that maintain their drivetrains properly, I am sceptical in the extreme of such claims!
It's more that however well you maintain your bike in the shed, if you go out in the wet then the lube will wash off in perhaps 20 miles (depending on how wet and muddy it is), nothing lasts forever.
This means if you go out for a long ride then all those miles after ~20 are on a dry chain, which is what is wearing it out. Every time you go out and ride for slightly longer than the chain lube can survive you're wearing the drive chain. With solid wax-based lubes that almost never happens, as a result the drive chain is almost never wearing out.
If you have to lube your chain before a ride, then that means that the end of the previous ride was sub-optimal.
As for cleanliness, you can mostly mitigate that by wiping the chain thoroughly after waxing. On my road bike the cassette turns a dull grey as there's a deposited layer of graphite and wax doing it's job by lubricating and protecting it. If it bothers you then a rag with some white spirit wipes it off fairly painlessly, but then you've probably introduced some metal on metal friction. And dirt doesn't stick, once the cassettes turned grey that's it, it doesn't change or need cleaning ever, I just hose my bike down after a muddy ride and put it away, no bearing eating degreasers or jet washing needed.
Putoline is even better for multi day trips, because you don’t need to do anything or bring anything.
+1
And it plays just fine* with wet lubes. I take a little dropper bottle of chainsaw oil for emergencies on multi-day tours/trips but have never actually used it.
*if you consider the standard wet lube gunky black mess to be fine.
Weldtite TF2 Performance is 6 times cheaper than putoline factoring in all the faff..
You omitted cleaning your drivechain in that calculation.
And the cost of replacing chains and cassettes. If a chain is £20 then by the time it's extended it's life by double (or treble, or quadruple) then that £25 tin has pretty much already paid for itself.
As an anecdote my road bikes on it's second "winter" cassette and original "summer" one. That means it's worn approximately 2 cassettes since 2008. I'd work that out in miles but it predates Strava.
Pre-putoline I worked on the assumption a cassette lasted about one winter, or two summers.
Whitestone - yes. It does not wash off in water. I have done two 400 mile tours on the tandem mixed road and off road and the chain still has plenty of lube left in it. Marginal tho depending on weather.
Two things seem to strip it out of the chain - acid soils like peat and science officer had some issues with a particular soil type.
Yohandsome - yes - you never need to clean the chain again
Yohandsome – yes – you never need to clean the chain again
Ok so are these claims true dear putoline apostles:
1. 2-4x longer chain life
2. 2-4x longer cassette life
3. No chain cleaning whatsoever (no gunk buildup on rollers even?)
4. Reapplication every 3-6 months, takes 30 min
5. Marginally faster than wet lube
6. Turns the chain black-ish due to graphite content (pro or con depending on your aesthetic preference..)
Why get a fryer though
take 10 mins not 30 apart from that yes
Look at the pic I put up of my bike. thats done around 1000 miles in that pic and been treated twice and never cleaned. Its still well lubed, no gunk build up. It won't need redoing for another couple of hundred miles at least
I actually think its probably a tiny bit slower than a well lubed and cleaned chain using oil - but its loads quicker than a chain thats lost all its lube at the end of your ride
I use fs365. Its from scotoiler. Used on motorbikes. I have immaculate drivetrains. Need to apply every ride bit only takes about 20 seconds. Stores in a bottle in the cupboard. Water based so easy to clean off floor and clothing. I ran a chain for 2 years and it didnt get to 50% and i live in scotland so mud is a year round reality.
Why the hell would i want to faff about with a deep fat fryer! You guys be crazy!
It's not really a faff. Cleaning chains is far more faff. And with Putoline the chain is really clean, it passed the twist test.
I think some people aren't that bothered about a grit-free chain. I am picky about it though.
yohandsome
Ok so are these claims true dear putoline apostles:
1. 2-4x longer chain life
2. 2-4x longer cassette life
3. No chain cleaning whatsoever (no gunk buildup on rollers even?)
4. Reapplication every 3-6 months, takes 30 min
5. Marginally faster than wet lube
6. Turns the chain black-ish due to graphite content (pro or con depending on your aesthetic preference..)Why get a fryer though
The fryer is so you can do it in the shed and not get a bollocking off the OH for stinking out the house. It's also safer than having a wobbly tin on a stove somewhere.
All the above would appear to be true, although I am a recent convert so can't personaly vouch for the longevity claims.
6 isn't neccesarily true depending if you wipe the chain after treatment.
First chain I did I let drip dry and it had a sticky brown coating which came off on hands, clothes, cassette etc. Second chain got a good wipe straight after coming out of dff and it looks a dull silver with a slight waxy feel on the side plates like the surface of a wax crayon.
Mostly riden in the dry so far but after one very shitty ride it got a good high pressure hose wash down and muck just fell of leaving chain just as it was after the wax treatment.
MODS! Isn't it time there was a sticky(no pun intended) for this.
Shit! Having transferred Yohandsome's model to other aspects of my life I've just realised I spend more than 30 days per year washing my dishes. I'd better get rid of the dishwasher, with its 2 hour cycle that's 730 hours a year!
I'll spend the time saved polishing my drivetrain.
You can spray WD40 on a rag and wipe it down at any point, not just when you've fried it up. This can help keep things clean if you find bits of wax have worked their way out.
@molgrips I rather like the thin waxy coating on the plates preventing corrosion. Would the WD40 take that off?
It’ll be a lot longer on road, my ‘road bike’ gets used as a semi mtb too and I usually get several months out of one application.
Putoline isn’t comparable to anything you drip or pour onto a chain because it gets right inside the rollers, precisely where you want it.
I must admit, I have Putoline in my ebay watch list, but I'll [i]never[/i] actually buy it.
What works for me, is cleaning and spraying with WD40 after seriously shitty rides. Then, if it's wet, dribbling whatever dry lube that is nearest on to it (just a tiny amount). Currently either the cheap, white stuff Halfords sell (Pure) (it smells nice), or Muc Off dry lube (had it years). If it's dry, the wd40 does the job.
Anything else is just a bloody unnecessary faff.
Anything else is just a bloody unnecessary faff.
Is it though? I always hated cleaning the chain and drivetrain on the bike after a ride, found it to be a messy unpleasant business with ususally not very good results. I used to be a WD40 user and always found that despite best efforts, every so often I would have to strip things down to give it a good clean.
Putoline is a doddle in comparison in my view.
Fenwicks stealth. Keeps the drive train smooth and attracts no dirt in the dry or wet.
Juice Lubes Viking Juice 😀
If your not waxing
Looking on the official Putoline website,on the instructions it says to just heat up in the tin? So no need for a deep fat fryer? Could do it in the garden with a camping stove to eliminate smell etc? Does it leave a gum around the cassette/chainrings? I'd rather keep them as mank free as possible.
Fryer in garage means you can switch on - forget about it for 30mins - remember and plonk in chain - which you then also forget about - then remember and remove throw on an old towel to wipe and leave - then remember to find the now cold chain and install.
Compared to forget about the stove and dial 999.
Putoline in garage on a big flat camp stove, the canister ones. Much quicker than cleaning rinsing and drying chain.
Especially if you like a potter/ beer/ tunes in garage. Mine has never been tidier.
I put mine on the kitchen hob. Fortunatly when I installed the kitchen I put in a massively powerful extractor 🙂
As above - the DFF is perhaps safer from a fire point of view and certainly safer from the wife point of view 🙂
Is it though? I always hated cleaning the chain and drivetrain on the bike after a ride, found it to be a messy unpleasant business
I've not cleaned a chain or cassette since the days of wet lube, the only cleaning is the odd scraping of built up mud from jockey wheels with a wee screwdriver.
The putoliners seem to think the rest of us spend hours cleaning stuff, to justify their own bizarre rituals. 🤣
I like a bizarre ritual or two 😉
No beer - religious rituals always look bizarre to outsiders.
I always hated cleaning the chain and drivetrain on the bike after a ride
So did I, back in the 90s when I used to religiously cover my chain in the sticky shite that dirt clings to and make it more difficult to clean.
Ah, remember the black clag that Finish Line used to leave over the chain and cassette.. never have to clean like that any more.
On the time calculation your not adding in the cleaning of all that hard black shite from the jockey wheels, cassette, front chain rings and occasional proper chain clean down. You don't get that build up with wax.
The only chain lube I’ve used that’s anywhere near putoline in terms of surviving wet gritty rides in Surrey or Wales in Rex domestique. It’s easier to apply and cleaner but doesn’t last as long as putoline. It can go a good few shitty rides before reapplying though. It’s more expensive in the long run, but if you prefer a clean looking chain and cassette it’s certainly the best I’ve used.
^^^^ £13 for a 30ml bottle, eek, that is pricey.
Reading the blurb it looks very similar to Smoove...
It does last a long while though as you use it infrequently and you just put a tiny drop on each link.
The putoliners seem to think the rest of us spend hours cleaning stuff, to justify their own bizarre rituals.
Pultoliners used to do it the old way, now we've tried something else and found it better. Some of us are capable of critical evaluation!
Fenwicks stealth. Keeps the drive train smooth and attracts no dirt in the dry or wet.
It is nice, a bit high maintenance for mixed riding though, I think I'm only getting between 100km and 150km per application.
Will finish my two bottles, and in the meantime maybe take the plunge with Putoline on the winter bikes, it can only be cleaner than the current black sticky mess. All going well I'll maybe commit on the gravel bike as well, just a shame it's also my CX race bike, there's something about Putoline which doesn't scream 'race' to me, couldn't they do an extra special 'race' blend and charge me extra for the privilege? 😉
13th - serious offer to do a chain for you
Pultoliners used to do it the old way
Christ, you'd think one of the cult messiahs would spell it properly, tj will have you on the naughty step. 🙂
Tbh, you lot always compare it to the shittiest old stuff, such as finish line wet, as Dez says we stopped using that years ago. As Chaka says, it's about 15 quid a year lube (I use for RnR), I never have to clean my chain, takes 30 seconds to apply, and lasts more than long enough for my needs, it's a problem that just doesn't exist.
Hasn't RnR changed consistency recently? There was a thread about it somewhere.
TJ - genuine thanks! If these were different times I'd welcome the opportunity to catch up in person, but as it is I think I'd prefer just to take the plunge, after all, cleaning and lubing chains in the garage is my favourite form of relaxation after a long day of contractor/toddler wrangling...
Tbh, you lot always compare it to the shittiest old stuff, such as finish line wet, as Dez says we stopped using that years ago
I've got about 15 half full bottles of various lubes in the garage. My favourite used to be Shimano wet lube.
The thing is that no matter what I tried, the chain got gritty on wet rides and the lube washed out. Now, this didn't actually affect my riding - it still worked, but it was full of grit. If you're prepared to accept a chain full of grit and the associated wear, then yes you don't have a problem. If you don't care about washing the grit out after a ride, then you don't have a problem.
Elephant Cum. It’s organic. Made in South Africa. If unavailable Squirt or Smoov (pronounces Smoof - and a good word to use when having a brandy and coke with a setting sun)
shittiest old stuff, such as finish line wet,
I started using putoline about a decade ago. Finish line wet was often the recommended lube on here then.
I don't get grit sticking to my chain, it's too wet here for grit!
I found putoline didn't last a lot longer than regular lube in a crappy Mendip winter. soil type down here is sandy clay so it's quite abrasive and tends to hang around on the transmission as well as everywhere else.
I found the faff of heating it, handling it, and the orrible smell meant it it wasn't worth the small extra improvements for me. I also hated sticky black staining nature of the stuff, and I found that it slowed the shifting down a bit.
It's weird, cos I find this type of discussion quite interesting. Whereas "I've had a haircut"? WTF! How have we got so boooooring! 😂
I also hated sticky black staining nature of the stuff, and I found that it slowed the shifting down a bit.
God-dammit, I've literally just hit the button on a deep fat fryer and a tin of wax. Please tell me it's just staining during application? e.g. I won't have a sticky black staining chain?
Define 'slow' shifting, do you lose precision or can it still be trusted on an 11spd road bike drivetrain?
Please tell me it’s just staining during application?
You can wipe the chain pretty clean while it’s still hot but it does coat your cassette and chainring in a grey/black film. It’ll also come off and stain clothing etc.
I’ve only found that it’s a bit stiff/sticky at first but after a few pedal turns it all loosens up.
I’ve never noticed it affecting shifting on any of my 4 bikes, all 10spd shimano tho, so they rarely need adjustment anyway.
It doesn’t set hard like candle wax, if you finger it (fnaar fnaar) you will leave a finger print in the wax.