I read somewhere that 10W 40 engine oil is just as effective as the tiny bottles of bicycle specific lubrication sold in all bikes shops, and is obviously a hell of a lot cheaper…

Is there any truth behind this? If not – is there something available that doesn’t cost a fortune for a small amount of lube (ie Finish Line and the likes)? Getting tired of paying the high prices for so little.

Dave.

For what purpose?

It says its ‘extra silky’ and everyfink. I fancy an ‘extra silky’ tingly drivechain 😀

haha like it – lubricating a MTB chain (believe it or not…!)

For a chain, motor engine oil will be too light.

Putoline chain wax then 🙂 £18 a kilo.

Motor oil also does not have the right properties. You need something that will penetrate into the rollers easily and will not fling off as it goes round the sprockets

Chainsaw oil is used by some.

Chainsaw oil apparently

Lube lasts a age anyway – if you make a gallon of it you’ll have a million times more than you know what to do with

This topic seems to come up pretty regularly and i have to say it always amuses me. Most people on here ride bikes the cost between say 1 and 4 grand. Yet they object to paying a fiver for a bottle of lube that for me lasts approximately 6 months. That’s riding on average say 1.5-2 times a week lubing the bike nearly every time, at least every time i remember. Now for me i don’t see it as a massive cost getting a product specifically formulated to suit my requirements that costs a fiver to keep my 2k(ish) bike running smoothly. Strikes me as amusing that people will spend so much on their bikes & then are tight when it comes to looking after them properly.

6 months from a tiny bottle of lube? I would be lucky to get a few weeks. But tehn I do ride summer and winter and a good few miles and the local peat solis strip oil fromchains
And it was rubbish anyway. Why pay more for a poor product? Like most cycle specific things its a rippoff.

I am getting many times the life from my chains using putoline compared to cycle lubes – and I tried all teh reccomended ones

I reckon I used a whole (small) bottle of wet lube for all the commuting I did during the winter – i.e. November to February. That’s somewhere in excess of 1,000 miles during some pretty shit conditions and with road salt and grit featuring heavily.

ride to a friends house and use their lube instead?
8)

Gearbox oil

Teh £18 worth of putoline has been lubing several bikes chains for a couple of years and there is still loads left

TandemJeremy – Member
I am getting many times the life from my chains using putoline

Blimey, by what factor?

I like the sound of Putoline. But exactly how bad is the application process?

frank4short +1

I tried normal engine oil, but it just seemed to stick on the outside and make the chain sticky and dirty. I use wet lube very sparingly after wiping the chain clean.

I did pick up a tip, from Sheldon Brown I think, to spray a little GT on the chain before applying a drop of lube to every link (inner side only), as it assists passage of the lube into the roller/pin where it needs to be. Then before a ride, I wipe the chain dry so that it’s not sticky.

Something to try instead of fretting about the cost of lube.

Top tip:

Save money on expensive chain lubes by discarding the chain completely and riding your bicycle ‘hobby horse’ style

………..

Cynic al – dunno exactly but 3 or 4 times I think. Hard to say as its now so occasional I buy a new chain. Less than a chain a year rather than 2 or 3

As for application – its a messy faff. Tin on stove and heat it until it melts. it stinks your kitchen out. dunk chain in ( no need to clean first) and stir it around. Move tin to somewhere where you can hang the now hot greasy chain over it so excess drips off. When chain is cool refit to bike then wipe excess off the outside of it. Only needs doing every few rides on a offroad bike and every few months on a road bike. The stuff is also impossible to remove from clothes as well.

Its partly that it seems to work so well and its partly that it stays on the chain so well I like

I think its fantastic stuff and won’t use anything else again. However Scienceofficer of this parish tried it and didn’t find the faffage worth it.

Just to be clear here TJ you’re talking about taking your chain off every couple of rides (lets say once every 10 days). Dipping it in hot wax that you’ve heated up in your kitchen, which you’ve admitted stinks & is a faff, then hanging it out to cool. Afterwards replacing it on your bike & wiping off the excess. Sound about right?

Cause to me that sounds like a monumental pain in the arse. I like the whole process of fixing & maintaining my bike but that sounds massively labour intensive for the sake of a few quid, plus you’ve admitted it’s bordering on pretty anti-social between the smell & way it destroys clothes. The idea intrigues me but just not that much.

Didn’t realize the Putoline only lasted 2-3 rides, I’d have to do that 2-3 times a week 😯

Used a small bottle of Fenwicks wet lube for the whole winter on commuter (every day, 100km/week) and use a small bottle of Purple Extreme every 6 weeks or so on ‘new’ bike.
Purple extreme is squirt, back pedal a few times, wipe – about 30 seconds.

Chains last about 18 months on 1×9 mtb commuter (about 7000 km) and a year and counting on the ‘new’ bike

3 in 1 here with a small bottle of wet lube in the camelback for monsoon days. As I use KMC X9’s bought for just over a tenner on ebay. They tend to last at least a year each before failing the chainwear tool test.

£5 a bottle for bike specific lube lasting 6 months would cost me just as much if not more than the chains they are protecting 😯

Big can of 3 in 1 for £2 nearly empty after 5 years.

Even if you believed the hype and the lube doubled the service life of a chain it would still work out dearer.

😯

I did indeed try putoline. I did indeed find it a massive faff, even compared to my somewhat ‘systemised’ approach to transmission maintenance (documented plenty enough times on this site).

Not only is it a pain to put on, I wasn’t satisfied that the chain was adequately clean, since all you do is swill it around in the molten goop and let it drain. The grit drops to the bottom of the pan, but where I am its less peaty grit and light mud, but clay and sand – smaller particle size equals more reluctance to purge from small spaces.

All this and only about three rides (about a week) before my chain rollers were rattling – suggesting that there was no putoline left where it was meant to be. It didn’t appear to improve chain wear either (something I do actually measure).

To cap it off, the stuff reeks and my wife gave me an ear bashing everytime I used it. I’ve a tub in the garage anyone can have for the cost of the postage.

I’ve reverted to finish line (bought 4 litres and split it with a friend). I rotate 3 chains and fully degrease, dry and re-apply after a maximum of two rides. I’ve just replaced my transmission (3x chains, cassette and front ring) after three years. I don’t keep a log of actual miles, but thats going to be approximately 7000 off-road miles – thats ok in my book.

If you buy finish line wet in bulk and split with mates its loads cheaper. At my current rate of consumption, I’ve got about 10 years left for about 17.99 outlay.

Chainsaw oil apparently

I used to use chainsaw oil but now my lube of choice is screwfix PTFE spray.

I’ve been getting on really well with squirt lube. Because of this, I’m tempted to try the putolene stuff but I thought it lasted longer than that between applications.

could you dissolve the putoline in some sort of volatile solvent, would make putting it on a lot easier surely?

like rock n roll extreme for example?

oh, you can get it in a squirty can, maybe that’s a better alternative