Best ‘non horribly black and sticky’ wet lube?

Wolf Tooth WT-1 is terrible, biggest black mess I’ve ever seen the first couple of rides on a new chain with factory grease on.

Adding oil to grease without knowing how each is formulated is *very* likely to lead to black gloopy or sticky mess…

I like the idea but how do you keep the wax at the correct temperature?

Thermometer? Just a basic cooking one.

Same way you check the temp of the wax in a slow cooker.

What’s the best method for “resetting” a chain? I have a small ultrasonic bath if that makes a difference. It’s a relatively new chain that has not been hot waxed, but has been used in pretty minging conditions. I’d like eco friendly if possible. Gary/Geex/GW suggested Cif kitchen mousse which does a good job of cleaning the outside.

With the Putolene I used to just rinse off as much of the crud as possible and then put the chain in the cold fryer and switch it on. By the time I’ve finished cleaning the rest of the bike the chain has been immersed in hot wax for some time so I can remove it and hang it up to dry.

I got over 5000km out of an SLX chain on my Rail but the GX chain on my KSL has lasted less than 2000 with the same treatment.

if he came and saw what most of the MTB community here are doing here most weekends in the winter, he’d pass out.

Quite so.

I remember years ago reading a comment from a Manitou product manager in one of the paper mags that went something like ‘If you can design it to work under water at the beach, then it will be ok for UK use’

What’s the best method for “resetting” a chain?

ZFC has plenty on what they regard as being thorough cleaning for first wax application.

None if it is ‘Eco friendly’, whatever that means anyway.

@Chipps of this parish, often tells of the PTSD he’s given several Californian based designers after a mid winter Calderdale ride. Fun Times. 

Chipps did a winter ride with us on Mendips a good few years ago now, by local standards it was an absolute mud fest. There was comment that it was a bit of a shocker. I remember looking across the carpark and not being able to identify people because all of us were covered head to foot in brown.

It’s why I stayed with wet lube – easier to manage on a high frequency basis

agreed, which is why i suggested Synergetic as being the ‘wet lube’ that ZFC rate as best for their perception of poor conditions, somewhere akin to what we all ride in.

Don’t make me get out my clean Putoline chain pictures again.

It’s not faff. Remove, soak, refit, a few times a year. You don’t need to clean it, it stays clean – that’s the whole point. The wax repels water and mud because it stays on the whole ride and for many rides.

It’s not faff. Remove, soak, refit, a few times a year.

Yeah. I appreciate that it works like that for you, but it didn’t for me.

I was re-lubing every other ride or so in the winter or I had a stiff and rusted chain when wet or rattly links in the summer.

Throw in that sticky black crap and hardly improved chain wear rates, plus it made the chain stiffer and less reluctant to shift. It just wasn’t worth it for me.

After this I spent a long time cycling chains through a clean/relube system in rotation, coming off the bike. I found this cleaner, better shifting and notably increased chain life by c. 50%. Systemised it wasn’t as much of a pain as putoline.

Now I just use Peatys (ex Wickens and Soderstrom) and purge the chain with a hydro shot and reapply and get an even cleaner chain with comparable wear rates to my prior system and get to leave the chain on the bike. This is way less hassle.

I’m not saying its optimum for everyone, but it suits my regime and meets acceptable standards of cleanliness and drivetrain life.

a few times a year

That’s not my experience in FoD slop. It certainly lasts longer than Muc Off but even 2 consecutive days was asking too much. I was redoing it every ride to keep it shifting sweetly and stave off rust.

Mind you, I’m not convinced any lube will survive clag like this…

Did you use the hydro shot on the putoline chain?

If for some reason you want my over 3/4 full 60ml bottle, it’s yours for the postage cost.

Someone actually took it! Said it works well for them.

Adding oil to grease without knowing how each is formulated is *very* likely to lead to black gloopy or sticky mess…

I told Wolf Tooth and SCC Tech what I thought of their product, and they disagree! Apparently removing factory grease will make it dirtier, and Zero Friction Cycling didn’t follow the instructions.

ZFC has plenty on what they regard as being thorough cleaning for first wax application.

None if it is ‘Eco friendly’, whatever that means anyway.

The recommended Ceramic Speed UFO Clean Drivetrain is non-toxic and biodegradable. IIRC though that doesn’t necessarily make things eco friendly. Anyway I bet most people use the 2nd method of turps and meths or various cheap degreasers.

Did you use the hydro shot on the putoline chain?

Me? I don’t have a Hydroshot, although I do have a Mobi. If I didn’t GT85 the chain before the drive home the side plates would be showing signs of rust by the time I got home.

The tests might say otherwise, but GT85 applied after every ride (5 mins) has worked for me for many years.  I get good mileages out of all transmission components – Full fat ebike has got 2000 miles on cassette and chainring, using 2 chains swapped every 500 miles or so.  I’m expecting another 500 miles at least, maybe 1000.  SLX cassette and chains, no name chainring.  Road bike with 105 stuff must be around 3000. However, I still use lube on motorbike chains, I don’t know why!  Maybe it’s the thought of 100 BHP pulling at it that scares me a bit.  Motul dry lube seems not to attract too much crap.

the weldtite one is a good balance of sticky vs lubey 

Did you use the hydro shot on the putoline chain?

They didn’t exist when I was fiddling with putoline.