Lubing the Chain

what do you suggest to use for lubing the chain?

I have some ceramic spray which is very nice, but I guess it is good just for the chains with the Orings and may not work for the chain of my Roadster

at the same time, using grease may end up with making a mess all around..

do you have any particular product to suggest?

I use PJ1. I've also used Castrol before and found both to be good. I guess most quality brands will be good these days.

Most important is to remember to clean and lube your chain AFTER a ride and not before, this way the chain will be warm and the lube will soak in easier.

Wether or not the lube is applied to a warm chain, you must always wait until the lube has fully evaporated all of its solvents, the it will do what it's supposed to... stay on the chain and not fling all over your rear rim!

Lorenzo said:

what do you suggest to use for lubing the chain?

I have some ceramic spray which is very nice, but I guess it is good just for the chains with the Orings and may not work for the chain of my Roadster

at the same time, using grease may end up with making a mess all around..

do you have any particular product to suggest?

Click to expand...

One lube and two bikes????? Orings type chains requiring lube....... mmmmh $10-20 either way for lube for each or one.. If you got 2 bikes you can afford 2 lubes... Just follow the manufactures recomendations for each chain...

Here is my lazy and frugal man's method. I have posted this before and took flak from guys who remove, wash, and soak chains in hot lube, but I believe I get as much life from a chain as they do.

Take a dollop of wheel bearing grease, put it in a pump oil can, fill with gasoline, shake well.
Pump the mix on the chain, concentrating on the pins and rollers. The solvent carries the grease into the pins and rollers, then evaporates leaving the grease where it does the most good.

You can wipe the excess from the chain if you care to, or let it fling itself over the rear wheel and wipe it from there. Pre-washing the chain with a pressure washer (while on the bike....the lazy man's way) is beneficial, but if you do not have a PW, or coin op car wash available, put the lube on anyway. Chain life is mostly dependent on frequency of lube application, more than type of grease/oil used. Doing it via lazy way means I do it more often....hence long chain life.

Obviously, if getting grease into the pins and rollers is the object, there is no point to lubing O-ring chain. I will defer to AndyChain on the issue of lubing O-ring chains.

Slick

Before I switched to the CNW 520 chain/sprockets I did the traditional - remove chain, clean,boil in grease. It worked well and I had excellent chain life. Certainly it was a bit of a pain but in the scheme or "routine" britt bike maintenance, it didn't bother me at all…THEN. But I got lazy and wanted a new ratio anyway so I decided to go with the CNW.

With that chain, all I do is occasionally spray/wipe it down with WD40. It seems to have less wear in the same mileage than the oem-type 530 did with regular lubing so I'm quite pleased with it. But if your a stalwart traditionalist, boiling in grease is the only way to go!

perhaps I should just look for some PJ1 chain lube spray can..

mike996 said:

Before I switched to the CNW 520 chain/sprockets I did the traditional - remove chain, clean,boil in grease. It worked well and I had excellent chain life. Certainly it was a bit of a pain but in the scheme or "routine" britt bike maintenance, it didn't bother me at all…THEN. But I got lazy and wanted a new ratio anyway so I decided to go with the CNW.

With that chain, all I do is occasionally spray/wipe it down with WD40. It seems to have less wear in the same mileage than the oem-type 530 did with regular lubing so I'm quite pleased with it. But if your a stalwart traditionalist, boiling in grease is the only way to go!

Click to expand...

Fast Eddie said:

Most important is to remember to clean and lube your chain AFTER a ride and not before, this way the chain will be warm and the lube will soak in easier.

Wether or not the lube is applied to a warm chain, you must always wait until the lube has fully evaporated all of its solvents, the it will do what it's supposed to... stay on the chain and not fling all over your rear rim!

Click to expand...

I use a soft bristle brush (used toothbrush) to knock off any road grime from the warm chain, then spray http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Catal ... 0075098584 on the side plates so as to get the lube down into the critical pin/bushing interface. It helps it you put a bit of a bend into the end of the spray tube to more easily get to the plates along the inside next to the hub. This lube goes on with a carrier solvent, and dries to what looks like a lithium-base chassis lube.

I installed a bargain-basement chain after rinsing all the packing lube with solvent. It was lubed with said grease, adjusted, then re-adjusted after about 300 miles. It gets lubed at each petrol fill-up (300 miles), and it hasn't needed to be re-adjusted since. It now has over 1200 miles with only the first re-adjust.

Nathan

I've read there are also particular kinds of chain lube for off-road bikes
do you think this will be better for a non-Oring chain?

Lorenzo said:

I've read there are also particular kinds of chain lube for off-road bikes
do you think this will be better for a non-Oring chain?

Click to expand...

Most of-road bikes nowadays run o-ring chains, so that's probably what they're referring to. Like what olChris pointed out earlier, just follow the lube's recommendations for whatever chain they're slated for.