Best Drive Train Oil?

[RichardB]

For my own part I use hypoid diff oil, just a minimal amount. It's cheap, minimal flinging, and is designed not to flow away from high pressure metak on metal interfaces. The downside is that it smells umpleasant and that puts some people off, but I get around this by making a point of not getting doen on my hands and knees and sniffing the chain.

Diff oil (EP90 etc) smells like cat urine. Children, just don't.

What you need is THIS:

(For those under 60 who have never owned a motorbike - it's a large tin of black wax that you put on the stove. Heat it until liquid, drop the chain in, wait for filth to float off, hang chain to cool, allow to set. It gets wax into all the rollers and over all the plates, but is a massively messy and smelly exercise.)

Serious note, most lubricants will be fine; more important is that you wipe the chain clean regularly. It's the dirt/oil grinding paste that damages your chain and sprockets. I've used motorcycle chain wax (sprays on and solvent flashes off, leaving a dry wax coat, lasts for ever) and WD-40 (thin, so needs reapplying almost daily, but works fine) and everything in between. Finish line Wet seems to work best for me overall.

 

[Gravity Aided]

3 in 1, the actual bicycle chain oil. It looks like a paraffin wax based product.

 

[All uphill]

The Best Drive Train Oil is whatever is to hand. Engine oil, gear oil, 3 in 1, but not WD40. Wipe, oil, wipe after every wet or mucky ride.

Even 11 speed chains last a year and are not that expensive.

 

[johnblack]

Whatevers to hand when it needs it, especially after its been jetwashed, it's really not a big deal.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I use Finish Line Wet. I've no idea how it stacks up against the rest but it seems to work. View attachment 561015

Me too!

 

[Ridgeway]

Castrol GTX

 

[Ajax Bay]

I'm currently using a hydra carbon based lube. . . . lasts a couple of mtb trail rides and washes (you can test as it shines under a uv light

Aren't all oils "hydrocarbon based"? What exactly (the chain, the oil, the dirt,) shines when you expose the oiled, ridden and washed chain to UV light?

 

[12boy]

Haven't oiled a chain for 15 years. I keep a crockpot with a mix of paraffin wax, oil, and more recently, toilet bowl wax ring. The toilet stuff is very sticky and ensures the other stuff doesn't flake off. The waxy gloop also coats sprockets and chainrings as the bike is ridden and that I think reduces their wear as well. I heat up the crockpot until all the wax is liquid, drop the chain in for 15 minutes, pull it out to cool for a bit and slap it on. Not counting the waiting, five minutes and since I rotate through several bikes, I can do them all at the same time, if my elderly short term memory loss allows me to remember which chain is for what bike. The wax is fairly clean to handle, unlike chains with dirty oil.

 

[LJR69]

Aren't all oils "hydrocarbon based"? What exactly (the chain, the oil, the dirt,) shines when you expose the oiled, ridden and washed chain to UV light?

I 'think' the polymers they've built into the oil, but I'm guessing tbh.

https://muc-off.com/products/hydrodynamic-lube

 

[Jimmy Welch]

Once a week, on Saturday mornings, I give the bike a clean and I pay special attention to the drive train.

Afterwards, I oil it up with bog standard 3-1 oil.

However, if it's a wet week, by Wednesday, I find my drive train misbehaving itself and I end up giving it a clean and a fresh coat of 3-1.

I've heard about special winter waxes which reduce the need to constantly oil the chain.

Are they any good?

Hi get yourself a proper wet lube , especially made for chain and drive get a fee drops on each link top on bottom go up down the gears to coat cassets then run a rag on chain take off excess no red chain or grinding

 

[Gunk]

Hi get yourself a proper wet lube , especially made for chain and drive get a fee drops on each link top on bottom go up down the gears to coat cassets then run a rag on chain take off excess no red chain or grinding

I use the Muckoff wet lube for both bikes and motorcycles one small bottles lasts about 5 years

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Motorcycle chain spray. It's designed for much more demanding operating conditions than it will ever see on a push bike with a half a horsepower engine propelling it.
I use it not only on chains, but as a non-invasive lube top up on wheel bearings, headsets, BB's, and I also spray it down my seat tube/seat post interface with the clamp bolt slack, so it penetrates between the surfaces and stops the seat post getting stuck in the fame.

 

[itboffin]

Haven't oiled a chain for 15 years. I keep a crockpot with a mix of paraffin wax, oil, and more recently, toilet bowl wax ring. The toilet stuff is very sticky and ensures the other stuff doesn't flake off. The waxy gloop also coats sprockets and chainrings as the bike is ridden and that I think reduces their wear as well. I heat up the crockpot until all the wax is liquid, drop the chain in for 15 minutes, pull it out to cool for a bit and slap it on. Not counting the waiting, five minutes and since I rotate through several bikes, I can do them all at the same time, if my elderly short term memory loss allows me to remember which chain is for what bike. The wax is fairly clean to handle, unlike chains with dirty oil.

I'm coming around to this approach what oil do you mix with the paraffin wax?

 

[12boy]

I've used most any oil such as 30 weight. The purpose of the oil is to keep the wax pliable and to stick on the chain. However, the toilet bowl sealer wax works really well. You can use beeswax with the paraffin wax as well, but beeswax, here at least, costs a huge amount more than the $4 I paid for the tolet bowl wax. This will probably sound like rank heresy, but I don't clean the chain before dunking it in the wax because.......
The waxed chain doesnt pick up grit like oil, and
Any grit there is sinks to the bottom of the crockpot.
Definitely recommend getting a used crockpot at a thrift store and dedicating it to this purpose. So much easier than the double boiler route.
Just let it warm up until all the wax is liquid and insert chain with a bit of wire to pull it out with. After 15 minutes or so remove it, let it cool and throw it on the bike.

 

[froze]

When you buy lube you have to be rational, are you racing professionally? then get some of that real expensive baked on ceramic lube, but if you're that type of racer your team already has that for you, but the really expensive super duper low friction lube that cost $100 to apply is a waste of money, you never save enough time on a ride to make it worthwhile, nor make the chain last forever either.

I use to do the hot wax stuff, and personally, I didn't like it, it didn't last on the chain long, the chain life was shorter than with oils, nor does wax prevent rust. Wax does not adhere to metal well at all, it has gaps and those gaps traps water and that's where rust will first occur. After every rain ride, you have to redo the hot wax, a time-consuming messy event. And liquid wax in a bottle is even worse, that crap holds up for about 45 to 65 miles then you have to reapply it. The problem with using any wet lube like automotive oil, is that dirt and bugs are attracted to it like a powerful magnet, and dirt will grind metal off the chain, and that metal will also stick to the oil and compound the grinding away at your chain and gears.

I have yet to find the golden angel of wax. The best I've found so far is one of two, and I haven't figured out if the one is better than the other. The first lube is Rock n Roll Ultimate Dry, this stuff is a bit weird, you have to literally squirt it on the chain while pedaling backward, seems like a big waste of lube but the lube does work really well. What really struck me about this lube is that after a very strong downpour the lube was still intact, with no noise from the chain whatsoever, which is really strange for a dry lube. Just follow the directions and it's good to go for a long time between applications, I can go for at least 300 miles between re-lubing. I use this stuff on my road bike and commuter bike. On my road bike the original chain has around 8,000 miles on it and after measuring it the gauge showed 50% wear.

The other lube I just started using on my touring bike is Dumonde Tech Lite, I applied it according to the directions and then reapplied it, then reapplied it after about 50 miles, since then I haven't reapplied it all, it's been over 800 miles and still no noise from the chain, and the chain stays clean, a lot cleaner than the Rock N Roll chains. I'm waiting to see how long my chain will last, but the last measurement I did at the 800-mile mark showed no wear. Time will tell about this stuff, but so far I really like it, without the chain wear factored in it would be my favorite lube.