17-02-12, 10:59 PM
Waste engine oil is the best chain-lube... 
It works like this on a sealed-roller chain, I think:
Chain starts life covered in a thin film of oil.
Dust,grit and other sh*t gets onto the chain from the road and turns the oil into to grinding paste.
You add oil and it dilutes the grinding paste and it all flings off at the points of max centripetal force (mainly under the front sprocket cover and to a lesser extent off the rear sprocket onto the back wheel). The main aim is to keep the grinding paste as dilute as possible.
If you don't add oil, the paste gets more and more concentrated until it doesn't flow and so holes appear in the oil-film and your chain rusts.
A combination of rust and grit then wears your sprockets and rollers.
At the same time it solidifies in the gaps between the rollers and the pins and it attacks the seals - and your chain starts to stretch.
In my opinion any chain lubricant that pretends to be "wax" or "low maintenance" can't possibly work because it doesn't remove grit from the chain.
So basically, if you want to preserve your chain you've got to put up with the crap all over your back wheel - at least its no longer on your chain.
Last week I couldn't spell "engineer".... now I ARE one. 8)
It works like this on a sealed-roller chain, I think:
Chain starts life covered in a thin film of oil.
Dust,grit and other sh*t gets onto the chain from the road and turns the oil into to grinding paste.
You add oil and it dilutes the grinding paste and it all flings off at the points of max centripetal force (mainly under the front sprocket cover and to a lesser extent off the rear sprocket onto the back wheel). The main aim is to keep the grinding paste as dilute as possible.
If you don't add oil, the paste gets more and more concentrated until it doesn't flow and so holes appear in the oil-film and your chain rusts.
A combination of rust and grit then wears your sprockets and rollers.
At the same time it solidifies in the gaps between the rollers and the pins and it attacks the seals - and your chain starts to stretch.
In my opinion any chain lubricant that pretends to be "wax" or "low maintenance" can't possibly work because it doesn't remove grit from the chain.
So basically, if you want to preserve your chain you've got to put up with the crap all over your back wheel - at least its no longer on your chain.
Last week I couldn't spell "engineer".... now I ARE one. 8)