On Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 6:18:22 PM UTC-5 mhec...@gmail.com wrote: > Your experience, appreciated. >
And lots of experience posted from all over! I gave wax a try for a couple of years, but it never made it through winters very well here (salty slush on the roads is a nightmare for chains and gears). To be fair, I didn't have a good, dedicated pot for heating the wax. I now have a caddy loaded with pretty much all the commercial concoctions aimed at bike chains from Dry to Epic conditions. Every one of them promise to be clean and long lasting, and none of them deliver on it. I have not yet tried NFS. A couple of people have given the thumbs up to WD-40. I agree, it's tough to beat WD-40 for cleaning and a quick lube. If you want it to last the duration of a 200km or longer brevet, especially a wet one, well, that's not going to happen. I saw an article somewhere, as I was noodling on this issue, that showed WD-40 is the best lube and also is the shortest-lasting. Chain saw oil, which you can also find packaged as Phil (Wood) Tenacious Oil, is quite long lasting, quite messy, and higher friction. Higher is relative - as the Spicer research notes, friction losses are tiny. In the course of my experimentation, I spied the old bottle of 3-in-One on my shelf and thought, "huh, why not?" It even says right on the front that it's great for bicycle chains. I've been using it for a few years now and am very happy with it. I can easily go a few hundred miles without care. I haven't had to ride a brevet in the rain with it, but I've had some wet rides and it lasts pretty well. In the winter, as with any lube, I have to clean, dry, and re-lube after every ride if the roads are wet and salty. Between lubes, an occasional wipe with a rag sprayed with WD-40 keeps the outside clean. Cleaning (more WD-40 and a rag) and relubing takes about 15 minutes if I'm being slow. I also like to keep my derailer pulleys and cogs clean (more WD-40) at the same time. One part of this topic I haven't seen discussed, but I think is crucial, is how the lube is applied. Waxing techniques are their own thing. Applying wet lubes, the biggest game changer for me was putting the 3-in-One into an old valve oil bottle with a needle applicator (from my other hobby, playing horn). The needle applicator allows for precise delivery of a small drop on each link - no more flooding the chain and spending another hour trying to get rid of the excess. My new bottle of 3-in-One appears to be a lifetime supply at this rate. And, the little bottle with the needle rides easily in my handlebar bag for a long ride. Ted Durant Milwaukee, WI USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5f6a0217-346f-4f95-b1a7-c639f8ed5416n%40googlegroups.com.
