Chain, Gears & Wheel Lube

What's better for regular lubing of chain, hubs, derailleur, etc on a hybrid
used mostly for road touring?

A very light spray oil (like WD-40), something heavier (3 in 1 light machine
oil), or a heavier grease?

I'd like to be able to avoid buying the small overpriced bottle of "chain
lube" at the bike shop.


Thanks,

Ian





-----= Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News =-----
http://www.newsfeeds.com - The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
-----== Over 100,000 Newsgroups - 19 Different Servers! =-----

In article , "Ian \(remove the antispam
\)" says...
What's better for regular lubing of chain, hubs, derailleur, etc on a hybrid
used mostly for road touring?

A very light spray oil (like WD-40), something heavier (3 in 1 light machine
oil), or a heavier grease?

I'd like to be able to avoid buying the small overpriced bottle of "chain
lube" at the bike shop.

I find that 10W30 motor works well, and doesn't hold dirt and grit as
much as heavier and/or stickier lubes do. The 3-in-1 oil might be ok as
long as you kept up frequent applications. I wouldn't use WD-49 though;
too many volatiles which quickly evaporate.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).

"Ian (remove the antispam)" wrote in
message ...
What's better for regular lubing of chain, hubs, derailleur, etc on a
hybrid
used mostly for road touring?

A very light spray oil (like WD-40), something heavier (3 in 1 light
machine
oil), or a heavier grease?

I'd like to be able to avoid buying the small overpriced bottle of "chain
lube" at the bike shop.


Thanks,

Ian


Of the choices you offered, I'd guess the 3 in 1 would be best. If you
really want to go cheap, I've heard that used motor oil from a car makes an
excellent chain lube. WD 40 won't do and heavy grease will collect way too
much dirt and probably won't work into the pins very well.

Bob C.

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 11:20:07 -0400, "psycholist"
wrote:


"Ian (remove the antispam)" wrote in
message ...
What's better for regular lubing of chain, hubs, derailleur, etc on a
hybrid
used mostly for road touring?

A very light spray oil (like WD-40), something heavier (3 in 1 light
machine
oil), or a heavier grease?

I'd like to be able to avoid buying the small overpriced bottle of "chain
lube" at the bike shop.


Thanks,

Ian


Of the choices you offered, I'd guess the 3 in 1 would be best. If you
really want to go cheap, I've heard that used motor oil from a car makes an
excellent chain lube. WD 40 won't do and heavy grease will collect way too
much dirt and probably won't work into the pins very well.

Bob C.


My understanding is that the real 'lube' for chain lube is suppoed to be a
type of wax, and not a type of oil.

I was told by a LBS owner:
1. WD-40 is not good, and that the lube in this was 'lanolin'. It
collects dirt. (For MTB use the lube is almost entirely 'wax' and little
else, and it is the most resistant to dirt-collection.
2. The chain, to be properly lubed should be taken off the bike and
thoroughly soaked in the 'lube' and then left to dry overnight. The
transporting agent would evap., leaving the waxy substance on the chain
3. When you're lubing a chain you are not doing it for the outside, i.e.
the chain in the sprockets. You're actually lubing the inner spindle and
posts inside the chain that lets the individual chain segments move freely
as they go around the circuit.

Dunno if this is correct. FWIW. (this is the same guy who wants to charge
my brother 30 bucks to true a wheel...!!)

-Badger

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 13:00:59 -0400, Badger_South
wrote:

Dunno if this is correct. FWIW. (this is the same guy who wants to charge
my brother 30 bucks to true a wheel...!!)

Seems reasonable. Maybe I'd start at $ 25 and add $ 5 if they told me
they had already tried to true it and failed. Lord knows what you'd be
dealing with.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

"Badger_South" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 11:20:07 -0400, "psycholist"
wrote:


"Ian (remove the antispam)" wrote in
message ...
What's better for regular lubing of chain, hubs, derailleur, etc on a
hybrid
used mostly for road touring?

A very light spray oil (like WD-40), something heavier (3 in 1 light
machine
oil), or a heavier grease?

I'd like to be able to avoid buying the small overpriced bottle of
"chain
lube" at the bike shop.


Thanks,

Ian


Of the choices you offered, I'd guess the 3 in 1 would be best. If you
really want to go cheap, I've heard that used motor oil from a car makes
an
excellent chain lube. WD 40 won't do and heavy grease will collect way
too
much dirt and probably won't work into the pins very well.

Bob C.


My understanding is that the real 'lube' for chain lube is suppoed to be a
type of wax, and not a type of oil.

I was told by a LBS owner:
1. WD-40 is not good, and that the lube in this was 'lanolin'. It
collects dirt. (For MTB use the lube is almost entirely 'wax' and little
else, and it is the most resistant to dirt-collection.
2. The chain, to be properly lubed should be taken off the bike and
thoroughly soaked in the 'lube' and then left to dry overnight. The
transporting agent would evap., leaving the waxy substance on the chain
3. When you're lubing a chain you are not doing it for the outside, i.e.
the chain in the sprockets. You're actually lubing the inner spindle and
posts inside the chain that lets the individual chain segments move freely
as they go around the circuit.

Dunno if this is correct. FWIW. (this is the same guy who wants to charge
my brother 30 bucks to true a wheel...!!)

-Badger


I've heard of people who do that sort of thing. Sounds pretty anal to me.
I wonder if there's any research that suggest how many more miles (if any)
you get if you go through all that nonsense. On my road bike, I clean my
chain thoroughly (on the bike with a chain cleaning device and degreaser,
followed by soap and water) about every 300 miles. Then I re-lube with
Pedros extra dry (I rarely have to ride in damp conditions). Between
cleanings, I'll spray with an LPD-9 spray lube and wipe down really well
about every third ride. This seems to work fine.

Bob C.

On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:40:18 -0400, "psycholist"
wrote:

I've heard of people who do that sort of thing. Sounds pretty anal to me.
I wonder if there's any research that suggest how many more miles (if any)
you get if you go through all that nonsense.

Since most people would be discouraged from ever doing it in the first
place, not many more. Even if you did do it, I wonder if the
replacement would come at about the same time from other factors other
than simple lubrication issues.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

In article ,
Badger_South wrote:
Dunno if this is correct. FWIW. (this is the same guy who wants to charge
my brother 30 bucks to true a wheel...!!)

Wheels that go out of true usually weren't built right. Making it true,
dishing, tensioning to uniform high tension, and stress relieving is 3/4 the
work of building a new wheel. If you charge $40 for a new wheel then $30
to true isn't unreasonable.

--
a href="http://www.poohsticks.org/drew/"Home Page/a
Life is a terminal sexually transmitted disease.

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 13:23:58 -0600, (Drew
Eckhardt) wrote:

In article ,
Badger_South wrote:
Dunno if this is correct. FWIW. (this is the same guy who wants to charge
my brother 30 bucks to true a wheel...!!)

Wheels that go out of true usually weren't built right. Making it true,
dishing, tensioning to uniform high tension, and stress relieving is 3/4 the
work of building a new wheel. If you charge $40 for a new wheel then $30
to true isn't unreasonable.

Well, wouldn't argue with that, but I think we're just talking about
eyeballing the wheel on a spinner and tweaking a little with the spoke
wrench, and since he's not a world-class rider, that's all he needs/wants.
In fact I'd go so far as to say very few bike shops do that kind of
'truing' unless you ask them and the wheel they're working on is of obvious
high quality, but I'm just guessing. g

My guy just charged me $15 bucks, so that's what I'm basing it on.

I'm not suggesting trying to scam the nice bike shop guys...just wondering
why they'd charge this for a 20 year old wheel of medium quality, that's
all.

-Badger

In article ,
Badger_South wrote in part:

My guy just charged me $15 bucks, so that's what I'm basing it on.

When we're just coming out of the so-called off-season in the
early spring, bike shops will often promote wheel truing
"deals", along with other bike maintenance stuff.

I think those deals are largely a loss leader to attract business
(in other words, they can be really good deals for what we get.)

Anyway, the price of wheel truing can depend on the time of year.


cheers,
Tom


--
-- Powered by FreeBSD
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca