Chain lube intervals 7-speed versus 10-speed

On Friday, June 16, 2017 at 8:10:49 AM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-06-16 07:32, wrote:
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 12:43:16 PM UTC-7, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-06-15 12:28, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/15/2017 3:07 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-06-15 10:49, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/15/2017 1:23 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-06-15 09:01, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/15/2017 9:23 AM, Joerg wrote:

Though most riders who use their bicycle for
transportation do not care about a lost watt or two.
They care about the longest possible maintenance
intervals.

How often did you say you lube your chains? I thought it
was much more frequent than once in 400 miles.


MTB every 50mi, road bike every 200mi. I know one can get
more with your method or the hot wax pot method a friend
uses. However, I see this more business-like and the time
those methods take more than nixes the extra miles they
achieve.

That's not at all true in my experience.


So how long does your lube process take?

One bike may take five minutes, certainly no more than ten.
Usually (but not always) I'll do multiple bikes as long as I have
everything out and ready.

For a long time, my chain lubing method was the use of a pinpoint
oiler, one drop at a time on each side of each pin. This takes
about the same amount of time, but it saves time because it
doesn't seem to require pre-cleaning, and the bike never gets
very dirty at all.


See? Takes several times longer than my method and as I said nixes
the extra miles you get out of a lube.


Cleaning can't be counted because that is needed no matter
what.

If the bike doesn't get dirty and greasy, then cleaning is
NOT needed.


On my routes the bikes and thus the chains become dirty, wet,
muddy, dusty and so on. There is nothing that can be done about
it other than not to go on some rides, and that isn't an option
for me. I am an all-weather and all-terrain rider.

From the days I did a fair amount of mountain biking, I
certainly remember the mountain bike getting muddy and dirty.
But while my road bikes do see a bit of gravel pretty regularly,
they don't get subject to mud. They typically get cleaned less
than once per year yet never look filthy.


You probably live in a manicured urban area. I have to continue
here or I won't get there in time:

https://goo.gl/maps/wH8ssRg5CJL2 https://goo.gl/maps/RS2qchmRhjt

https://goo.gl/maps/9e5u9Q8mMHu https://goo.gl/maps/NurgbgBxRnT2

Just a couple of examples.

In winter when it rains a lot there are mud clumps flying off the
tires after hitting the pavement on the other side. I often carry a
little stick to poke some mud out of the BB area when it causes the
rear tire to chafe.


Seriously, a few days ago I noticed my favorite bike needed just
a little bit of cleaning. I got a rag and wiped dust off the
plastic fenders, then I put the rag back. That's all it needed.

When I do clean the bike, it's by a method a local bike shop
owner told me about. I take a spray bottle of Lemon Pledge and
some paper towels. Spray, wipe, repeat until it's suitably
clean.

I'll admit, my Carradice saddlebag could use some scrubbing.
That's from removing it once a week and tossing it into the back
of the car with a folded bike. Aside from that, the 30-year-old
paint on the bike needs some touching up. But


On the underside of my road bike you can't see the paint anymore.
Last time I cleaned the frame was nineteen-sumpthin. The upside of
this caked in dirt layer is that it minimizes the chance of my bike
being stolen.


You don't seem to understand how often you contradict
yourself!


Be more precise, please.

The latest, up above? Transportation riders care about the
longest interval between maintenance. Yet a procedure that
requires chain lube less than once in 500 miles is somehow not as
good as one that requires chain lube every 200 miles, plus
regular cleaning.


Interval weighed by the amount of time. They want to spend the
least amount of time on maintenance. I thought that didn't need
explaining but obviously it does.

That's the sort of terrain that I ride my CX bike on when I'm feeling
tired.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Pict...f ubT3WgEckM:

Here is one route. This is a pretty mild one but even here there is
a 24% jump about 100 feet long. I end up pushing the CX but on the
full suspension with that heavy front end I could ride it to the
top.


That looks a bit like Cronan Ranch near Lotus, CA. I often ride that
kind of turf on my road bike. It has a steel frame so it can take
rougher rides but it is also the reason why it and its chain become
dirty fast.

If you continue towards Folsom for another 8-9 miles it becomes more
inhospitable for CX or road bikes, at least for people with lower back
issues like me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5cjAW_nrl4

On the full-sus MTB this is a breeze, it glides like a Lincoln. The
other main trails are a bit more jarring with deep ruts, boulders, rock
gardens, wash-outs and such.

Because of this damned medication I have to take now I lost my balance on a very narrow pathway and chose to fall against a chain link fence rather than into a mud puddle that shouldn't be there. Unfortunately that twisted my back and I'm walking around like a hunchback today. This sort of injury normally takes me a couple of days to get over.

On Friday, June 16, 2017 at 8:08:51 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/16/2017 10:19 AM, wrote:
On Thursday, June 15, 2017 at 8:59:40 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/15/2017 10:33 AM, wrote:
On Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 9:23:27 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 11:03:33 PM UTC-4, wrote:

While the Friction Facts indeed shows a wax concoction as being best it ain't the stuff Frank uses. It's mostly PTFE carried in a wax binder. The stuff Frank actually uses was down at the bottom of their list.

?? At the bottom of this list?
https://www.scribd.com/document/2620...ficiency-Tests

The list shows watts consumed. Being at the bottom of such a list is a good
thing, not a bad thing. But admittedly, they used pure paraffin (although they
misspelled it). I blend in a bit of oil, which makes it last much longer in wet conditions.

Frank, I don't think that is the listing I was thinking of.

OK, where is the listing you were thinking of?

In many ways I like wax. What I don't like is that it doesn't appear to last very long...

It lasts me hundreds of miles, at least.

it has a stupendous and difficult to remove build-up on the cogs and rings...

Absolutely not the case in my experience. I guess I will have to post
photos.

and it is a pain in the butt to use properly.

I admit, the hot immersion bath is more trouble than I want to go through.

While you seem to find no problem with using a blowtorch next to your bike I do.

Ah well.

When I started this on-bike method, my propane torch had the typical
rigid head. It was a bit more difficult to use because moving the torch
around caused the liquid propane to slosh and made the flame length a
bit inconsistent.

I later bought a hose-fed propane torch, so the bottle stays on the
ground. (Actually, it's got a hook intended for a belt; I hook it over
an object in my workshop so the bottle can't ever tip.) This hose-fed
torch makes all torch work dead easy, including soldering pipes,
scraping paint, etc.

You know damn well that the reason Sheldon's site was so popular was because he put all of the information in one spot and it is almost impossible to find stuff via search on the Internet these days.

I like the clean chain that waxing offers but I'm not willing to use a blow torch on my bike and consider that no big deal. Rock n Roll seems to work well if the chain has to be washed clean of the original lube.