What's Your favourite Chain Lube? It doesn't really matter

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What's Your favourite Chain Lube?

Asking random people for opinions on chain lubes is not going to tell you much. Poor chain hygiene will wear out chains over the course of months and thousands of kms. Few riders will be able to distinguish good from bad on their own. Not to mention wax zealots who are well intentioned but don't know that they must clean and re-wax every 300km (that's weekly for me) to get the stellar numbers that wax can achieve.

Better news: Chain lube testing is getting better. Zero Friction Cycling Lube Testing  is probably the best testing site out there. They test lubes over extended periods, in different dirt/contamination/touch-up/wetness conditions (called blocks), to simulate real world performance.

Zero Friction is not only about watts (FWIW: I have zero interest in watts saved). Friction induces wear that forces you to replace chains ($100), cogs ($200) and chainrings ($600) faster than you need to. Use a good lube ($30) properly and you will save money. 

Test Results

Interpreting Zero Friction tests takes some effort. At first glance you can miss some nuances and potentially favour a lube method that doesn't match how you ride. For example: I only pay attention to test blocks 1-3 since I ride primarily in the dry and do frequent drip lube touch ups.

From the Zero Friction Charts: Several hot wax treatments have the best performance across all types of riding (Test blocks 1-6) .  An interesting anomaly is Silca Secret Drip with just 7.5% wear after block 3. I see this as 90% of hot wax performance at 50% of the effort.

The Real Reason I don't use Hot Wax

I don't agree with the idea that you should remove your chain weekly just for cleaning.  12s quick links and Campagnolo bullet pins are about $10 each - and they are officially "since use only".   I do deep chain cleaning on all my bikes with a Pedro's Chain Pig II Pedros Chain Pig II followed with Silca Secret Drip. I thinks it is stellar. But what can I prove? Zero Friction testing agrees:

 


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