UKC

After some advice for how people manage to keep their chain oiled whilst out on longer rides. What oil, how often, how carried etc! Do you have something that works for longer periods? 

Went out on the MTB in the Peak district yesterday and after 9hrs my chain was creaking something terrible, even though it was fully clean and lubed before I set off. Do I just need to accept I need to take oil with me?

Also doing London Edinburgh London in the summer, so looking for a tidy approach to keep things running smooth. 

Thanks

Used to ride round the dark peak area a lot and had similar issues. My chain would end up being covered in fine grit particles, I never used to add lube during a ride and just accepted that chains would wear out a bit faster. My worry with re-lubing would be that you'll just create a kind of grinding paste with all the grit on it.

What kind of lube are you using? Might be worth experimenting with different types.

I’ve been using Putoline chain wax on the commuter now for six months or so, big tin of slightly smelly stuff that you melt the chain in to (in the tin) then hang up and the wipe the excess off as it dries. Seems good for 500 miles plus on a grubby, salty commute, you get bits of surface rust but the wax sticks well in the places it’s needed to actually lubricate and all I do in between treatments is wipe the outside of the chain once or twice. Also seems a bit easier to get off your hands or legs than the dirt from a wet lube chain. I haven’t tried it much for off road use though.

It’s £30 for a big tin that lasts for years (or potentially one chain if you knock it over when molten, don’t ask how I know that). A bit tricky to get hold of as it’s for old school motorbike chains that are only used on motocross bikes now but Demon Tweeks sell it. How it stacks up compared to cycle specific wax treatments I can’t say. Obviously you can’t reapply on the road but it wouldn’t stop you carrying some emergency wet lube to apply for the last part of a long ride if needed.

Was using Muc-off C3 ceramic Dry. Have found that the wet lubes do collect loads of dust in the Peak, so guess its just a trade off.

Generally do most of my longer rides on the road, so maybe look into the Wax option as I assume its good for all weathers.

Maybe try squirt?

Re-lubing seems to be a common thing in the big gravel races in the US, normally done whilst riding as far as I can tell! This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Hoi3Fs3Qc&ab_channel=DylanJohnson) discusses drivetrains in general and lubes/waxing, also contains a section somewhere (can't remember the timestamp, sorry) about re-lubing in gravel races and how valuable or not it is.

The guy who's channel it is, is a top gravel racer in the US, lots of top 10s in the big races and some wins in slightly smaller ones. Off-topic but I really enjoy his race recap videos.

I want to know more about this 9 hour ride, sounds epic...

I carry a small bottle of oil for this very purpose, and funnily enough the last time I needed it was heading up from ladybower to WLT.

The chain was just so dry that it kept jamming in the mech

Funnily enough I've never thought about re-lubing a chain during a day ride, including probably similar length ones in the Peak and don't remember having problems. But last summer I did a three day bikepack on my gravel bike, with a fair bit of it being on unsurfaced roads and the one thing I totally didn't think to pack but really needed was some chain lube. I think having some sort of relatively tough rag to wipe of the chain before lubing is probably just as important as having a small pot of lube with you too.

Next time I guess I'll just take a small lube container (Decathlon do a small chain oil pot) and remember to take a smallish rag as well.

How do multi-day tourers or bikepackers do this? is a there somewhere clever on your bike you could store an oily rag to keep it away from other stuff you don't want getting oil on?

It is said that you should never lube a dirty chain, but we all do it occasionally.

I've heard of people filling one of those little fish shaped soy sauce with lube for that time when you get a squeak, and also people taking a dollop of grease wrapped in cling film for other things. Personally, I've only ever had issues when I haven't prepared correctly or at all.

With modern lube, 9 hours in the peak district should be a doddle. I just use finish line green wet lube for wet weather and muc off dry for dry weather.  Wet lube isn't ideal in dusty dry conditions and is a pain to clean so some friends do use dry lube all year for everything but the really big rides.

Squirt's good, but I don't have a filthy weather version, just dry to damp, for a road bike though.  My commuter has some filthy wet lube to cope with vile weather.

If going out on my road bike for a long ride when the weather might crap out, I have a tiny bottle of ceramic wet lube to save the chain.  I learnt that lesson destroying a chain when caught in a thunder storm that washed all the lube off and the chain started to rust (i was somewhere very hot). It got dire when the chain started to resist bending to go around things like gears and derailleur.  I found a small roadside car repair workshop who decided that motor gearbox oil was the stuff to apply.  The bike stank for ages afterwards and the chain was wrecked....

A few squares of tough paper or kitchen roll, and a small bottle of lube.

There are self cleaning lubes like white lightning. The reason there are so many lubes is because like bikes, there's no one perfect do it all sadly

I switched to belt drive! Solves all your chain lube issues. Expensive though if you want gears - need a gearbox bike or Rohloff or similar.

Works brilliantly, unless your belt happens to snap. Fortunately that's extremely rare, or so I told someone on a campsite in the outer Hebrides when he asked about reliability. This was about 2 or 3 hours before my belt snapped, entailing 2 and a half days of pushing the bike to get home. I now carry a spare.

Lubing your chain on a ride literally just drags shit into it, wearing it away and causing tons of drag. Most summer lubes are designed to go on, then absorb in and the carrier dries. Turning the carrier into gritty ooze isn't a good plan.

Just use plain food grade parrafin wax in a slow cooker. Cheap as chips and within 1/4 watt of the fastest stuff out there.

If your chain isn't lubed after 9 hours it probably wasn't properly lubed in the first place. 

When two of us went on a bike tour of Belgium a few years ago, my mate had been a bit too miserly with his chain oil (his normal modus operandi was using too much).  After a day or two, his chain was squeeking so badly I couldn't take it any more.  So he got to stick his finger in the tiny pot of olive oil that i carried for cooking (may be 20ml).

It worked like a charm which was just as well because his mucky finger most definitely wasn't going to double-dip!

You're welcome: youtube.com/watch?v=4aM9Zlx3qY0&

Alternately (and much less techy) if you can get hold of it: https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/maintenance/oils-and-lubricants/chain-lub...

Never tried but comes recommended by my long distance old school friends.

I did 46hrs of mostly dry mtb riding over the Easter weekend and used wt1. Needed reapplying about 3/4 of the way. It collects the muck, so you wipe the chain down with a rag until it runs clean then reapply on top and keep going.

Would definitely recommend and I've been through a lot of lube! 😂

Doing a bit of a recky on half of the peak ITT.

https://www.selfsupporteduk.net/peakitt

Hopefully have a go at the full thing when we have maximum daylight.

I know someone who olive oiled a club mates chain at a cafe stop without them knowing because their chain was squeaking and annoying everyone.

Seen a few of his videos and seems to talk sense. Had missed this one.

Pretty insightful, but don't think I need to fully worry about marginal gains to the same level as those guys.

On long audax road rides (PBP, LEL, etc), I've just used Finish Line Wet Lube. I might have carried a tiny 'top up' bottle in my spares, but generally I find it will last those sorts of mileages, even in the rain.

I use muck off dry lube all year round on my MTB , If the weather is dry it lasts a couple of longish rides ( 50-60k ) but in winter or a lot of rain I clean and reapply after every ride .

You need those free sample bottles you get when you ride a granfondo or a sportive in Europe. about 5ml in a thumb sized bottle and perfect for a long one day ride.

E