Anyone using or have tried a 'dry' or wax chain lube?

[73Eldo]

I have a 36-42 for my low combo on my 29er street bike and the BBSHD can get my fat ass up hills just fine. I think one thing that helps is that since its my street bike that conditions are usually good enough I can get some speed up to keep me and the motor happy rpm wise. On the trails where there may be 'features' on the uphill climbs its a different story and my 42-42 combo on the fat bike with still me being fat just barely gets me up some of the blue trails and it was borderline on plowing through snow. IF I want to get any more aggressive I will have to look into something in that 50 range which will be a new derailleur too since my current one can barely handle the 42.

Lube wise I am still happy. Yesterday I had to pull the rear wheel to remove my fenders so that meant handling the chain and it was no big deal at all, I think I just wiped my hands with a dry paper towel. Not quite clean enough to eat but plenty clean to keep working on the trail bike. If I can get a year which will hopefully be at least 1000 miles out of a $20-40 chain using this stuff I will be thrilled. I do wonder how much or if any of the Squirt is getting into the pins. I'm thinking some has to be getting in there or else it would squeak? So far my plan is to re lube roughly weekly which should be 100-200 miles unless it gets wet then will likely do an extra lube.

[TNC]

I have a 36-42 for my low combo on my 29er street bike and the BBSHD can get my fat ass up hills just fine. I think one thing that helps is that since its my street bike that conditions are usually good enough I can get some speed up to keep me and the motor happy rpm wise. On the trails where there may be 'features' on the uphill climbs its a different story and my 42-42 combo on the fat bike with still me being fat just barely gets me up some of the blue trails and it was borderline on plowing through snow. IF I want to get any more aggressive I will have to look into something in that 50 range which will be a new derailleur too since my current one can barely handle the 42.

Lube wise I am still happy. Yesterday I had to pull the rear wheel to remove my fenders so that meant handling the chain and it was no big deal at all, I think I just wiped my hands with a dry paper towel. Not quite clean enough to eat but plenty clean to keep working on the trail bike. If I can get a year which will hopefully be at least 1000 miles out of a $20-40 chain using this stuff I will be thrilled. I do wonder how much or if any of the Squirt is getting into the pins. I'm thinking some has to be getting in there or else it would squeak? So far my plan is to re lube roughly weekly which should be 100-200 miles unless it gets wet then will likely do an extra lube.

We've been selling the Squirt at the shop I work at, but I don't personally know any of the riders that are using it to get any real world feedback. I've have looked at the actual fluid, and it struck me as something akin to the original White Lightning...except correct me if I'm wrong...but perhaps no claim of petroleum product? I'm not at the shop today, so I can't go look. It's got that thicker consistency of the old WL from the looks of it. I liked the old, thick WL, and I don't think they even make that anymore...perhaps? I don't order the stuff at the shop, so I'm not up on it. I just haven't seen the old style bottle anymore...just Clean Ride which still works to my satisfaction. I'm still a believer in having a lube that has the ability to get down into the chain elements for ultimate effectiveness.

[AZguy]

Well I officially got more than 3000 very hard miles on the last $30 11sp chain - replaced it finally and it had about 1.75mm total stretch (122L)

I *never* removed the chain to clean it, never, nada not once.... the *only* maintenance it received was frequent application of lube (liquid form)... no fancy hot pots or solvent dips... just a simple one minute lube... but very frequently - wouldn't be surprised if it was about every 100mi or even maybe just 50mi

Wasn't going to bother replacing the cassette but found a really nice wider range (11-51t) steel cog sunrace for a great price so did that

Bought the next chain already... now they're up to $40 but at least it came with 126L (most are 116L) so I don't have to add links to it when I put it on next year (using 124L on new cassette)

[73Eldo]

Good point about the length, I think the 42 42 bike is using the full length of the chains I have been buying so if I go to a 50 I would likely need to add some or find a longer one. I think my 36 42 may have a couple links removed so I should have a few spares.

[AZguy]

Good point about the length, I think the 42 42 bike is using the full length of the chains I have been buying so if I go to a 50 I would likely need to add some or find a longer one. I think my 36 42 may have a couple links removed so I should have a few spares.

When I first built this bike I went to the LBS and all they had were 116L and so it was clear I would need two and do a little splicing - fortunately they also had connecting pins but charged a ton for just one... at least the chains were only $32 compared to the best online I was finding at $30 (116L).... frankly this is the first time I was able to find a 126L and even though it was clearly advertised as 126L I totally expected it to come in at 116L and I'd have to complain LOL

So I've had that donor chain for a while now - bought more pins online which were still expensive for some ungodly who-knows-why but a lot less than the LBS and it's slowly gotten shorter and shorter, now prolly 30% of the original size but it will likely serve for years more... Just about time for more pins...

[73Eldo]

I think I have a spare pin or two but ya I saw if you can even get them separate they aint cheap. My first new chain I used the pin then noticed I put it on backwards and didn't have a spare pin so quick link went in. 2nd new one I just went right for the quick link. That is what I ran all last year with no issues so I'm just gonna do that till there is a reason to change. Having 2 quick links pretty close maybe could be worse so in the case of needing to extend I would rather have a pin.

Not sure how much difference there is in the links but my bike had KMC 'missing links' on it when I got it that you could easily pop without any tools and they still held up so that is what I have been buying as replacements. I'm not so cheap that I will re use a well worn link on a new chain. Close but not quite.

[AZguy]

I'm using KMC links and just swap them out when I swap the chain. The pins cost less and "feel" like they should be more sturdy [but ya never know] so when extending I use the pin and put in a master link so I can remove the chain easily... I likely only broke the master link open five or six times in the life of the chain and even though we're not "supposed" so use them more than once I can't see *any* reason not to... this time I kept track of where I put the pin so when I check the chain for stretch I'm going to give the pin a good look at...

[73Eldo]

I recall older links saying they were not reusable but the packs I bought within the last year say reusable on them. Not sure how many times you are supposed to re use them or if there is any special process or consideration but I didn't have any issues. Last year I was reusing them a lot because I was swapping between a fat and 29er wheel set sometimes weekly. The fats had a IGH with a 7 speed chain and the 29's were 10 speed. That got old fast so I built up another bike and also made the fat a 10 speed.

[Retrorockit]

The most likely place for me to break a quick link is blasting across an intersection at a 6 lane highway with a 45mph speed limit.
Worst place to break a chain-see above.

[AZguy]

I've broken a chain or three [or four, or five....] but never at the master link and from what I can tell never at a connecting pin... just random links in the chain

[73Eldo]

I have not broke one yet but have noticed some significant scratches in places on the sides of both of mine and I have heard some bad sounds when shifting. I have a gear sensor but there are times I go more than one gear and or am moving a bit too slow and it kicks back in before the shift completes. My previous chain which I know had at least 1000 miles on it was so badly worn when I got it it was hard to identify it and that one kept going. I finally replaced it due to the stretch figuring it was going to start slipping or causing excess wear on other stuff. The teeth on the sunrace and hyperglide cassettes must be harder than the sides of the chain which I guess is good thing and makes some sense since there normally should not be that much load and contact on the sides of the chain.

[Retrorockit]

I broke one Connex link, and one time the chain parted where I had spliced it. More experience with the Rohloff chain tool I think has solved that. The last chain I got had side play at the Connex link. I feel that play would focus all the side load on the chain in one place, which is also the thinnest link. So the sloppy fit there is also a factor in my no longer using them.

[73Eldo]

Ride before last I was thinking maybe I was sometimes hearing a slight chain squeak. I was trying to remember when I last lubed it and how many miles it had been, thinking it had been over 100 miles and there was a light rain on part of a ride so it got a refresh and the possible noise seemed to go away.

Last ride was my first many miles by car to the trail ride in many years. Most of the car trips have been pretty short, this one was a couple hours each way. I got an older Hollywood fork mount hitch rack that has a lot of miles on it and has always done well and guess what, my 73 Eldorado convertible. About 30 miles in looking at the bike in the rearview I starting thinking it looked different but kept think I was just seeing things. Eventually I decided that something just wasn't right so pulled over and found the bike was at about a 45* angle, the bracket that the bar that hold the bike on the hitch frame had bent.

All I had was my little bike pack tool kit so my only option was to strip the bike down far enough to fit in the trunk. Yes its a big trunk but has a spare tire and part of it is taken up by the top too. Bike was fully loaded with full fenders and a rear rack that all had to come off along with the rear tire to fit. That meant a fair amount very recently lubed chain handling to get it in the trunk and then to re assemble it at a friends place before hitting the trails. After getting it in the trunk on the side of the road I did grab a napkin and easily wipe off what was on my hands. After repairing the rack and re assembling most of the bike I used the same napkin to clean my hands again. After the ride back on the car ride home I noticed some grease like marks on my arm likely from lifting the bike in and out of the trunk which also wiped off with that same napkin.

Also note that a bike carrier that holes the bikes sideways on a car, vs some sort of SUV will expose the bikes to a lot of wind and if you got things like fat ish tires, fenders, rack, battery bag that add side profile to the bike that rack is going to have a lot of stress on what ever part of it is holding the front to back stresses. My temp fix was a stick duct taped in at an angle to make a sort of kickstand from the seat to the heavier hitch frame. Better fix will be some gussets welded where it bent plus I think I will make a stick that doesn't require duct tape to stay on.

[Dshue]

That's the biggest drawback to fenders. But in a pinch it's not too bad to remove them. I have a 1980 Olds Cutlass and it's trunk is probably the size of your trunks useable space. While everything would fit it would require the same amount of disassembly.

[73Eldo]

I recently did some upgrades to a friends BBS02 ride that required some chain handling and just completed an HD conversion for a co worker and boy is there a difference in mess between regular lube and the Squirt type wax. The 02 ride came from a guy that I'm sure was using some likely higher end bicycle specific lube and looked like he really cared for his stuff and that was the typical staining nasty to handle. The bike I did the HD on I'm not sure what was on that, what ever it was was made my hands more dirty than changing the injection pump on one of my diesels.

No signs of chain stretch on either of my bikes yet. The street one has a few hundred miles on it so far and the trail one maybe a little over 100 but those are hard dirty miles. I'm maybe 1/4 of the way down the summer lube bottle so it looks like the small 4 oz bottle will get me through at least a season for 2 bikes so the lube cost isn't going to be a factor.

[AZguy]

What makes chains so nasty is that they shed tiny metal particles into the lube - it's the metal particles that stain, the lube is just the very effective carrier