[Closed] An interesting article on chain lubes and wear.

Molten Speed Wax for the win!

Followed by a couple of expensive drip-lubes; Squirt and Smoove

I'll admit to being Putoline-curious, but my imminent new-bike-day is touring shaped and current lubing thoughts are centered around being able to look after a chain on the road for many hundreds of miles.

I'm currently flipping between going down the Squirt route and any bog standard wet lube wot is available in the nearest bike shop...

Putoline lasts thousands of miles on road. Its brilliant for touring as it lasts a whole tour

Putoline lasts thousands of miles on road. Its brilliant for touring as it lasts a whole tour

But what if forever reason that you do find yourself needing to apply some lube en route, what would be best to use, Squirt?

Ooh thanks that was really good. I read it as Rock'n'Roll (I use this) comes out Ok & similar to Squirt...good all-round except in the wet where they're not so good. Muc-Off comes out pants.

Silca NFS?- never seen this, intrigued.

This notion of 12000K chain life would be a game changer...I change my XX1 chains religiously at only 1200 miles and the new one will still crunch on the old ring, I try to get 3 chains per ring change, and 5 chains per spendy cassette - If I could get lets say 5-6000 miles per chain this would float my boat.

Are you saying that this Putoline thing is similar to Molten Speed Wax here?

Was there a thread before on how to cook it on?

I had a (drip) lube once, I'm pretty sure it was by Pace, (but it might've been Hope) that was like a wax, dried a browny colour on the chain and really kept the chain clean and stayed on it for ages.
Was better than Squirt cos it was like a properly dry wax.. wonder why (if?) they stopped making it..

Are you saying that this Putoline thing is similar to Molten Speed Wax here?

Not quite so many tricky additives as the Molten Speed but considerably cheaper. Its not all plain sailing though, you need to get your chain clean (really, really clean) first:
https://cyclingtips.com/2018/05/chain-cleaning-and-maintenance-how-to/

The Silca stuff is the drip version of their new boil in the bag wax:
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/06/silca-launches-hot-melt-wax-in-a-bag/

Wow, Need to up my lube game. I need the 'nano-scale Tungsten Di-Sulfide.' in the Silca Super Secret Chain lube...sounds good to me, I'm taking it this is a level up form the Silca NFS mentioned in the test. It's expensive isn't it, anyone tried it? - how long can you make a bottle last?

Just get some putoline. £30a kilo and that will last you a decade

I think 4 times the chain life at least

I am finally tempted to do this.

Reflected on the state in my ‘good’ road bike chain at the end of yesterday’s ride: it’s a disgrace!

After one false start with Putoline (turns out you need to reapply slightly more often than I thought in winter), I've measured no noticeable wear on any of my chains and I check them every time I rewax. It's like some kind of miracle. Far and away the biggest benefit for me.

at the risk of this becoming another Putoline fan thread, I gave it a go on the back of the positive feedback on the main one and can report that its excellent. Absolutely silent drivetrain too.

Deep fat fryer took a reasonable amount of the tin to fill to a point that the chain in the basket would be fully submerged when the lid was closed, but now it's just going to be a case of turning it on, undoing the quick link, sticking the chain in the fryer for a few mins then removing, wiping of excess and refitting when cool.

DougD
Member
...Deep fat fryer took a reasonable amount of the tin to fill to a point that the chain in the basket would be fully submerged when the lid was closed...

Any reason not to just put the whole lot in? I only just got a fryer after a few years messing about with a camping stove. I agree with the benefits of Putoline although I can't add any data to the chain life aspect except to agree they seem to last longer.

Ring/cassette life though? Not sure how that'd be extended assuming chains were already being replaced before too far gone.

I'm looking to get cooking...can someone point me to the definitive Putoline thread describing apparatus and methods - search function doesn't seem to find it.

My first putoline question....

How badly does it stain clothing once it’s applied and the excess wiped off? Is it much, much worse than other lubes?

I regularly put my bike in the boot of my car and using my usual Purple Extreme chain lube I manage to avoid destroying the interior with a bit of care...

@endoverend you should find most of what you need here. Still think that thread should be a sticky.

@RicB if you wipe it while hot until the outside of the chain looks clean then it doesn't stain at all.

precious watts

Is this e-bike specific?
😉

I wouldn't say you get more mucky stuff off the chain - but it does stain badly what you do get.

What are the advantages/disavantages of Putoline vs Oz cycle homemade wax with PTFE? After 65 years of oiling chains, maybe its time for a change!

How badly does it stain clothing once it’s applied and the excess wiped off? Is it much, much worse than other lubes?

Staining isn't worse than any oily wet lube, but as well as staining Putoline is also sticky. So yeah, pretty bad 😀

What are the advantages/disavantages of Putoline vs Oz cycle homemade wax with PTFE?

Putoline isn't exactly expensive, so homemade stuff wouldn't be worth the faff for any cost savings in my book. Not sure about other pros/cons.

Puto vs Candle wax homewbrew.... Putoline much more durable for winter gritty filth. Candle wax good for dryer conditions & chain etc stays clean to the touch. Had a chain jam on my shopper/pub bike & sorted out with clean hands due to the candle waxed chain. So prob a summer vs winter prep choice. Both easy to use once set up with a cheapo fat fryer.

Have read through that other thread thanks, very interested in having a go.

On a different note, similar to OP's page, stumbled across this site which is an absolute treasure trove of detailed info re: drip lubes, and some very interesting comparative testing, by same guy that did above testing - check the lube tests, many pages of:

Zero Friction Cycling

Has some very interesting info on the new wax emulsion lubes like Squirt/ Smoove, their limitations being inner link penetration/ lack of shedding thus need for cleaning after wet usage - but there's some detailed application methods under the 'Instructions' tab that suggests heating chain/ lube to help wicking it through to the pin. Not absolutely convinced on these if riding in mucky conditions and think it's why I prefer Rock'n'Roll as although it's useless in the wet, re-applying effectively is easy thanks to the solvent carrier and as long as fairly diligent it runs in a clean state. As these test show if you let the wax drip lubes get contaminated the wear rates suffer badly.

They are big fans of the Molten Speed Wax method as the ultimate, similar to the Putoline fans...

The one big thing that puts me off that I've not seen mentioned much is that quicklink reusability does vary between brands and chain speeds - If on XX1 11/12spd they specifically say not to re-use the link...but if I need to re-dunkwax my chain in mucky winter conditions for instance this adds up to quite a lot of new links required. Do people just ignore the this and re-use links maybe 5 times or more? Or just bulk buy lots of links and new every time?

Generally with quicklinks the higher the number of gears that the chain is for, the less times you can re-use the quicklink. On KMC ten speed I'll use the QL for the life of the chain, not had one snap yet.

I'm not removing the chain every week, it's probably twice a year for a deep clean, but that is likely to mean only once or twice over the lifetime of the chain.

– If on XX1 11/12spd they specifically say not to re-use the link…but if I need to re-dunkwax my chain in mucky winter conditions for instance this adds up to quite a lot of new links required. Do people just ignore the this and re-use links maybe 5 times or more?

My 11 speed sram link the pins fell out after the second use, just put it back together and its been fine for about 750mi of proper mtb since, I split it to redo the chain a week ago and it came apart again but still reassembled fine by hand. did the sdw last week and it held up fine. It'll be coming off and going back together again this weekend as I didn't get the Putoline hot enough so it's pretty clarty abbe needs redoing.

Just ordered myself some putoline and a 1.l deep fat fryer

What are the merits of Deep Fat Fryer VS Slow cook pot Vs Cosmetic Wax Melting Pot (ie: common lady leg waxing device but may come in handy too for roadie shavers - they do 500ml ones)

Is it that with Putoline you're going to very high temps, wheres maybe MSW can be more around 100C?

Also -Random thought. Has anyone tried placing a magnet at the base of their molten wax pot, this may act a bit like a magnetic oil sump plug and could be removed and cleaned after melts?