Chain lube is one of those things I tend to think about as little as possible. I generally hate the stuff for being messy, not long lasting, hard to differentiate, messy, suspiciously expensive, and messy.

Unlike motor oil, bicycle chain lube  doesn’t seem to generate passionate discussion, or even dis-passionate discussion. Admittedly I’ve never went looking for chain lube discussions, but I think if it were something that mattered to even a few cyclists I would have stumbled across something by now. For whatever reason chain lube never started a conversation. Sure, I’ve read pieces on cleaning chains, replacing chains, when to lube a chain and so on. But never have I read what to lube it with. I think the reason nobody bothered to espouse a lube is because none of it was worth espousing. Fortunately, with Chain-L I’ve come across something well worth espousing.

Over the years I’ve tried general lubricants, specialized bicycle chain lubes, and aerosols of all make and manner (the best and only one worth mentioning was a graphite spray-on my father brought home from one of the big steel mills). I’ve tried them with fancy brand names and without. They all attracted dirt (well, not the graphite) and washed away with varying ease (especially the graphite). Excepting the graphite, none of them were something I would think worth buying again or telling anyone else about. Unfortunately with the ease graphite washes off, it is practically useless here in the PacNW. Chain-L is different stuff. Yes, it is still messy. Yes, it still washes off eventually. But I can attest it has served me better than any others I’ve tried.

First, I put a new SRAM 951 chain on my daily commuter in early August. I’m one that believes the grease that comes on the chain is fine and should be run until the chain is in need of a re-lube. When the chain does need a re-lube, I wipe it with a rag to get as much of the external gunk off. If I have the time, I additionally run it through one of those chain cleaners that attaches to the chain while still on the bike and looks like a mini-car wash. Anyway, by about  mid-November the chain was well past due. Some time back I had seen a tweet from Clever Cycles pointing to a Chain-L review by Kent Peterson. Well, there’s two folks I highly respect, so figured I’d give it a try. Wow, the chain was like butter! All lubes are going to feel like great their first day on the job, the real test is for how long. Check this, I didn’t need to re-lube until February. Two solid months in the wettest time of the year? I’ll take it! When I did re-lube I used some old green stuff I had previously been using. I figured I would do a kind-of-sort-of-controlled experiment. The green stuff, which is supposed to be a wet environment formulation no less, was all but gone in three weeks. Back to the Chain-L, thank you very much.

The other comparison I have for it is on the kitchen fan above our cook-top. The spindle spins on a brass bushing instead of real bearings and the thing developed a horrible squeak after about two or three years. I tried all the usual suspects: Tri-flow, Pedro’s dry spray, even the aforementioned green stuff. None worked all that great, usually the fan would be back to squeaking in a few months. As time went on it also seemed like the time between needing to re-lube kept getting shorter and shorter. I’d about given up and just been dealing with the annoying squeaking. After getting the Chain-L I decided, “well, what the heck... give it a try.” When I went to put it on I noticed the spindle was burned and the plastic making the squirrel cage blades surrounding the spindle had spider web cracks indicating it had gotten too hot. &@#%, had I let it go too long? Well, I put the Chain-L on nonetheless and to my immense delight (yes, the squeaking was that annoying) not only was the annoying squeak gone, the fan overall was quieter, and I swear was even spinning faster. This is awesome.  As far as I’m concerned better even than what it’s done for my bike chain. And in the four months since, Chain-L stayed put and I’ve not needed to re-lube either. Awe-some!

Coming to ride the coast this spring or early summer? You might think about giving Chain-L a try.