29
votes
Lithium grease for bicycle chain?
No, lithium grease or similar grease compounds are in general not suitable for bike chains.
Bike chains need lubrication of inner surfaces between rollers. Chain lubes contain solvents to reduce ...
- 9,610
17
votes
Lithium grease for bicycle chain?
When lubricating a chain, we need to get the slippery stuff "into" the chain.
Specifically it needs to get between the rollers and the pins, marked in RED below.
This is the area that takes all of ...
- 121k
16
votes
After I lubricate my chain, I hear a gritty, sandy crunching sound coming from the chain and chainring. What am I doing wrong?
This sounds like that the chain might not be clean enough before being lubed. It is important to clean the chain thoroughly before lubricating. Otherwise dust particles will remain in the chain and ...
- 16.1k
16
votes
After I lubricate my chain, I hear a gritty, sandy crunching sound coming from the chain and chainring. What am I doing wrong?
You cleaned sticky stuff made of ground up bits of dirt, lube and metal from the chain etc. out of the chain, and the lumpy bits stayed behind. With the sticky stuff washed away, you now feel the grit ...
- 49k
14
votes
Accepted
Will a dehumidifier dry out the lubricants on my bike?
No. Here's a vague, handwavy descrption of why: A dehumidifier will reduce how much vapour (oil or water, so long as the boiling point and saturation vapour pressure at room temperatureare ...
- 57.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Threadless handlbar stem bolts - grease, threadlock, anti-seize, or dry?
Any of the choices except dry will be fine in most use cases. (This assumes a medium strength threadlocker).
Lubrication on torque-sensitive fasteners is important. When your goal is to achieve a ...
- 81.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Does dry dust and dirt stick worse to bees wax or WD40?
My name is Criggie and I'm a Waxxing addict.
Oil is quick and easy to put on - you can rejuvenate a chain in 15 seconds. Downside, it goes black with road dirt over time.
By comparison wax is a much ...
- 121k
13
votes
How much can I reuse paraffin to wax to my chain?
Paraffin wax is not a single chemical, rather it is a mix of alkanes with the formula CnH2n+2, having between 20 and 40 Carbon atoms. Commercially available Paraffin wax may also contain additives to ...
- 3,906
13
votes
Accepted
Should I be worried about sand in the chain?
It was the right thing to use the lube for the chain.
I do not know the particular product but in general spray lubes have the tendency to become too plentiful on the outside of the chain. This film ...
- 9,610
13
votes
Crank-arm fell off *after lube*
Your crank arm is toast.
In my experience, if a square taper ever gets loose while riding, even once, it's done. Retightening the bolts buys you a few miles at best but it'll loosen up again before ...
- 12.1k
12
votes
Accepted
How good or bad would chainsaw bar lubricant be as a bicycle chain lube?
On a chainsaw is it called bar lube (not chain lube).
It is designed to lube the bar.
This is chainsaw chain:
Not the same beast as bicycle chain.
I don't even think there are rollers.
Bar lube ...
- 15.6k
12
votes
Accepted
How does lubricating your chain help protect your cassette and chainrings from wearing too?
In the ideal case, the chain will not actually be rubbing significantly against the chainrings under load. As the chain wears, the spacing between the chain links becomes different from the tooth ...
- 1,533
11
votes
Chain lube that won't repaint my legs?
The answer is not really. Chains are dirty and they get you dirty.
Dry lubes tend to be better than wet lubes in this regard, but they'll both quickly get your legs dirty. But dry lubes are normally ...
- 46.1k
11
votes
Remove lubricant from seat tube and seat post
A thorough way to do it would be to:
Remove the cranks, bottom bracket and seat post.
Make sure there is a decent hole between the seat tube and bottom bracket shell (might depend on the frame).
Ram ...
- 286
11
votes
Accepted
Remove lubricant from seat tube and seat post
This is an XY problem. Seatposts should be lubed. While removing all lube may solve your slipping problem, it will likely do so by making the seatpost corrode into place, which isn't something you ...
- 12.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Should I use cheap or expensive lubricant?
There are actually some organizations that have tested various chain lubricants against each other. However, some caveats. The easiest thing to test in the laboratory is drivetrain friction. The chain'...
- 29.6k
10
votes
Are fluorocarbons in chain lubricants a real environmental issue?
The European Environment Agency has declared that PFAS are an emerging chemical risk. As indicated in this page, the effects of this components is not yet entirely understood, but there negative known ...
- 17.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Which threaded fasteners on a bike should not be lubricated?
Basically every metal-in-metal thread on a bike should get some kind of treatment, because at the very least none of them are perfectly corrosion resistant, and as you say, thread lubrication helps ...
- 81.8k
9
votes
Accepted
(How) should I wax my cassette along with my chains?
The point of waxing is not to rustproof but to lubricate the chain's internals where they articulate. The rest of the wax flakes off quickly. So this wouldn't have the desired effect.
- 29.2k
9
votes
Caliper brake lubrication
How confident are you with hand tools?
I've had several sticky rim calipers, and one longer-lived solution is to disassemble and clean the insides of the pivot.
Downside, there's a lot of parts and ...
- 121k
8
votes
Is there excessive lubricant on my new rear derailleur?
All of that goo is very typical of drivetrain components that are fresh from the factory. The factory uses a particularly thick lubricant to protect the parts until they're purchased or installed (...
- 6,236
8
votes
Remove lubricant from seat tube and seat post
Hang the bicycle upside down, on a stand if you have one, but you can also simply suspend it with a bit of rope.
Next, you can easily clean the inside of the tube with a bottle cleaner dipped in ...
- 1,704
8
votes
Hydraulic brakes accidentally oiled
Braking surfaces (pads, rims, rotors) must never be lubricated in any way. Doing so can severely affect braking performance and is dangerous.
You can clean the rotor with isopropyl alcohol or mineral ...
- 75.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Does greasing the threads of an inline barrel adjuster cause slippage?
It is very unlikely that the constant compression on the joint would result in any turning of the barrel adjuster. Two factors affect this:
firstly the friction between the threads and the friction ...
- 196
8
votes
What's the power loss to a squeaky chain?
This seems to answer your question:
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/05/how-many-watts-does-a-dirty-chain-steal/
It suggests a dry chain loses 7W out of 244W, which is 2.9%.
Your % speed loss will depend ...
- 4,170
8
votes
0W-20 engine oil for freewheel pawls?
Engine oils are generally a bad idea on a bike. They tend to be quite liquid and will dribble out over time. Engine oils are also known to grab and hold dirt, because that's one of their purposes in ...
- 121k
8
votes
Accepted
Caliper brake lubrication
As you surmised already, you are suffering from a sticky caliper, and have diagnosed the solution, that is, a little lubrication.
I think most any lubricant would do, but some suggestions would be:
...
- 6,089
7
votes
Should you use GT85 on your chain?
There is a lab in the U.S.-- Friction Facts-- which publishes a variety of cycling-oriented reports, designed to help riders of all kinds. Their basic premise is that many small improvements in ...
- 2,633
7
votes
Chain lube that won't repaint my legs?
I've used a wax based lube on my commute bike for years and it does a pretty good job of lubricating the chain without leaving a mark on my legs or clothes. I use White Lightning Clean Ride, but there ...
- 1,789
7
votes
How good or bad would chainsaw bar lubricant be as a bicycle chain lube?
Bar lube would perform horrible on a bicycle chain.
Why? Well, bar lube must be fully bio-degradable, which chain lube is not required to be. As such, bar lube is basically a vegetable oil, and ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible