Archive for June 2022

Chain Maintenance

2022-06-03 by Andrew Holmes

There are a few topics that are guaranteed to turn into religious wars when it comes to motorbikes - which oil to use, what tyres are the best and the latest one I've discovered: How to maintain your chain drive. Some people swear by doing no lubing at all, just keep it clean and tensioned correctly. Others say use nothing but WD40 for both cleaning and lubing and it will last 30,000km. There are videos on how to clean your chain, which products to use, which lube is the best, and everyone has their opinions on the right way to do it.

I haven't had to worry about it for years - my last bike was a belt drive and the one before that was shaft drive so I haven't cleaned and lubed a chain in nearly a decade. But with the purchase of my new bike I'm back to chain so now it's something I've become slightly obsessed with. You see, for the first 2,000km or so I simply gave it a clean every 1,000km and lubed it every tankful of gas, but I found that while the chain was easy enough to clean it was getting a black oily coating on the inside by 1,000km, and when I removed the front sprocket cover there was a sludgy, tacky mess inside. This probably means I was applying too much lube and it was flinging off as it rounded the front sprocket, but even when I only applied a small amount and then wiped it down it was still flinging off.

And so I went down the rabbit hole of chain maintenance, reading up on products to use, watching YouTube comparisons and I've settled on a formula that works for me and is really very cheap: I use kerosene to clean the chain and gear oil to lube it. Strangely enough I don't seem to get the same fling off when using oil as I did when using lube, though this is more likely due to me being more conservative with the oil application rather than simply spraying on lube. There are some definite upsides to using gear oil as a chain lube, including:

  • Oil fling off is super easy to wipe off with a cloth - no more tacky mess inside the front sprocket cover.
  • It's very cheap - a one litre bottle is cheaper than a can of lube will last a long time (many thousands of km).
  • It is a very good lubricant and dirt doesn't seem to stick to it as much.
  • It is very unobtrusive when applied - this is a personal thing I admit but I don't like how a lot of lubes go on yellow or cloudy. Gear oil simply leaves a light oily coating all over the chain. It's really clean and makes the chain look brand new
  • Cleaning the chain is really quick and easy compared to lube - spray it down with kerosene or chain cleaner and a quick brush and wipe later it looks like new, no more removing the tacky mess.
Of course it's not all golden, there are some downsides too:
  • It takes a lot longer to lube the chain - you can't simply spin the wheel while spraying, you have to drip some oil onto a paint brush and brush it on in sections (at least that's the easiest way I've found to do it).
  • You have to lube it a bit more often as it doesn't cling as well as chain lube (makes it easier to clean but doesn't last as long).
  • Not sure if it's needed or not but I tend to re-apply after riding in really rainy weather
So yeah, after years (on my earlier sports bikes) of using only canned chain lube I'm a gear oil convert - it is cheap, available everywhere, easy to apply and goes on really clean. Best of all it is actually a very efficient lube for the chain so if I'm diligent about applying it every tank of gas (or sooner) my chain and sprockets should last a long time.