Chainlube tales...

NO fling-off, excellent adherence, no mess, hi-tech, yadda yadda....
For long years the manufacturers have been spouting the same shit and after
another $18 spent on yet another colourfull bottle promising the same old
stuff....crap flying everywhere,, gunked up rear rims, splatter all over the
bottom rear end which is impossible to clean off without some harsh stuff
like kero or petrol, caked front sprocket housings full of black chewing gum
etc etc.
ChainWax seems to be even worse, caking the chain itself, binding all the
dirt and grit onto the links until the whole schamozzle looks like a
slightly dimpled piece of greasy pipe, coated each time with yet another
layer of whitish gunk turning black within 2 hours of riding..

Been there, done that for the last few years and tried just about all of
them.
The Motul/Shell/PJ/Motorex/Aral/.... bla bla...
Some time ago a friend working in the printing industry came along with a
bottle of Optimol Viscogen KL300, some synthetic "magic" stuff used for
printing presses and heavy duty industrial machinery.
A fairly non-descript spray can of clear "juice"...
Why not then... Running this stuff on the V-Strom now I cleaned the chain
tonight (well, I planned to anyway).
I ran my bare hands over the rim and got "stuck" on 3 tiny little spots of
the stuff, one turned out to be tar (black rims), the other 2 chain lube.
All that after lubing the chain before the 550km weekend ride, not using
anything in between. The chain still appeared wet and glistening with barely
any grit/sand particles stuck to it.
That put a stop to the chain cleaning then...

I'm impressed !!!
No filth, no splatter around the suspension linkages/swingarm, just about
nothing on the rim.
Whatever tiny dots there were, it came of on the first swipe of the
WD40-drenched rag.

The stuff is distributed mainly through Industrial Supply places,
Engineering Supplies etc.
For more details call OptiLube Australasia (part of the Burmah/ Castrol
Group) on 1800 802 043.

This one is a stayer, anyone wants a collection of half-used bottles of
whatever brand you can think of ?
No idea what it costs though.... and no idea how the chain is going to fare
longterm.
I'll stick to it and see what happens.
Along the way I'll save myself all the mess anyway.
cheers
pete

 

I use (and ma quite happy with) the Motorex Strong.

 

Once you have a chain-drive bike, isn't that the only thing that
matters?

Thanks for checking it out. I hope you post your observations here!

 

I'll send Scotty around to collect your half-tin of PJ1. ;-)

(He made it home to Carrum in 10 hours elapsed, which isn't too bad
for a bloke on his first ride in 6 years).


BTH

 

Damn - I seem to be about 1 step behind you! I just added "Chain Wax"
to my already impressive collection.

A while ago I heard (here!) about a lanolin based lube that "sets". Not
long after, I discovered my mate had a tin of industrial lanolin based
lube that sounded exactly like I had heard. This one was for all types
of machinery, but specifically mentioned O-Ring chains, so gave it a
whack. I was much happier with it than the standard oils but rather
than try and track down that specific one I got "Chain Wax", which
sounds similar and appears similar in my "test spray" (the Chain Wax is
literally just days old - I still haven't used it.)

Lucky I decided to try a small tin first

hehe - well, I guess it is *good* being one step behind you - let us know

Mark.

 

How often do you need to lube the chain? whenever it looks un-lubed?
Andy

 

get a scotoiler. It's the shit. minimal spray, 4 times the chain life,
no more cleaning or lubing the chain, pays for itself in chain life
and lube savings. I'll always have one
Mark

 

It's ok as long as you don't have a Superblackbirdie, eh Nev?

 

Or you could try the smack system....never lube the chain, and get them to
replace it every 20,000km or five years, whichever comes first.

 

Same here, had a Scottoiler on my ZRX1100, then fitted it to my new
Ninja ZX12R. 42,000 kays on the ZEX1100 with original chain and
sprockets which all looked like new, 33,000 kays now up on the Ninja and
same story, chain and sprockets look like new.

Never a hassle with crap on the chain, always nice, clean and lubed,
even in shitty weather riding on roads with roadworks with the mud and
all that crap.

The Australian/Italian Import mob who sell them are bloody good to deal
with too, among the best after sales service I have come across.

cheers

Rex