White Lightning Dry Ride. OK Now?

[Mick F]

My new bottle arrived yesterday morning and I shook it vigorously as soon as I got it out of the jiffy bag, and then let it settle for the rest of the day and overnight.

Here's a piccy of it on the kitchen table.
Looks to me that it's 50/50 ......... and the way I reckon it should be.

[The fat commuter]

My EpicRide arrived today. Just given it a good shake - will see how it separates overnight.

[The fat commuter]

Epic Ride seems to have different proportions:



Not very visible on that photo but probably about 10% wax.

[Samuel D]

I have tried using dry lubes on several occasions (TF2 Plus Dry “with Teflon” at the moment) and I remain to be convinced that they lubricate or inhibit rust as well as good old wet lubes. Judging by The fat commuter’s latest picture, maybe I’m just not applying enough?

How do you judge how much to put on?

[Mick F]

What I do, is to have my bike standing vertically with the cranks free to turn backwards and lay a cloth on the floor and draped in and out of the rear spokes to protect everything. I make sure the transmission is in the highest gear.

I shake the bottle vigorously, remove the cap, and rest my left hand against the rear mech body with the bottle pointing downwards. The angle of pointing varies with how full the bottle is.

I rotate the cranks backwards quickly whist drizzling the lube on the bottom chain run. Maybe do three or four rotations.

Experience is the name of the game. You get to know how much to put on. Some, but not loaded, and don't be stingy or too prissy about it. It needs to be just right. Not too much so it's dripping, but enough to coat all the insides of the chain. You should be able to see the lube.

After application, continue to rotate the cranks a few more revs.

Let it dry. I tend to do mine before breakfast so it's ready to go later.

[Mick F]

BTW, I last put some lube on my chain before breakfast on Monday.
Since then, I've been out on four days doing a total of 98miles.
If I were to ride out this weekend, I wouldn't bother to add any more unless I was planning on a long ride.

Yes, I know the weather has been dry and clear. Had it been damp and mucky, the chain would've needed some more by now, but not much more.

[Samuel D]

Thanks, Mick. May persist another little while.

[don1]

Hi Mick. Do you use clean ride all year round ?

[Mick F]

Yes.
I'm a leisure rider, so if the weather is awful, I may not go out.

However, here's a little story ...............
Back in 2008, I rode a Grand Tour of Scotland, England and Wales. 1,400 miles in three weeks and I added WL CR every morning.

One day, I rode from Carlisle to Grinton YHA and the weather over through Brampton, Alston, Teesdale, Barnard Castle, and over The Stang to Grinton was awful. It rained constantly and I was absolutely soaked and thoroughly demoralised. I hated that ride.

At Grinton YHA they have (had?) a barn of a building as a bike shed, and I wheeled my Mercian in and leant it against the wall. The room was damp and cold an unventilated. Mercian was filthy, dripping wet, and looking very sorry for itself.

I got cleaned up, and ate, then went to bed early.
Following morning, I went down to Mercian only to see that it was still dripping wet and standing in a pool of water.
I looked at the chain, saw that it was ok, and gave it a good lubing, and went for breakfast.

That day, I rode on to Whitby and the chain was perfectly ok.

I got home after 1,400miles and the chain was STILL ok and all it had been given was a lube of White Lightning Clean Ride every morning.

[gloomyandy]

I tried White Lightening and liked the clean chain, but it did not seem to last very long. This summer I've been using Squirt:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/squirt-chain-lube-120ml/
which so far has been very good, and seems to last well. I've ridden around 4000 miles so far using it and still have about a third of a 120ml bottle left. So far I have about 2000 miles on one of my chains and it is is showing very little stretch. I degreased the chain from new and after that have just been applying Squirt from time time after wiping the chain down with a rag. So anyone that likes dry lubes might want to give it a try.

[freeflow]

Back in March, after a disappointing 3 months life of a chain I decided to use the MickF chain rotation system with three cheap Shimano HG57(?) chains and Purple Extreme as the lubricant. The chains were cycled every 2 -300 miles (so every couple of weeks due to my Audax riding).

Initially the chains were cleaned with 2 washes in white spirit but more recently I switched to using Gunk in a chain cleaner on the bike followed by White Spirit as it gives a cleaner chain. I've now done just under 6000 km on these three chains and none have reached the 0.5% wear limit yet. As measured by ruler, Shimano chain checker and Part Tools chain checker (just because I'm curious).

I've used about half a bottle of Purple Extreme as I'm quite liberal and relube the chains after each long ride. It's not a dry lube but so little is used that its not an issue relubing every week. One small drop per roller. Used in this way the outer plated of the chain are essentially free of lubricant and there is very little mess on the sprockets and chainset.

Purple extreme does wash off in wet weather so this is something to bear in mind if you don't have mudguards.

This is probably the longest I've ever had chains last (the bike plus me has an all up weight of about 115 kg).

It is worth noting that the chains wore to 0.25% quite quickly but have stabilised since then.

[mig]

i whacked some purple extreme on the wet commuter bike chain after it went sub-aqua recently and noticed the bottle was nigh empty. a quick search for a replacement turns up £12 at wiggle for a small bottle .

what's the word on something similar but cheaper? isn't there a brucey home brew available yet that does the same thing?

[simonhill]

Interesting this one has resurfaced, I was just about to dig it out.

As I said before, back to the White Lightning.

I raised the initial post and half way down page one said I would try a stronger mix a la MickF. I made it up of residue in sample bottle and remains of big bottle. In the end this turned out a fair bit more waxy than the standard.

I've used it for 2.5 months on tour in Korea and Thailand. It does seem to work! I reapply about every 300kms, which is what I did in the good old days.

In fact it seems to last even better in Thailand, but the temp is about 35°C and I wonder if this helps.

As MickF established, it does seems that the mix was wrong and with a bit of binning and remixing you can get something that works well.

MickF, I saw you reckon 50/50 in your last bottle was about right. Do you still hold to that? I'll need a new bottle for my next tour so will be buying soon.

[Mick F]

Hi Simon.
Yes, a richer mixture makes all the difference in the world!

I do wonder that people who don't like it must have had a poor bottle. This new one of mine seems the correct mixture, though I confess I haven't used it yet.

After taking that photo of the new bottle, it has settled still further, but it took a week or two.

New bottle, settled out now for two months and undisturbed on the spare bedroom (bike shed) windowsill.
Measures total depth of 120mm with the white wax at 55mm.
The blue liquid is crystal clear.

[simonhill]

Cheers again.

I think I'll join you and buy from Wiggle. There are probably lots of bottles of the duff stuff still in many LBSs.

No rush, wait till after Christmas.