Chain Lubricant
- Thread starter AndyBolton
- Start date
Oh my!
I do not know for what deluded purpose this poster wants me to say that WD40 is not a lubricant but that is not going to happen now or ever. For those of you whom may be entertaining his delusions about WD40 please by all means google "WD40 product description" and "WD40 material safety data sheet". In both the company's description and the MSDS it is called a lubricant. If you look at a couple of the MSD sheets they tell you that it contains oil. Last time I checked oil was a lubricant. But maybe the poster knows something that the manufacturer, the HSE, and the people that write material safety data sheets don't. Perhaps he should enlighten them. While you are at it search "2000+ uses for Wd40" and count how many times the word lubricates shows up. But again this could be wrong according to some.
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As I said in reply number one in this thread:
"Opinions on what is best to use vary widely and it's a contentious subject."
since I knew what was going to follow!
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Emo Rider, now you are simply being insulting.
Why do you persist in this seemingly determined notion that WD-40 is a lubricant? It's pointless drawing attention to the manufacturer's blurb on the product and far better to read and understand what end users say about it and why they say it.
Without reference to any highly technical tribological papers, you can find plenty of opinion and reviews from the world of engineering and by lay people, just by researching the phrase, 'Is WD-40 a lubricant?'. There are some good explanations and recommendations available if you wish to take the trouble.
Understanding how bicycle chains are constructed and an awareness of the loads to which the chain and gearing are subjected is key to knowing how to lubricate them. Perhaps if and when you have studied the subject in some depth, rather than reading sales propaganda material from the maker, you might wish to reconsider your remark about me being deluded.
Tom
+1 Tom on WD40. Great for curing squeaky door hinges and that's about it.
The stuff has had it's day and I wouldn't let any of it near my car or my bikes.
Try washing your hands in it. It'll dry your skin out well before lubricating it!
Best to get products specific for the job in hand, be it lubricating, derusting, protecting rubber etc...
The stuff has had it's day and I wouldn't let any of it near my car or my bikes.
Try washing your hands in it. It'll dry your skin out well before lubricating it!
Best to get products specific for the job in hand, be it lubricating, derusting, protecting rubber etc...
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Now I do use it to clean up my black & oily hands, it get the muck lifted and then allows soap to do the rest. Soap on oily hands doesn't work as well on its own.
Would not expect a good result on door hinges, use a silicone spray. Much cleaner & long lasting.
You are right on the button about door hinges, it's a temporary fix if there's nothing else to hand.
That's because it's primarily a solvent, which is why it cleans up hands lovely too.
BTW, I have used it in the past for hands too
I think the manufacturer of WD40 has a great advertising campaign, if not such a great product.
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It is excellent for cleaning old transister radios and such like. It’s pretty good at drying out engine electrics too. I carried a can with me when I had a Mini many years ago. Heavy rain on a fast road with truck spray would get into the distributer and HT leads stuck out on the front of the block, and I’d be down to three cylinders after a short while. But a good spraying of WD 40 would get me going again quickly.
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Like you said flecc, like you said.As I said in reply number one in this thread:
"Opinions on what is best to use vary widely and it's a contentious subject."
since I knew what was going to follow!
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I have no hesitation in seconding those comments Croxden. I'm a convert.
Just recently, I had kitchen door hinges which became noisy. WD-40 was nearby so I gave top and bottom hinges a very quick spray which removed the noise.
A couple of weeks later, the dashboard in my card began to creak over every road imperfection but I had just read some glowing reviews on a silicone spray sold by Screwfix so I thought I'd give it a try. Excellent - just one carefully delivered application to the problem area between glass and soft-touch rubberised vinyl cured the problem.....and it hasn't yet returned.
As the kitchen door hinges had begun to emit noises again, I fetched the silicone spray from my shed and as with my car, the noise has not, so far, returned. Clean to use, effective - I like it!
Tom
Years ago someone gave me a new can of GT85 which works like magic on hinges, keeping them quiet for years. It's just a very volatile fluid carrying PTFE, the fluid evaporates leaving the PTFE in place.
I've never tried it on anything else but don't suppose it would be much good in higher stress situations.
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I've never tried it on anything else but don't suppose it would be much good in higher stress situations.
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D
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Rather than WD40, you can get 3-in-one oil in a spray can from Aldi. It does everyyhing you need to keep the chain working, but you need to use it regularly because the oil won't stay in the chain.
I thought I'd give modern bicycle chain lubricants a try, so I got a bottle of White Lightning Wet Ride because I ride in the wet a lot. I can't say that it stayed on any better than anything else, so I had mixed feelings about it until I took my wheel off a couple of days ago. The derailleur was caked in thick black gritty grease, like valve grinding paste, from the accumulated dirty lube. It took me ages to clean it all out. I now, therefore, wouldn't recommend these types of lubricants.
I still think the best is ordinary Hypoid 90 gear oil, which you re-apply every time the chain looks dry, which will probably be every time you use your bike in the rain, since most lubes get washed off that way.
I thought I'd give modern bicycle chain lubricants a try, so I got a bottle of White Lightning Wet Ride because I ride in the wet a lot. I can't say that it stayed on any better than anything else, so I had mixed feelings about it until I took my wheel off a couple of days ago. The derailleur was caked in thick black gritty grease, like valve grinding paste, from the accumulated dirty lube. It took me ages to clean it all out. I now, therefore, wouldn't recommend these types of lubricants.
I still think the best is ordinary Hypoid 90 gear oil, which you re-apply every time the chain looks dry, which will probably be every time you use your bike in the rain, since most lubes get washed off that way.
Living in Bournemouth and regularly cycling along the long promenade from Sandbanks to Christchurch often with wind blowing sand about, on earlier bikes i had exactly your experience with wet lubes. After failing to find GT85 much use (my earlier post) I switched to dry lube, a I do find that with that not only have the chains lasted much longer, but you don't end up with grinding paste. The wax picks up sand/dust but tends to drop off. Evidence of this is that along the rear frame below the chain, black spots of the wax appear. Only downside is that you have to regularly apply the lube.
