• Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

Most Lubricating off road Chain Lube

duggoey

duggoey

Husqvarna
Pro Class
I have always used the oil based conventional chain lube, specifically castrol or other big names. More recently ive started using the more expensive titanium dry gel and I dont know if its any better. I notice that if I lube the inside sprocket face of the chain with conventional oil lube it distribiutes itself really well to all parts of the chain, whereas the dry gel stuff seems to settle where it first contacts. To me this says since the dry gel doesnt spread that it wont lubricate as throughly. On the flip side it doesnt seem to attract as much dust, but it is harder to clean.

Most have a preference, but do you have any experience to suggest chains and sprockets last longer with one type or another (independent of being anal about cleaning or being a road biased bike).

I dont really care about the label, im intrested in the medium, not marketing.
 
In the beginning, I used some sticky BelRay chain lube that I was using on my Versys, and it attracted way too much dirt, I quit using that real fast, then I went with some Teflon based stuff, it was too thin and had NO staying power at all.

I have had great results with cheap Champion chain lube, it seems to stick well enough to last for 1 ride, but it also doesn't seem to attract dirt, my chain is always bare and clean at the end of a ride, I almost never have to clean my chain before lubing it, I just put on come more Champion.

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For what ever reason, I started used my used engine oil on the chains of 3 of my bikes, using a toothbrush to apply it. That was well over a yr ago... Since then, I have not even adjusted any chain on my bikes ... The stretching just stopped ... Seems the chains do have some side-to-side movements but have not increased in length. Clueless on why this is happening ... But I'm not changing...

One bike has a ALUM sprocket and the others have the steel teeth ones ... I'm not see any wear on either type just yet so I'm sure if this even matters ...

I do get a little oil sling-off around the FS area but it is a small amount and because the toothbrush is used to apply the oil, it takes very little oil actually and it's not gonna drip off as such a small amount is applied. I don't care about oil on my bike as it is needed and only my budget, I gotta get long-lasting results where-ever possible with all the riding I do here. This has been a small-blessing for me here.


Here is a couple pics ... I still have new-chain kink after about a yr of riding ... Unbelievable and if it was not my bikes, I would have a hard time believing the results I have if I read it somewhere. I'm thinking applying the oil with a brush is what helps but not sure really.

See the kinks in these 2 chain picks? This chain is still stiff and its a ~yr old at least ... I lost my spread sheet that has the exact number of hours of this gear but it is ridden alot (see the ride reports) and I won't ride without brushing my chain now. No other special treatment .. I sometimes hose the chain off with water but that is about it.
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See that black soot looking stuff in the sprocket teeth? Not sure what it is but after the oily look leaves the chain after riding several miles, the sprocket and the chain rollers get that dull look and just stay like that for miles and miles. It will turn silver if given enough time but this takes many many miles of riding.
102_0569_result.JPG


Will this work for you? I doubt it but you might wanna try the toothbrush method for applying your lube of choice ... The brush will help eliminate wasting lube if nothing else and get a good spread on the lube on the chain ... I lube all my sliders and inside the chain guide also with the brush ...

And I've used that Dumonde oil above and had good results ... Can't remember how I was applying it but would bet it will work well if applied with a brush. I can't get it here and the expensive engine oil I use here is gonna keep getting double duty here for the foreseeable future.

I might try new oil someday instead of the used oil... At the rate it is used, 1L (~$10) will last about forever...

Good luck with your riding.
 
All I ever do is clean the chain with WD 40 and spray it down with a dry teflon lube. In the days before O-Ring chains I used to clean the chain in solvent, dry it out then soak it in motor oil over night. I dont much like chain lube for off road.
 
Lithium spray grease, goes on wet, dries to a powder and sticks like shit to a blanket.

Works great, no mess, no smell and doesn't attract dust, dirt, grit and all that crap that wears out chains.
Also very visibly white/grey so you can see it and when it needs done (not regularly) :)
 
I came to the conclusion that chain lube is a waste of time, and stopped using it about 5 years ago. If you're running an O ring chain, you don't need it. If you're not, it doesn't matter what you use because nothing will stay on there long enough to do any good. In an industrial application, with lower speeds, no mud, dirt or pressure washers, there are lubes that work. I run an O ring chain and spray it down with something to keep it from rusting after I wash the bike, and don't adjust it more than once a season. I just started using this

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I think it's the stinkiest thing known to man, but it sure keeps the chain rust free, and doesn't easily spray off when cleaning.
 
I usually just clean my chain alot....To clean I have used many different things, but lately something simple as 3m industrial degreaser on a wrag. Wrap the rag around the chain and rotate the back tire while applying pressure....make 3-4 rotations, then resoap the rag and scrub the chain/sprockets. I do this every oil change (every week or two). Between 2 bikes. BUT I ALWAYS buy the nicest most expensive best chain I can. ALWAYS. It is just too critical of an item for me to try to save money on.
 
I like the Bel-Ray Super Clean Chain Lube. I wash my bike with Dawn and use a soft brush for most of the bike and a stiff bristled pots/pans brush to brush any possible debris off the chain and rear sprocket. In 1000 miles I have not adjusted the chain (amazing how good chains are today) and it stays clean. I'm sure many work similarly but I tend to stick with what is working.

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When I was younger in the 70's, we always soaked our chains in used motor oil. My dad thought it was one of the better ways to extend the chain life. These days I use a chain brush to clean the mud off my chain and I use Bel Ray super clean chain lube. I'm pretty happy with it and it works for me.
 
On the 310 ive got about 3000km of trail riding out of a chain and sprockets. But the old ttr250 I sold a few years ago is up to 10000km of trail riding with the original oring chain and sprockets. Both have used spray oil lube. I never ride without lubing the chain.
 
Also generally only run the stock chain till its gone and replace with RK oring or x ring chain. But dont want to derail thread, point is I use a decent chain.
 
dteml said:
In the past i used regular chain lube spray.

I recently bought

http://www.motorex.com/index.cfm?oi...mp=eintragDetail&kategorieId=16&eintragId=109

Has anybody used it?
Click to expand...



I won a can of that stuff a few years ago as a door prize.... Awesome stuff, but it's pricey. I've been using the Moose brand chain lube as of late & it's good to go. But I think it really boils down to getting the chain extremely clean after the ride as much as the lube you put on before you ride.
 
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