[shipnil]

I use a Finish line dry lube for the chain of my roadie. After reading few posts praising Squirt dry lube, I thought of giving it a try. But when I tried to use it, it was coming out like a white paste which is too thick. I couldn't get a continuous stream nor I was able to apply it on individual chain links. Am I doing something wrong? Or the product gone bad? It was an old bottle like mfg in 2017. I thought in a sealed bottle, it would not be a problem.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by shipnil

I use a Finish line dry lube for the chain of my roadie. After reading few posts praising Squirt dry lube, I thought of giving it a try. But when I tried to use it, it was coming out like a white paste which is too thick. I couldn't get a continuous stream nor I was able to apply it on individual chain links. Am I doing something wrong? Or the product gone bad? It was an old bottle like mfg in 2017. I thought in a sealed bottle, it would not be a problem.

Perfectly normal. I hope you took care to first strip your chain squeaky clean of all old lube and washed with degreaser and soap multiple times and dried it completely before first applying the Squirt. It will not work otherwise, and will get wasted, barely lasting. Ditto for the contact points of the drivetrain, like the derailleur cages, the jockey wheels, the teeth of the cassette and the chain rings. Its an emulsion so it will never pour and spread like normal oil based lubes. Its always going to be a thick milky white emulsion. You must shake the bottle properly every time before use because the wax in the water based emulsion settles in between. You can keep the bottle pressed and do the chain rotating thing, but you will waste a lot that way and that tiny bottle will barely last you a couple or more applications.

The way you did it, one dab on the inner side of each roller (over the gap near the side plate and inner pin) individually is the right (most economical) way of doing it. For best results, you should apply the first coat, rotate the chain a few times to help the lube to spread uniformly internally, and then wait at least 2-3 hours for the water to evaporate and the wax coating left behind to "set" (harden). After that, repeat another (second) application (using less this time) at night just before going to bed. Do the same rotating of the chain to spread the lube uniformly. Then leave it overnight to set and ride in the morning.

In between two lubes (the above 2 application process counts as ONE lube), you only need to wipe down the chain and chain rings and cassette cogs with a dry cloth after the ride. The wax that gets dirty with road grime will automatically flake off in a dry blackish dry soot on the cloth, leaving clean wax at the bottom still stuck to the moving metallic surfaces. One application (without getting wet in the rain) should last you around 300 odd kilometres.

Cheers, Doc

[babayaga]

Hello Everyone.

Long time since I have posted anything on the forum. Looking for guidance from seasoned riders.

I am comfortable with my current hybrid i.e. cannondale quick 7. Post covid wave I am back to the saddle and have maintained on avg. a speed of 18.2 km on rolling terrain. This is significantly down from pre covid days of 21 + . Hopefully regular riding and consistent strength training should get me back on track. I have a few questions for which I am to find answers.

1. Recent rides post rain has left me with some question on best practice to maintain the bike. I wash my cycle immediately post ride using a bucket of water and wipe it down with a cloth. However, the drivetrain is not clean and seems to have fine sand particles stuck. what is the best way to clean this. Should I detach the chain , degrease and clean the entire drivetrain and then lube it?

2. I also found on YouTube people recommending to remove the seat post and placing the cycle upside down to dry the bottom bracket completely else it will rust. Should I be doing this ? I have not done this part for the last two times when I washed my cycle. Will it rust the BB?

3. What are the bare minimum cleaning products one should use? Which brands are recommended for lubes, degreaser etc. Any pointers which I should keep in mind while using this.
P.S. Brands I came across looplube, muc off and juicy lubes.

4. Reason I am trying to get more hands on for maintenance is because of plans to buy a roadie soon. My hybrid would serve as a guinea pig for my maintenance skills. My LBS charges a bomb for maintenance and it is unsustainable to engage his services on a regular basis. Also with a roadie I would not risk giving it to un trained hands .

5. I was checking out cycling shoes and for my size 12 feet most places do not seem to have with them. Any pointers to get cycling shoes for my size? It would a disappointing experience if I buy a roadie to not have the shoes to go along with it.

Phew that was a long post. Thanks for the patient reading.

@vb-san It's a beauty!

[amol4184]

Just realized that I chewed through three 15ml bottles of Squirt dry lube pretty quickly. I have now ordered a large bottle of the same.
Each application hardly lasts 200km before requiring relubing. You can almost hear the chain around 170km mark and gets worse. Is that normal?

[Sebring]

The Finish Line products are fantastic, and I suggest you dont change. May I ask why you shifted, is it anything to do with availability post lock-down?

Originally Posted by shipnil

I use a Finish line dry lube for the chain of my roadie. After reading few posts praising Squirt dry lube, I thought of giving it a try.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by amol4184

Just realized that I chewed through three 15ml bottles of Squirt dry lube pretty quickly. I have now ordered a large bottle of the same.
Each application hardly lasts 200km before requiring relubing. You can almost hear the chain around 170km mark and gets worse. Is that normal?

Your chain needs a proper degreasing and squeaky cleaning. I go one week plus on mine. Which is 350 to 400 plus kilometres easy.

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Your chain needs a proper degreasing and squeaky cleaning. I go one week plus on mine. Which is 350 to 400 plus kilometres easy.

The first time I did, it was really clean and dry or so I thought I will try again, something's amiss.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by amol4184

The first time I did, it was really clean and dry or so I thought I will try again, something's amiss.

Yup, am pretty sure you did not get all the oil inside. Its easy to make the outside shine and look squeaky clean. That's more than sufficient 9 times out of ten when using any other lube. Wax needs raw metal surface to stick on.

[AnniHilat0R]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Perfectly normal. I hope you took care to first strip your chain squeaky clean of all old lube and washed with degreaser and soap multiple times and dried it completely before first applying the Squirt. It will not work otherwise, and will get wasted, barely lasting. Ditto for the contact points of the drivetrain, like the derailleur cages, the jockey wheels, the teeth of the cassette and the chain rings.
Cheers, Doc

Hey Doc,

Just to check, which degreaser do you use / recommend. Do you use a spray for the contact points like teeth of the cassette ?

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by AnniHilat0R

Hey Doc,

Just to check, which degreaser do you use / recommend. Do you use a spray for the contact points like teeth of the cassette ?

I use WD40 sprayed over the chain and cassette (be careful to spray AWAY from the bottom bracket and wheel bearings), let it soak, then clean with a hard nylon bathroom brush, and then follow it with boiling hot water with Vim dishwashing liquid (the yellow one) beaten into foamy suds. Then rinse with plain tap water. 2-3 times if need be (not the WD40, just the Vim soap solation in hot geyser water, followed by rinsing).

Cheers, Doc

[ebonho]

Chain thoroughly cleaned tho Sunday. I thought it would be a simple dunk in boiling water to remove all residual old (and contaminated) wax, then rinse and dry thoroughly and then dip in the hot wax bath.

In reality it took 3 soaks in degreaser / water, two of the times I boiled the solution with the chain inside. While the degreaser soak did not change color of tge water perceptibly, boiling did and the water the first time got blackish flecks and scum on the surface and turned murky yellow, and the second time too while there was no more black, it did turn murky.

Then I took the chain and after rinsing it I soaked it in degreaser and gave it a proper rubdown with a hard bristle brush. Rinsed again. And then dried it off completely with a microfiber and a hair dryer.

Finally dipped it in nice fresh white paraffin candle wax, and then installed it (after breaking away the big chunks of wax on the outside, but leaving the wax inside in between the links). The first few revolutions of back pedaling and then ran the chain up and down the cassette, and both chainrings (had cleaned out both beforehand on the bike, as well as both jockey wheels - very little dry black residue came off) to coat them with the extra wax left between the links for exactly that purpose.





Used 4 candles from a 6 candle box of 30 bucks. Plus the gas and the degreaser. About 2+ candles worth of wax is left behind. Looks totally white, but don't know if I would want to reuse it for the next wax dip or just use fresh candles.

Cheers. Doc

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Chain thoroughly cleaned tho Sunday.

Doc, can you please post some pictures of your cleaning setup, like the brushes, degreaser, containers etc.?

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by shipnil

Doc, can you please post some pictures of your cleaning setup, like the brushes, degreaser, containers etc.?

Whatever I had from the first time, I have posted on this thread in detail. Photos and videos both. Did not take any during the process this time.

Normal kapde dhone ka scrubbing brush. And degreaser is either the all purpose Amway one or normal kitchen scrubbing dish washing Vim.

I used WD40 to soak into and brush scrub the chains the first time (very black/oily/dirty chains might even need kerosene/diesel followed by petrol/denatured alcohol). This time I just used the degreaser to soak and then brush the chains.

Boiling works great to strip all old wax and dirt trapped in it. I'm not sure what's the chemistry behind degreaser on wax though. Maybe denatured alcohol would be better as a stripper/solvent.

Pro Tip: Be very careful of the quick links so that they do not fall down the drain of the sink. Cover the sink hole with a net or something just in case.

Cheers, Doc

[babayaga]

Originally Posted by babayaga

Hello Everyone.

2. I also found on YouTube people recommending to remove the seat post and placing the cycle upside down to dry the bottom bracket completely else it will rust. Should I be doing this ? I have not done this part for the last two times when I washed my cycle. Will it rust the BB?

Reading through some of the threads here and lot of youtube. Below are my tinkering on drive train maintenance. Looking for some guidance at the end. Please share your valuable thoughts.

1. First round of cleaning I used WD40 to spray on the chain and cassette. I have tried to be careful and not spray on the brackets. After spraying WD40 and leaving it for 25 mins . I cleaned the entire cycle with hot water and some detergent . Dried the chain and used squirt to lube the chain and left for overnight. Next day took it for a test drive. I could notice I had not done a very good job as the drive train and cassette still looked bit blackish and if I ran a finger over it . It would leave a black streak on my finger.

2. Second round of cleaning repeated the same thing. Was more generous with WD40. After this round of cleaning I could not find a black streak, when I run my finger over the chain. I however find the drivetrain seems sluggish at times. It does not feel the same as before. I observed that my rear rim brake were not centered. Probably this is causing the issue. I am not sure though.

Help required:

1. Any improvement I should do to my cleaning routine ?
2. Why is the drivetrain feel sluggish.
3. Should I be turning my bicycle upside down to protect the BB ?

Thank you in advance. Wish all the wonderful members a happy new year.

@Doc I have sent you a follow request on Strava under user name rags to check out the squirt activity. Please accept.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by babayaga

Reading through some of the threads here and lot of Youtube. Below are my tinkering on drive train maintenance. Looking for some guidance at the end. Please share your valuable thoughts.

1. First round of cleaning I used WD40 to spray on the chain and cassette. I have tried to be careful and not spray on the brackets. After spraying WD40 and leaving it for 25 mins . I cleaned the entire cycle with hot water and some detergent . Dried the chain and used squirt to lube the chain and left for overnight. Next day took it for a test drive. I could notice I had not done a very good job as the drive train and cassette still looked bit blackish and if I ran a finger over it . It would leave a black streak on my finger.

2. Second round of cleaning repeated the same thing. Was more generous with WD40. After this round of cleaning I could not find a black streak, when I run my finger over the chain. I however find the drivetrain seems sluggish at times. It does not feel the same as before. I observed that my rear rim brake were not centered. Probably this is causing the issue. I am not sure though.

Help required:

1. Any improvement I should do to my cleaning routine ?
2. Why is the drivetrain feel sluggish.
3. Should I be turning my bicycle upside down to protect the BB ?

Thank you in advance. Wish all the wonderful members a happy new year.

@Doc I have sent you a follow request on Strava under user name rags to check out the squirt activity. Please accept.

I did not like WD40 on my drivetrain. It made things really runny and messy.

For on-bike cleaning I have stuck to only Vim dish wash fluid in hot water, followed by clean cold water rinsing. Using a combination of micro fiber cloth and brushes. Works pretty good, though you need to repeat it a number of times to get the chain as squeaky clean as is possible without removing it off the bike. Remember to dry out the chain thoroughly (dry cloth run through plus sun/fan) before applying the Squirt. Always use two applications of Squirt, at least 2-3 hours apart. Let the bike sit overnight after the second application before riding it, for best results.

Bike feels silky smooth and silent and frictionless after Squirt (even more so after wax) so I really cannot tell why that's not the case with your bike.

I rejected both your connect requests because (1) you had zero activities on your profile, so I'm not really comfortable being a showpiece/social media anonymous stalk magnet for non riders; and (2) I had no idea who you were in the first place. Please resend.

Cheers, Doc

P.S. No you do not need to remove your seat post and turn the bike upside down. The frame has a number of drain holes from which water that gets into the frame while washing just drains out. Yes, standing your bike up on the rear wheel and rearing it high (like a wheelie) does help. You will se two jets of water squirting out from somewhere near your rear hub axle.