Lubrication

toe jam

but seriously, Phil Woods, comes in a green tube, awesome stuff.

I've heard the best ones come in green tubes.

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm going with Um Bongo.

I hear they drink it in the congo.

I hear they drink it in the congo.

Yes I heard that as well. Infuriatingly though, they refused to elucidate on whether they were referring to Congo or The Democratic Republic of Congo.

I rang their respective embassies, but to be frank they were less than helpful.

I DEMAND TO KNOW and I WON'T BACK DOWN!

Have a great weekend all ,as it's POETS day I'm about to do one...

I've heard the best ones come in green tubes.

Make it come out green!

Cheap + good.

lady macaroni

I hate oily chains to I individually oil the internals of each chain ink and run synthetics on the outer chain for that always brand new look I am a bit anal when it comes to lube..;)

cow tears

Degreaser, finish line. GT85, then finish line wet lube. I haven't bought a chain for about four years ;)

Duck Oil

you don't realy want the lube on the outside of the link plates, as it draws all the dust and cack from the road.

new chains come with a thick greasy type oil in the internals, once you get to the point where you need to clean it all out, there never seems to be anything else to get it like new again.

I swish my chains in white spirit, wash in detergent, rinse then dry.

then it's finish line pro road applied to each bushing until it's lubed internally. none on the outside.

That sounds a bit like sheldons ShelBroCo Bicycle Chain Cleaning System.

clean my chain and cassette yesterday back to silver.

lubricate and ride (in the dry with dry roads) today. back to black again. what am I doing wrong? presumably missing some of the gunk in the jockey wheels? residual gunk from the chain/cassette? other people I ride with manage to keep that silver chain look. assume they're just more fastidious than me...

Or maybe you just put too much lube.

How did you clean the chain? When I cleaned mine to prepare for waxing it needed 5 rounds
with degreaser until the liquid stayed clear. Even if it looks clean there might be lots of
dried up gunk between the rollers.

genuinely only put one dab per link, let it sit for 15 mins, then wipe off excess with kitchen roll.

cleaned it with fenwick's foaming degreaser. spray on. let sit while I clean the rest of the bike. hose off. then reapplied, and run chain backwards with agitating brush held against the cassette and chain. did this 3/4 times until cassette and chain were silver. individually cleaned jockey wheels with the degreaser and holding each between finger & thumb to get built up gunk off.

think it must just be residual dried up gunk + unseen jockey wheel gunk = black drive train. might be some contamination coming in from the chainrings too. I'll take off the chain and jockey wheels and clean them that way, I think

I find some just go gunky no matter how much you put on. Squirt is pretty good at staying silver but you have to wipe and apply often.

Use emulsified wax-based lubes (Squirt or Smoove) if you want a cleaner drivetrain. Needs a really clean to start with but maintenance then becomes a much cleaner affair

There's another option called Prolink I've been using it for a while, is decent but you've got to make sure it's the only lubricant on your chain.

So, bit of a dredge. Brand new road bike, with Ultregra bits, and I now live in a very dry country and will rarely, if ever, ride through a puddle, yet alone in the rain. What would be your lube of choice?

Bonus points for not having to degrease every time. Even more for being better for the environment.

This is the best I've found so far

Agreed. Or home hot waxing.

I'm a big fan of smoove - essentially drip on wax.

Anyone come across muc off wet or urban and the ensuing nightmare that it makes?

In pretty sure it's used veg oil, varnish and pva glue. As that's what your drive chain will look like after, muc off cleaner won't touch it, akin to trying to wash an oil based gloss paint brush off with tap water.
Only mek/xylene/other horrendous chemicals takes it off.