- There are two different types of chain lubricant, dry and wet. One for dry season when you get a bit of rain. One for wet season.
- Don’t overdo it. I’ve put on far too much lubricant and what it does is collect loads of grit laying a mushy dirty grease layer over your frame and parts and doing more harm than good. I got into a bad habit of liberally applying grease before each ride, nope, wrong move. It’s a balance, I got lulled into thinking adding more grease would keep everything flying but the trade-off with grit and muck attraction and buil-up offsets this.
- Clean with degreaser using a cleaning gizmo and then wipe as much grit off as you can from the chain and gear parts
- Then grease, put a drop of lubricant on each bead (I learned this from a Brilliant Bikes video guide).
- Try and clean once a week and add grease once a week if you’re doing around 100k a week.
- Chain maintenance, along with keeping your tyre tubes inflated, is one of the two most influential things on your ride quality.
- The better cleaned and lubricated, emphasis on quality of the process, the more efficient your pedalling will be and the less friction from your chain and parts.
- WD40 sits in a weirdly useful space and feels to me like a combination between de-greaser and greaser; use it as a cheat when you’re in a rush or to clean the chain when it’s been wet and you need to ride again the next morning. But I think greasing and de-greasing properly is still better.
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Thinking out loud 