How to Choose the Right Lubricants
An overview of 3 essential types of lubrication, complete with brand recommendations.
In today’s tutorial we’ll take a look at lubricants. These are all brands that I trust and recommend after years of heavy use in the bike shop. There are three main types of lubrication you should have: light oil, chain oil, and grease.
Light Oil
When I talk about light oils, I’m referring to a product called TriFlow. There are many other types of traditional light oil available, but a lot of these are vegetable based and tend to gum up. TriFlow is synthetic, teflon-based, and comes with a lubrication tube that makes it easy to lube inside cable housings, pivot points, and other hard-to-reach areas. TriFlow will penetrate quickly and thoroughly, so you only need a few drops of it.
Chain Oil
For chain lubrication I recommend a product called Finish Line Cross Country. I’ve tried a lot of different brands and found this to be the longest lasting lubricant. It’s a synthetic “wet-style” lubricant capable of sustaining high torque pedaling over long distances and nasty riding conditions. See the chain cleaning and lubrication tutorial for some more tips on applying it.
Phil Wood
Another highly recommended chain oil is called Phil Tenacious Oil. It also works great as a lubricant and water repellent, but some people find it a bit too thick for chains. I find it is best used to lubricate the inside of internal gear hubs like Sturmey-Archer 3-speeds. If you have an older bike with a 3-speed internal gear hub, Phil Wood should be all you need for both your chain and hub.
Wax Lubricants
A third type of chain lubricants are wax-based and are best for very dry climates. The best brand I’ve used is called Boeshield T-9. While wax-based lubes don’t collect as much dirt, they are a lot of hassle to apply correctly. You have to make sure your drivetrain is spotless clean before you apply it, which usually requires soaking your chain in cleaning solvent first. Then after you apply it you have to wait 2 hours before riding. It’s also important to remember that wax is simply not as good a lubricant as oil.
Waterproof Grease
You should always have some waterproof grease handy for overhauling bearings and greasing threads. There are so many different brands available. You can get it in a one for shop use or in a smaller tube for occasional home use. You can use the tube along with a grease gun for squirting oil into tight spaces like bearing cages. Another thing you can do is keep some grease in a film container with a small brush, which makes it easy to quickly grease threads.
Related Links
Related Tools
- Tri-Flow Superior Lube
- Finish Line Wet Chain Lube (Cross Country)
- Phil Wood Tenacious Oil
- Boeshield T-9 Wax Lubricant
- Super Lube White Grease Tube
- Finish Line Grease Gun
Categories
Discuss this topic in the Lubrication Forums
Fork lube (+ others)
Lastest post 1 year agoHi guys, Totally new to bike maintenance. I recently moved countries and had to disassemble my bike to move it. I'm putting it back together now and need to make sure I've got all the tools I need to do a decent job. The fork had a thick white substance on the silver metal in the attached pictures. I'm not sure what this is and need to find a replacement. Any idea what lube I need for that? ...
Read moreWD40 is not the best
Lastest post 2 years agoThere is a product used in major tool rooms I have been in as an engineer for 34 years. It is called Kroil. I think you would have to get it off the web though, but believe me it is the BEST I have seen..... Penetrating-Lubricating Oils Loosens Frozen Metal Parts! ... Nothing Works Like Kroil Kroil - An industry proven penetrating oil that has no equal. Used by 480 of the Fortune 500 companies! ...
Read moreHomemade chain oils?
Lastest post 3 years agoHas anyone had any luck with homemade chain oil? im looking for some recipes, a lot include motor oil and mineral spirits any good?...
Read moreFound some unique grease!
Lastest post 4 years agohey just thought id share with you since you are all repairing these parts, i came across some grease last weeknd being sold at a small bike festival in manchetser and theres a range of different greases for the bikes. i spoke to them about it they said its a new range but it expected big things due to the standard of the grease so like you do i purchased some, i then took all my bearings out clea...
Read moreCeramic wet lube for 3 speed hub?
Lastest post 6 years agoI have an old Raleigh from 1969 with a "AW three speed hub". It is the type of gear hub with oil cap. I ordered a bottle of "Finish Line Ceramic Wet Lube"; after reading about the additives and how silent it can make the chain run I had to try it. I wondered if teflon and ceramic (boron nitride) in a synthetic oil would be be worth testing in the hub too. There might be an advantage to the basic m...
Read moreRoller Brakes - Copper grease
Lastest post 6 years agoMy bike is fitted with Shimano BRIM 70 roller brakes. After about 2 1/2 years the rear brake has started to squeal. So I left the bike into a LBS for maintenance. I then proceeded to do some research on the brake and discovered that you should use a special shimano grease for these brakes. I contacted LBS and they said they had already used high temperature copper grease which would be just as go...
Read moreCan I use Vaseline instead of grease?
Lastest post 7 years agoHello Alex, I was just cleaning my bearing balls and I realized that I don't have waterproof grease in handy, so can I use Vaseline (pure petroleum jelly) instead for now until I get a waterproof grease? Thank you, Ghaleb...
Read moreWhat kind of lube/grease to use?
Lastest post 7 years agohello! What is the difference between lube and grease? and what would i use on a locking skewer that i just got? could you guys recommend me few cheap reliable options? i am new to repairing bikes please bear with me ...
Read moreChinese hardware store chain lube substitute?
Lastest post 7 years agoI am on my first major bike tour and am in the middle of nowhere in China, after 2 weeks of rain and mud, and have run out of chain lube. There is no bicycle shop which will stock syn lube or any other bicycle-specific lubricant for hundreds of miles. What else will work? (considered common vegetable oil but apparently this is bad...) ...
Read moreCheap bike oils?
Lastest post 7 years agoWent round town today for some bike parts from halfords and called into wilkos and saw some max-c bicycle oil in a 100ml bottle for £1.17 so i grabbed a bottle then went into the poundshop and got some mean machine-pedal power bike oil, has anyone had experience with these oils and are they any good?...
Read moreLubing older Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub gears
Lastest post 7 years agoThere are a lot of diverse recommendations out there on the right oil to drip through the plastic oil cap of Sturmey 3 speed hubs. Based on my own experience at Pedal Depot tearing down quite a few, the biggest problem encountered (other than no oil..) is oil that is too sticky for the pawls and planets. Phil's Tenacious Oil, though a good oil elsewhere on the bike, is a bad choice here - it is ...
Read moreFreewheel luber
Lastest post 7 years agoDoes anyone remember ( I think it was Pedro's ) screw-on freehub lubricator? It fitted in the front of the unit ( off the hub ) and it was used to flush out the old lube and really worked. I volunteer at a shop that gets old bikes that are ready for the skip and rebuild them for the disenfranchised for transport. We get a lot of tight screw-ons and instead of trashing them all. that luber would ...
Read moreHow to Clean Grease Gun?
Lastest post 8 years agoHello, I'm wanting to switch to a different grease in my grease gun. So I assume I'll need to clean the gun. How would I go about doing this? I'm switching from Finish Line mulit-purpose teflon grease to Rock n' Roll Red Devil to re-grease my DMR V8 pedals. The only thing I have as a degreaser is WD40, if I was to say, blast it with WD40 then thoroughly rinse it with hot water, would that be ok...
Read moreSuper Lube in the UK
Lastest post 8 years agoHi guys, Does anyone know of any place in the UK that sells Super Lube Multi-Purpose Grease as shown in Alex's How to Choose the Right Lubricants video? Or any place in the US that will ship it to the UK (relatively cheaply!) I particularly want the tub rather than the tube. Or if not, are there any greases available in the UK that are just as good as this or similar? Cheers kindly...
Read moreSchwinn Breeze Lube
Lastest post 8 years agoHi all! I just bought a cute little buttercup yellow Schwinn Breeze today. I put new tires on it and need to do some cleaning of the chain and gear hub and other bits. But the gears are pretty sticky and I'm not sure what's best to use... also noticed that there is a little capped hole in the hub and I'm wondering if I need to put something in there??? Thanks, BG...
Read more
