Lube issues!

[Chris71]

Now this may be me being a fat oaf, or a headwind, or a combination of the two, but the rolling resistance of my bike seemed to have shot up this morning after I cleaned and lubed the chain. A similar thing also seemed to happen the last time I did it. It's probably psychological, but I wondered what the consensus was.

Basically I soaked the chain in white spirit - which actually wasn't as effective a degreaser as I'd hoped - then wiped off the excess and left it to air dry for an hour or so, before coating it liberally in GT85 and then giving it a coat of Lightning Ride all weather lube the following morning. Is it possible the two could have reacted or something? It feels like the chain is dragging through a vat of treacle.

It has been nearly a week since I've ridden in though...

[TwistingMyMelon]

With white spirit, I usually have to soak and shake it in the solution 4 times before it comes clean. IE four goes through white spirit

Sounds like you could be over lubeing it, I find less is more (ie a little on the chain) and only use one lube.

[Jimbo.]

It *could* that by degreasing the chain in the way you did, you've washed the lube from INSIDE then chain (where you want it). Slapping on the GT85 (an effective degreaser) washed out whatever remained, and also prevented whatever lube you applied from adhering. Thus, the chain is "dry" internally. 'tis why you should only ever wipe the outside clean/dry, and then carefully re-lube before wiping off the excess: it keeps the oil in the chain, whilst stopping any dirt being dragged in by the new lube.

However, I can't bring myself to believe that a chain/oil would make bike feel draggy without having other problems i.e. stiff links, squeaky, noisy etc, etc...

Edited by Jimbo. on Thursday 1st April 15:44