Just a follow-up to this thread.
A lot of people swear by Teflon lubrication, but what sparked this thread was the issue of chain life. I have never heard of anyone getting very long chain life with Teflon. It may be because the product itself is fairly new and most people don’t put on a lot of mileage. I have friends using Teflon and they didn’t get any different life vs. me using oil based products, and some have reported rust on the side plates. It might be that lubing the chain doesn’t really do anything, at least if you follow the instructions in the manual. Perhaps 20,000 miles of chain life is normal regardless of what you do.
The only people I am aware of that get real long chain life has been those using automatic chain oilers or who lube the chain a lot.
I ride unless there is snow on the road so given the amount of salt and stuff up here in Ontario Canada that can be a factor. I have had my Strom for a bit over 4 years and currently have over 135,000 km or about 84,000 miles. Last year was a very rainy year and I rode through lots of rain plus I rode more into this past winter than I have in the past so it would be expected my chain life would be less than my previous chains.
My first chain was maintained as per the manual with the chain cleaned with kerosene and lubed every 1000 km/600 miles. The chain lasted 33,900 km or about 21,000 miles.
The mechanic works on my bike (like tires and chain) told me that he thought cleaning the chain was highly overrated and that people didn’t lube enough. He suggested I don’t worry about cleaning and lube the chain after every tank and also after every ride in the rain. He also suggested that I use a product by Wurth called HHS2000. I didn’t take his advice on the second chain.
My second chain (DID X-Ring) was lubed slightly more often and cleaned less often and lasted 37,900 km or about 23,500 miles and was shot at that point. Realistically it lasted the same length of time as the first chain as it was pointed out to me near the beginning of a 5,500 km/3,400 mile ride that it had the red dust of death on it. Thankfully chains tend to fail gracefully as I made it home on that chain. I used chain lubes in both cases although I started the first chain with chain wax and once I cleaned the chain with wood stain instead of kerosene.
After my second chain I decided to listen to my mechanic. I didn’t listen quite well enough for while I lubed after each tank of gas and after rain riding, I was aiming slightly incorrectly. (I thought he said to aim between the plates but he said to aim at the area between the rollers and the inside plate) I didn’t realize that until he put on my last tire about 10,000 km or 6,000 miles ago but when I lube it tends to get over everything anyway.
Here are my results so far: ere HMy current chain has 63,500 km or about 39,400 miles on it. It has never been adjusted (he put it on slightly tight and said it would loosen up to be perfect. He was right.) It is a DID X-ring chain same as my second chain. The front sprocket shows wear but has life left in it. The back looks fine. What I have done is completely given up on cleaning the chain and I lube it when I fill up the tank or after a ride in the rain. I have thought it over and in my opinion cleaning the chain does nothing useful apart from cosmetic. It might be that the HHS2000 is the best lube, but I think the longer life has more to do with lubing it much more often.
I think the bottom line is that I you want your chain to last a long time then you might have to not do what the manual and “everyone” else is doing.
I’m sure your mileage will vary!
..Tom
