Anyone Know the Difference??

[BenchWench]

OK, Ok, I know there may be a thread somewhere about this already but I'm a lazy girl.

Does anyone know the difference and/ or advantages between chain lube and chain wax?

My partner doesn't even know what the difference is.
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Yamaha YBR - 2009
125KG of bike is not comfortable as knee ware.

[mudcow007]

lube is wet, wax is dry?

[Clutchy]

I just stick to chain lube, works fine.
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[Skudd]

Always use KY before shoving a candle up.
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[wr6133]

Don't know the "technical" difference but I bought wax by mistake once (the wd40 branded one) and it was pretty shite, chain rusted under it.

[WD Forte]

Been a shafty driver for years now but will take a guess.

Wax will tend to hang on where oil will be flung off
so in one sense may last longer
BUT
As mentioned above, it may not penetrate the nooks and crannies
like oil and act like window dressing and not give effective lubrication
or protection.
It does depend on the chemistry of course and I wasnt at school
the day they did that hence 'guess'
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[lorus]

80/90s gear oil is a lot cheaper, your chain will last a long time

[Pete.]

I don't like that wax at all. Lube all the way for me
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[-Matt-]

I've been using dry wax [wurth] the last year as I got fed up of chain flick going everywhere.

It seems okay to be honest, although its quite temperamental with its application. If you get your chain dry and nicely warmed up with a quick run after cleaning it will apply well. Spraying it on when the chains cold though seems to just lead to it accumulating in a thick layer on the outside and not really penetrating anything, then subsequently most of it gets flicked off on your next ride.

I'm planning to get a new chain soon and to be honest may just revert to oil again, perhaps a scotoiler or similar to aid my lazyness

[Teflon-Mike]

Lube is abbreviation of lubricant; hence we should presume it gets to and lubricated the moving bits of a chain, if it says 'lube' on the can.

General lubricants are either liquid oil, or more solid, grease.

Liquid oil has a habbit of being flung off the chain and making a mess; more solid grease, unless you 'hot-dip', melt the grease in a tin to get it liquid then dip the chain in it to get it to flow into all the crannies, tends not to get into those crannies.

Modern chain-lube in a can, tends to contain a heavy semi greasy oil, in a solvent, so you spray it onto the chain as a liquid, that flows into the crannies; solvent evaporates, leaves more greasy lubricant that's less likely to be flung off, and more likely to be where needed to do its thing.

EXCEPT... modern seal-ring, O-Ring or X-Ring chains..... have a SEAL, which, if its doing its job, shouldn't let bugger all get into them 'crannies' that need most lube..... them should have been packed with grease at the factory, and the rings should be keeping the factory packed grease where it oughta.

Which means, that anything you chuck at a ring-seal chain, is going to be doing little more than cover the outside of the rollers that bear on the sprocket teeth, which may, save them a little wear, or may, if it lets grit stick better to the surfaces, help them wear out faster... other wise, just coating the metal and stopping it going red rusty...

So at a guess, 'Wax' is merely Marketing men for the GQ-Generation, realising that 'Grease' evokes images of John Travolta In skin tight jeans and a quiff; Lay-By bacon Butties and three day old congealed curry.... 'Oil' evokes images of traditionally clad Arabs, rubbing thier hands with glee and putting prices up at petrol stations, and 'lube' just sets of all our homophobit paranoias.

'Wax' on the other hand evokes images of nubile women in skimpy bikini's, and is there-fore so much more saleable to Blokes, and probably puts 30% on the price of the can, while in no way implying that the stuff WILL actually do anything useful as far as providing 'lubrication' for your motorcycle; keeping the 'styling Wax' GQ Lawyers happy, when some-one complains that it dont do nowt to 'lube' thier chain.......
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[Fizzer Thou]

I have been using Kal-Gard 'Chain-Kote' since M&P did a deal of 'buy 2 large cans for £7' and so I bought 4 cans.This chain lube has been good enough to see the original chain on my R1 last for 26,000 miles.

For the best results it is best to go by the saying 'Adjust cold-lube hot'.So I always lube the chain as soon as I return from a long rideout when the chain is hot and allow the solvent within the lube to dry out quickly,ready for the next ride.

I have used a large number of chain lubes over the 38 years that I have been riding bikes,some good-others not worth the money.
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[Copycat73]

this is what I use on the outside of my chains

https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_219101_langId_-1_categoryId_165705

and this on the rollers & areas near to "0" ring seals

https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&productId=217764&catalogId=10151

I have done a very similar millage on me R1 usin this stuff..
but I think that any lub would do the job just aswell.. but not engine oil as it makes the seals expand, so I don`t use that anymore.
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[temeluchus]

chain oiler *cough*
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[BenchWench]

Thanks for the advice.

I'll go back to the lube me thinks.
____________________
Yamaha YBR - 2009
125KG of bike is not comfortable as knee ware.

[Teflon-Mike]

[MarJay]

I heard that the idea is to put the chain lube on when the chain is hot from a ride, then put wax over it to seal it in. I've not personally used both like this though.
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