Lubricate a Mountain Bike Chain

Video Transcript

"One thing that always help keeping your drive frame running in top shape for the longest amount of time with the least amount of problems; Is making sure that you really stay on top of keeping things clean and properly lubricated. This bike, because it has a chain guide system made out of polycarbonate alloys, i.e., plastic, it's not a good idea to use a chain lube that has either an aerosol base or also has a sort of solvent in it. There are lubricants that claim to clean your chain while degreasing it, they say they're going to clean your chain it means they contain a solvent. Solvent break down plastics just as well as they break down grease. If you have a chain guide, it's best to use a lube that is synthetic, while at the same time not containing any solvents. This says polymer detergent break down dirt. So polymer detergents that means its oil based, like the plastics on your chain guide. So it's not going to hurt it. So, what we want to do to lube up this chain is we want to; this is a drip bottle, so as I squeeze it little droplets of chain lube come out. And this is pretty good stuff made by a company called Pedro's, and what we're going to do is slowly rotate the chain and just get enough lube on, basically one or two links at a time. Directly on the rollers, we don't really need to lubricate the side plates or anything like that we just want to make sure that the things that see the most friction stay lubricated. And notice I'm not cleaning the chain before I lubricate it. Because almost any solvent you use to clean the chain is going stay wedged in little places, like inside the pins and bushings. And what that means is that you're always going to have something working against the lubrication of the chain. So really the best thing to do if your chain is all grimy and gross, is wipe it off, aggressively scrub it with brushes and then relubricate it and lubricating it alone should get all the nastiness out. A little tip that I figured out a few years ago after going through chains a lot quicker than I thought I should, considering that I was doing near daily maintenance. So"