Just fried my chain

To be true, I deep fried it, my bicycle chain.



Using a paraffin-PTFE-oil mixture at around 80 deg C.
Totally new way of lubrication, picked the idea from the I'net. Appears to work nicely so far, gears switch smoothly, chain doesn't attract dirt and doesn't make everything black like ordinary lube. Let's see how it performs in the long run.
Possibly can apply this to flashlight threads..

I'm going to try that also. I'm in the process of overhauling my bike (10-speed gearing, airless tires). I'll try the pariffin-PTFE mixture and see how it does. I've already tried plain wax. It works reasonably well except it seems to need to be redone a bit more often than oil. Friction seemed about the same.

Interesting. :thinking:

What are the alleged benefits to placing the chain in boiling oil as opposed to room-temperature oil?

mchlwise said:

Interesting. :thinking:

What are the alleged benefits to placing the chain in boiling oil as opposed to room-temperature oil?

Click to expand...

My guess is deep cleaning while lubing...

mchlwise said:

What are the alleged benefits to placing the chain in boiling oil as opposed to room-temperature oil?

Click to expand...

It's not oil, it's a pariffin-oil mixture which is semi-solid at room temperature. You need to heat it up so it coats the chain completely.

I use White Lightning, which is a wax and much easier to apply (just shake the bottle & squeeze it on). Geez -- I'm very finicky but not enough to boil my chain!

Just curious -- if you're finicky enough to boil your chain, how come you're not using a better like hollow-pin SRAM or Shimano XTR chain? Hmmmm? Oh, maybe it's just because you don't want to experiment on such an expensive chain.

You're weird, but in a good way.

I heat mine up in solvent to deep clean them. I also use White Lighting but just in the winter. Regular machine oil during the summer....yes its messy but it works.

mchlwise said:

Interesting. :thinking:

What are the alleged benefits to placing the chain in boiling oil as opposed to room-temperature oil?

Click to expand...

Only when hot, the paraffin really gets into the chain where the lubrication is needed. At the same time, it washes out dirt which then sinks to the bottom of the pot.
If instead using a lubricant that easily flows at room temperature, it will just as easily flow away again.

Initially, I did this with an old pot on the kitchen stove. It was a bit of a hassle so I dropped the idea again. Now that I found a cheap deep fryer the process is simple and fast, it can all happen in the garage.

binky said:

Just curious -- if you're finicky enough to boil your chain, how come you're not using a better like hollow-pin SRAM or Shimano XTR chain? Hmmmm? Oh, maybe it's just because you don't want to experiment on such an expensive chain.

Click to expand...

Hey, it's already a narrow 9-speed chain, pure luxury, few folks here ride these except for sports. The reason I'm doing this is to avoid black trouser legs and black little hands.

Hmm. How about motorbike o-ringed chains?