This is sort of what I do. I have a 500ml bottle of squirt. Two chains. One spoke bent just perfectly to hold the chain on one end and hook onto the lip of the squirt bottle opening with the other end.
Every 600km take chain #2 out of the Squirt bottle, put it on the bike. Take chain #1 off the bike, put it in the Squirt bottle. I’ve got a little silicone gripper that I use to squeegee excess Squirt off the chain as it comes out of the Squirt bottle.
Of course brand new chains have to be thoroughly cleaned using some sort of degreaser and some sort of alcohol cleaner. Then, into the Squirt bottle.
Have a look at this video about how to lube your chain. He goes on a bit granted but his experience in the bike industry gives him an awful lot of credence. The pertinent bit is at 6:57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Z1H1Z5GkU
That doesn’t make much sense to me. Not sure
I see how the moment of first contact matters since you’re spinning the chain around the entire circle multiple times.
Huh. So I’ve raced Firecracker 50, Steamboat Stinger, 12 Hours of Mesa Verde, Whiskey 50, etc. and other 4 hour rides all the time with Squirt. I’ll get bad squeak if there are water crossings followed by dusty conditions in 3+ hour rides. So for things like the Firecracker where you have water crossings, I’ll wipe the chain off quickly and re-apply for the beginning of the second lap. On stuff like Mesa Verde, Whiskey, etc. I may have some squeak or may not right at the end, really depends on if there are water crossings. Surprised you had that much issue after only 15 miles unless it was really powdery dusty conditions. This is the best stuff I’ve ever used in the Colorado, Utah, AZ type riding because the dust doesn’t stick to it as much as other types of lube. Sorry it didn’t work out but I will say that degreasing the chain before applying doesn’t always get it all off so it may take a few ride, rinse, wipe, reapply cycles before you ton’t have the stickyness on the chain that attracts dust.
btw-the bad squeak I get is always when cross chained in the top two gears.
Same here, actually used it for a whole race season. Precoated and self-initially-coated. Hated the build up of wax in the pulleys. Performance wise really not impressed. Would run dry/loud very quickly. Not very lasting in comparision. Even when used very liberally. There are so many good lubes out there, this one is really not worth the hassle.
But this was just my experience. These days I simply ride a new chain for a few hours until the factory grease has been pressed out. Then I apply Rock’n Roll Gold. Simply does the job with minimal hassle.
I don’t take much stock in what pro’s do, as they have mechanics that maintain their bikes. I have no doubt Squirt does what it’s intended to do, but it also creates a mess of the drivetrain that’s horrible to maintain. I had no problem with Squirts performance, but rather dealing with it when cleaning the drivetrain and reapplying. It gunked up in the jockey wheels and left black remnants on the cassette, chain and chainring. It also left a mess of flaked off pieces under my trainer.
Been using Squirt for the last 4-5 yrs now and will continue with wax-based bottle lube in the future. It’s so much cleaner than oil-based lube. But I learned the hard way the first time about chain prep. Mixing the old lube with Squirt is fine lubrication-wise. It just turns into a huge mess. To properly prep the chain, it needs to be off bike. Also, it’s best to start with a new chain. Place it into a container with a good amount of degreaser (I used full concentration Simple Green). Wait and hr or so. Use a brushed to agitate the chain rollers. Repeat. And then rinse with water and then make sure chain is absolutely dry before liberally applying Squirt to the top and bottom of the chain. Wait for it to dry completely (a hair dryer can speed this up). Repeat another coat of Squirt.
I think you went wrong was that you applied Squirt with some water in the rollers and this may have caused some corrosion in the pin/roller.
I’ve never had a problem with squirt on the road bike.
I’ve also never had a problem on weekend MTB rides.
Except for:
It let me down massively on a 50km - XC event after maybe 30km.
It was also starting to have issues on the weekend with a 70km rail trail ride.
Just in the lowest couple of gears both times though & both times quite dusty.
Think I’ll switch the MTB to this one - local product for me.
I’ve been using Squirt for around six months and I have mixed feelings about it.
Once you’ve prepared your chain and the rest of the drivetrain, it seems easy to apply and soaks into the rollers quickly. I followed the instructions on the bottle and applied two coats. Then I leave it to rest, usually overnight.
Over the past six months I’ve ridden in a mixture of UK weather and Squirt has held up pretty well. The chain doesn’t seem to develop that black grinding paste that has plagued me previously and meant a full drivetrain clean was required after a weekend of riding.
The downside is that your prep work has to be spot on. I cleaned my drivetrain to within an inch of its life and that seems to have been worth the effort. You can’t shortcut this process if you want the best results.
I’ve already posted above, but I will add that I switched to hot wax for 2020. The amount of prep work people are doing to get Squirt to work, why wouldn’t you just switch to hot wax? (unscientifically) for about every one person who says they love it, there are 4 or 5 saying it may be effective but too much of a pain to work with.
Mike
Because hot waxing needs more prep, and I’m lazy. Just wait until the chain is stripped clean of factory grease, then use squirt. No issues. Not sure what people are doing to get black gunk and wax peeling off, that never happpens to me.
I might try hot wax on my road bike…but then you need multiple chains, and more quick links, a container for the wax… meh.
I failed at getting my chain squeeky clean. The factory goop on my Campagnolo chain was super thick and sticky. I cleaned, scrubbed and soaked it 3X and thought it was cleaned. After installation, I was still seeing tiny bits of factory grease.
Is there any secret to getting the goop off? I’m thinking of boiling water as a step to melt it off.
I also don’t want to do hot wax as I don’t have space right now for the ultrasonic cleaner or the crock pot dedicated to wax. Don’t some people do an initial hot wax treatment and then use a squirt on lube for maintenance between dips?
I just bought Squirt Lube, waiting on Friday delivery. I see some like the wax and others hate it. I have seen the youtube videos on chain wax, Squirt came in a very close 2nd on the best bike chain wax, with Molten being number 1. I’ll use the Squirt up and decide for myself whether it works for me. If it doesn’t, I guess I will move on to Molten, for which I will need to buy a crock pot to melt the wax…
In the first application Squirt takes long time (and efforts) to get into the inner pins and links-
One must apply several coatings, and run the chain till squirt gets into the inner parts of the chain. I even added 10% water to the bottle to help it run…
Every (!) lube, after being applied, must be totally removed from the outer parts of the chain- the lube should be “inside” the chain (inner pins and links) and not on it.
I found best to let it dry for the night - and then wipe it all (all !) From the chain In the morning before the ride.
I recommend this method for all lubes.
Wax and other “dry” lubes are less ‘sound muting’ lubricants then “wet” oil lubes.
But still they lubricate…
Repeate the method above every 3-6 hours of riding in dry weather but in my opinion you may use less quantity of the lube as it had already penetrated the inner pins and links.
Oz
Edit:
Well have used this tungsten all weather lube from tru-tension.
First time after so many lubes including rock n roll gold/red/extreme, squirt, nfs, weldeltite,morgan blue racing and more, first time i find a lube that is clean and not oily but also is quite and very smooth for 100 km.
At last.
I moved to Squirt. I tried waxing for a bit but it’s just too much work swapping chains all the time on three bikes.
As long as your first prep is good, and you maintain, Squirt is super easy.
I re-lube every 2-4 rides. Lube after the ride… Wipe the excess before riding the next day. Quick wipe the outside of the chain after most rides. Takes maybe a minute for a lube and wipe. Way easier than popping chains on and off. I still use a dry lube for lubing jockey wheels.
It’s pretty dry where I live so I don’t really ride in the rain. I’m surrounded by dry and dusty gravel… My chain doesn’t pick up any more dust than any other surface of my bike would.
So I guess I need to eat my hat. Turns out the creaking from my cassette/hub was due to my hub needing to be re-greased. The odd thing was the creaking would only start after an hour or more into a ride. So I assumed it was the chain loosing its lubricant. I took apart the hub, cleaned it, and regreased, and now the creaking is gone.
That said, I did a bunch of reading on Squirt, and one of the known issues with Squirt (and Smoove) is that the higher viscosity means it takes a while to really penetrate the chain - and chain wear in the initial 10-20 hours can be very high as a result.
So I think I’ll go back to using finish line dry which has served me well for years.
For more than you might want to know about squirt and lubes in general, here’s a good read.
