How often should I lube the chain; what should I use to do so?

Safety Notes

• Watch out you don't pinch your fingers between the chain and rear sprocket! Fingers have been lost. Do not, under any circumstances, run the engine while lubing the chain.
• Be very careful to not get any lube on the tire. One member said it was like "riding on ice".

The Short Version

Lubing your chain is necessary to ensure long chain life. A good round number for "how often?" is every 500 miles or so. You should also periodically check the chain for dirt and grit. If you have a light touch with the lube, you shouldn't have to clean the chain very often.

Chain wax comes in a spray can and is applied with a red tube fitted on the nozzle, like WD-40. It is just one method - although a good one - of keeping a chain lubed. Make sure the lube is OK for use with O-ring chains. Cut the straw short and on an angle. This makes it easier to control. The chain should be warm (lube after a ride) and properly adjusted.

If you run a Google search, you will find that there are many opinions on chain lubing. There are even several different ones right on this page. Like changing the oil, it's probably more important THAT you lube often rather than exactly how you do it.

When your bike is still warm, get it up on the center stand with the engine OFF and the transmission in neutral. Walk around to the back of the bike. You will be spraying the chain as it comes around on the rear sprocket. Use a light touch, and maintain a slow, constant spray as you rotate the wheel (in the normal direction of travel) with your other hand. Keep the chain moving and the lube spraying in a continuous, even style. Spray directly on the o-rings, but every few times also spray a bit on the rest of the chain. Start on one side, go all the way around, then do the other side of the chain.

Using too much lube will just attract more dirt. Don't saturate the chain, but don't skip any links, either. The warm chain draws in the lube to the areas it's needed (the o-rings). Wipe off the excess, then wait at least 30 minutes. This allows the liquid "carrier" of the lubricant to evaporate, leaving the chain "waxed."

What are some good chain lubes?

"Lubing the chain" isn't an entirely accurate term since O-ring chains came out. O-rings (and now X-rings) are supposed to keep the grease used in manufacturing in the links where it belongs. So, when "lubing the chain", you are actually just keeping the o-rings themselves supple so they continue sealing well. Some people use automatic transmission fluid as a chain lube, and Bill H (see below) recommends good old gear oil. However, most people use one of the brand-name lubes that come in a spray can.

In the same way that we don't recommend a motor oil, we don't believe that there is any one best chain lube. Any known brand-name product that is safe for O-rings will be fine.

Please note that bicycle chain lube is not the same as motorcycle lube. It doesn't properly treat the O-rings as does a lube designed for modern moto chains.

There is one product that has come up quite a bit recently on lots of boards: Dupont Teflon™ Multi-Use Lubricant. A club member describes it: "You can spray the hell out of the chain, not trying to be too picky where you spray. It's clear, it dries very quickly, does not get gunk all over everything, and has been endorsed by many leading motorcycle rags. And it's fairly cheap."

Dupont claims that this new product is O-ring safe. You can find it at LOWE'S,
and you should be able to find it locally at hardware stores such as Ace. Here's
a review.

Another lube that some club riders like is Maxima Chain Wax. "Spray down a hot chain with it, and wipe it clean. That's it. No fling off. My rear wheel, left exhaust can and left swingarm half are not covered with black grime all the time anymore. The chain is always nice and shiny and sounds/runs great."

Bill H and his gear oil

My '88 has 105K miles on it now, and this is my 50th year of motorcycling. Some people here go to a lot of trouble about the rear chain, but it's not necessary and accomplishes little or nothing.

The o-rings on the chain are designed to keep dirt, water (and chain lube) out of the real working joints of the links. The o-rings seal in the assembly grease for the life of the chain. Short of some kind of pressure chamber, you can't add any lubricant to those joints.

The rollers on the outside of the links are accessible to dirt, water and lubrication. But even here, cleaning achieves nothing. All that is necessary is to do what Kawasaki instructs in the Owners Manual. Put the bike up on the center stand every 1000 miles or so, and using a utility brush, coat each joint of the chain in turn with ordinary 90 or 85w/140 gear oil you can buy by the quart at auto parts stores. This heavy oil penetrates into the rollers, but does not fly off much. Old-timers like me don't care about a little mess around the rear fork end, if some does fly off. I don't find that it gets on the tire.

The expense here is very, very little.

This attention keeps the chain happy and running smoothly, and only takes a few minutes. Always take care around the rear chain and sprocket; a luckless friend of mine actually managed to cut the end off a finger by getting it in between the two.

With this treatment, the chain lasts about 22K miles and the front sprocket the same. It is convenient to change them both at the same time. I recommend the Tsubaki Omega for replacement. The rear sprocket lasts two to three times the front. Sprockets only need replacement when they become noticeably 'hooked'.

Getting a little more technical...

About every 500 miles do this:

Ride the bike far enough so the chain is thoroughly warmed up. Immediately get the rear wheel off the ground (engine off) and squat down directly behind the rear sprocket with your can of chain lube (any good quality thick lube, like Belray Chain Lube or PJ1). Now, very carefully depress the button on the can of chain lube until the lube just barely starts to ooze out the end of the straw. Place the straw at the right edge of the rollers, and apply the equivalent of several drops to each roller edge. Use your other hand to slowly turn the rear wheel in the normal direction of rotation, if the motorcycle were moving forward. Continue from roller to roller until you have gone all the way around the chain. Once you get it coordinated you can allow the lube to continue to ooze as you turn the wheel slowly. Now, go to the left edge of the rollers and repeat the process. This is the only area that you have to lube on an o-ring chain.

If you run a standard non o-ring chain, place the straw between the outer and inner sideplates at each pin location and repeat the same process you did with the rollers at each pin location on both sides of the chain, as you slowly turn the rear wheel.

The two areas of a chain that require lubrication are between the pins and inner surface of the bushings and between the inner surface of the rollers and the outer surface of the bushings. On an o-ring chain the lube is sealed in between the pins and inner surface of the bushings by the o-rings, and it has to last the life of the chain, as you can't get fresh lube in past the o-rings. You can still apply fresh lube between the inner surface of the rollers and the outer surface of the bushings, however. The reason you need lube between the inner surface of the rollers and the outer surface of the bushings is because the rollers stand still in relation to the sprockets and rotate on the outer surface of the bushings as the chain travels around each sprocket. At the same time this is happening, the pins are rotating on the inner surface of the bushings, hence the need for lubrication in these two areas.

You will note after lubing your chain with this method that almost all the lube you applied to the warm chain has seeped in between the inner surface of the rollers and outer surface of the bushings, and in between the pins and inner surface of the bushings. This leaves very little on the outside of the chain to collect road grit. Now grasp the bottom run of the chain with a rag and turn the rear wheel a couple of times to wipe off the small amount of excess lube, and spread a thin film over the outer surfaces of the chain to prevent rusting.

Using this method, I never have to "clean" my chains, as the small amount of road grit on the outside does no harm and very little is collected when you don't spread a lot of lube on the outer surface of the chain, where only a very thin film is required. There is no way you can keep an exposed chain perfectly clean, anyway.

You will be applying the lube to the outer run of the chain (at the rear sprocket), contrary to every picture or video you will see on chain lubing. The lube seeps in just the same on a warm chain whether you apply it to the inner run or outer run, and you can see what you are doing much better if you apply it on the outer run as it travels around the back of the rear sprocket.

The theory that by spraying lube on the inner run it will somehow magically get in where it needs to be by being "thrown" there as the chain travels around the sprockets under load is false.

My 1974 Honda CB360 still has the original factory chain with 53,900 miles on it, and it is in excellent condition with the mark on the chain adjusters between the 2nd and 3rd marks on the swingarm. I've always used the above chain lubing method and it has NEVER been "cleaned".

Using this method, it takes me 8 minutes to lube the 94 link standard non o-ring chain on my CB360. Cut that in half if you have an o-ring chain where you don't have to lube between the pins and inner surfaces of the bushings. It's also very economical on chain lube, and a 16 oz. can lasts me for several years. I had to throw the last one away with lube still in the can because it had leaked out its propellant over several years.

CB360man