Looking for some maintenance advice.
I’m about to embark on some touring. I don’t have space to take more than one canned product. Is WD-40 what I need?
As I understand it from some research, WD-40 is by some magic both a degreaser and a lubricant. This is mysterious to me. In my mental model of chemistry, you degrease with detergent, not more grease. So now I’m imagining that WD-40 is a sort of “light grease” which dissolves “heavy grease”. Is that right?
So if I can only take one product, is WD-40 it? PS: If not, then what? Also, is there a generic name for it, or cheaper similar products to look for which do the same thing?
PPS: The consensus seems to be that WD-40 is not a miracle product, by which really I meant “a single portable product that can somehow de-gunk and lubricate” and is less risky than what I was doing before: using chain oil for the lubrication and dish soap for the cleaning.
PPPS: This question was asked in the best possible faith. I have been a cyclist for decades and always been curious about this product. And yet still I get downvoted. What is about social media that makes people so toxic and mean-spirited? It’s almost as mysterious as WD-40.
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I am not at all an expert on bikes, I’ve always been told that you shouldn’t use WD-40 on bike chains, but I’ve never really dug into the details on that. And not for nothing my own bike is a belt drive so it’s not even relevant to me.
Every time WD-40 comes up you’re going to get a whole lot of regurgitated, half-right information.
A lot of people are going to tell you that WD-40 isn’t a lubricant. That’s wrong. It’s not a particularly good lubricant for most applications (I think I’ve heard that it actually makes a pretty good cutting oil for certain machining tasks in certain metals) and there’s usually going to be a better, more effective, longer-lasting lubricant you should be using instead, but it does, in fact, provide some lubrication. Rub a little bit of it between your fingers, feels slick and oily doesn’t it? That’s lubrication.
People will bang on about it being a water displacer. Know what else displaces water? Oil. Grease. Pretty much anything else that doesn’t mix with water.
As for being a degreaser, like dissolves like. Non-polar chemicals like oil and grease are generally miscible in other non-polar substances, so a lighter oil will help to thin out thicker grease so that they’re easier to clean away.
I believe it also contains some other more volatile solvents that also help with degreasing. This is part of how it does it’s water-displacing/rust-preventive thing. The oil is further thinned out with those solvents so it can coat the surface better and those solvents then evaporate off leaving a thin film of slightly thicker (though still pretty light) oil.
And being so thin and light, it makes an OK penetrating oil so that it can soak into the tiny gaps around seized-up bolts and such to lubricate them, and the solvents help break up any other dirt and grime in there to help break it loose.
Again, not a bike mechanic, take my advice for what it’s worth (not much) but WD-40 is probably just too light of a lubricant to use for long. In a pinch if I had a bike with a really rusted, gummed-up chain that I only needed to ride maybe a couple blocks to get home (and just walking it on throwing it in a car wasn’t an option for some reason) I personally wouldn’t hesitate to douse it in WD-40 and hope for the best until I get it home to properly clean and lube it.
My general DIY philosophy for WD-40 is "this will get things moving right now so that I can diagnose the problem or finish the immediate task at hand, then I need to run out and get the right oil/grease to do things properly.
It’s a solvent that can dissolve a lot of stuff. This may make the part seem lubricated at first but it shouldn’t be used as a lubricant. It attracts dust that will, eventually, gum things up.
WD-40 is not a lubricant. At least not in the sense of one you would need for a bike chains. The oil-film that it places between the chain links is so thin that it doesn’t really reduce friction enough. So your chain will wear quicker if you just use WD40 alone.
Personally, I don’t care too much about chain wear and just take a cotton rag and some standard chain oil. In the evening, I just dry-wipe my chain clean, apply some oil and then wipe off the access again. Works good enough for me. Also: The oil can be used on other parts and bearings as well.
If you want to have a very low maintainence chain (in dry weather conditions) you could also look into waxing your chain. However, there is some additional invest (time & material) needed to set it up initially.
Very useful, thanks.
WD40 is closer to a cleaning product with an oil in it to prevent rust than a lubricant. It’s brilliant if you want to strip away old and dirty lubricants when dismantling and/or storing parts, but you do not want it as permanent lubrication.
You need grease for bearings and anything that moves, since it’ll stay in the component for long enough to coat the moving parts and create an oil based bearing surface to stop them from rubbing.
That’s very helpful.
Unfortunately I’m not a real cyclist, just a techie, so can’t provide any real recommendations for specific bike greases.
I’m certain there’s some new fangled all-in-ones out that replace the old school lithium/molybdenum/graphite/silicone greases that I’ve used over the years.
If you’re only bringing one product to clean and lube with, maybe 1-Step is the kind of thing you’re looking for.
This looks good. Alas as expected I can’t find it on sale here in Europe (even on Amazon!), just a load of other random-looking products with weird names. Generic names are so much better. If Coke and Pepsi are cola, what’s this (or WD-40)?
I guess I’ll look for something similar which magically has both"lubricant" and “cleaner” in the name.
Then try and look for generic chain lubricant, or else there’s a WD-40 version of chain lubricant.
Wd-40 is not a miracle product. It’s main purpose is to unseize stuck parts. It’s good to remove rust and moisture. It’s a mix of different chemicals, that does leave behind a thin layer of lubrication and does do some degreasing, but it doesn’t really count as proper lubrication (AFAIK it doesn’t last long, it’s too thin to be suitable for mecanisms that require heavy grease and attracts too much crap for mecanisms that require light grease)
Now I’m not the expert on bikes, I wouldn’t mind using it on my bike as part of the cleaning process but I’d only use it as a temporary solution for lubrication while I get the proper product.
WD40 is not a lubricant!
