Any White Lightning Users on Here?

hookooekoo

Senior Retro Guru
No, not the drink. The lube, and specifically the Clean Ride formula.

For those who don't know, it goes on wet, and dries to a white, waxy form. I've used it myself, and I'm not sure whether it's good or bad. Among the claims is that:

There is no oily film to attract abrasive contaminants, so your chain and gears will perform better and last 2 to 3 times longer.

Are there any long term users here?
 
Sounds like many dry lubes that are available. I use mucoff dry lube. I feel it clogs up the chain if used all the time and it definitely gets dirty.
 
Mmm waxy finish won't attract dirt :oops:
I've only used it on road bikes so far. In my opinion it's a lot cleaner on road bikes than conventional oily lubes. You can run your hand along the chain, and it will be a bit dirty, rather than filthy. I'm probably going to try it on the newly rebuilt retro mountain bike, because I fitted a brand new chain on that, and after just 10-20 miles the chain and jockey wheels are both filthy after riding on dry, dusty trails.

Last 2<3 longer 🤥
This is the bit that I'm sceptical about. If the wax pushes out of the way under pedalling pressure, and doesn't flow back again because it's not liquid like oil, then I'd expect chain wear might increase unless a very thin film of wax remains. However, critics of oily lubes would say that wax is better, because it attracts less dirt, and so doesn't easily produce an abrasive paste of grit and oil that slowly wears your chain, sprockets and chainrings away.

Sounds like many dry lubes that are available. I use mucoff dry lube. I feel it clogs up the chain if used all the time and it definitely gets dirty.
Is that off road or on road? My experience on road is that the cleanliness claim is valid.
 
I've not used that, but I do use Squirt Lube, which sounds similar.
My experience of Squirt Lube is that it does last longer (less frequent application needed) and the chain stays a lot cleaner.
I've not used it in the depths of a Scottish winter on my mtb yet, but in spring/summer on both mtb and road bike it does seem to be "better" than the usual wet/dry lube I've used.
I cant comment on chain longevity/wear yet though.
 
To lubricate a chain, the lubricant needs to get inside the rollers and stay there. Anything on the outside isn't doing much to help. Dry graphite works great but it's a messy job.
 
I've only used it on road bikes so far. In my opinion it's a lot cleaner on road bikes than conventional oily lubes. You can run your hand along the chain, and it will be a bit dirty, rather than filthy. I'm probably going to try it on the newly rebuilt retro mountain bike, because I fitted a brand new chain on that, and after just 10-20 miles the chain and jockey wheels are both filthy after riding on dry, dusty trails.


This is the bit that I'm sceptical about. If the wax pushes out of the way under pedalling pressure, and doesn't flow back again because it's not liquid like oil, then I'd expect chain wear might increase unless a very thin film of wax remains. However, critics of oily lubes would say that wax is better, because it attracts less dirt, and so doesn't easily produce an abrasive paste of grit and oil that slowly wears your chain, sprockets and chainrings away.


Is that off road or on road? My experience on road is that the cleanliness claim is valid.
Both on and off road, the chain still needs cleaning properly, regularly and relubing, that's the best way to keep it going for longer, IMO.
 
In my youth racing days we only used paraffin to lube the the wheel bearings and chain before and after each race. Less power lost but at a cost of new parts more often 🤦🏻
 
To lubricate a chain, the lubricant needs to get inside the rollers and stay there. Anything on the outside isn't doing much to help. Dry graphite works great but it's a messy job.
Yes, graphite is extraordinarily messy. Anyone who has tried machining it will vouch for that. It is one of a few solid lubricants that I'm aware of being used in extreme pressure applications. The others are molybdenum sulphide and boron nitride. Molybdenum sulphide is commonly found in car CV joints. Boron nitride is included in the White Lightning Clean Ride formulation. They call it 'Cerflon', which I guess is a combination of the words ceramic and teflon, and if you look at the cerflon website it says it's got boron nitride and PTFE (teflon) in it.

Both on and off road, the chain still needs cleaning properly, regularly and relubing, that's the best way to keep it going for longer, IMO.
I haven't done much cleaning on my road bike, but it is mostly only ridden in dry conditions. So far my only worry is that chain life may be adversely impacted.

In my youth racing days we only used paraffin to lube the the wheel bearings and chain before and after each race. Less power lost but at a cost of new parts more often 🤦🏻
Talking of paraffin, there's a guy in Australia making his own concoction from candles and paraffin. I watched his video a few days ago, and I'm tempted to try it.

 
Not paraffin wax surely!
While teflon has a slightly lower CoF than Graphite, it fails under load and is then much much worse, also temperatures above 200c and it loses out badly again. Boron nitride I used to lubricate Titanium at 1150°c when doing deformation experimental work. I haven't measured the peak pressure inside a chain roller against the pin but my money is on it being very high. Did a few years research with carbon nano tubes and of late Graphene. About 8yrs ago, another researcher was dabbling with Copper nano tubes. Finally, his paper was unreadable due to people breaking out in tears of laughter! The reason being that every page was littered with
Cu NT's but minus the space, once you'd spotted the first one, the rest just stood out all over the page. It did get published though.
 
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