Dry Lube vs Wet Lube: Which Is Best for Your Bike Chain?
Understanding Dry Lube and Wet Lube
Wet lubes start with a base oil and then typically have some sort of friction modifiers added as well. The base oil can range from a pretty low end/inefficient oil with limited friction modifiers to a full synthetic Type IV synthetic with high end friction modifiers. The oil based mixture will penetrate the inner and outer links of the chain. This oil acts as a film between the two metal surfaces keeping them from ever rubber against each other. The higher the film strength of the oil, typically the better the lubricant performance.
Dry lubricant is a carrier base with some dry friction modifiers added. This is something like Naptha or Mineral Spirits with a little bit of PTFE powder added. The idea is that the carrier helps bring these friction modifying particles to the same area between the inner and outer links. In theory it sounds great, because there is no oil to attract dirt. The reality is that none of these products work well.
Pros and Cons of Dry Lube
The upsides of dry lube are that you won’t attract as much dirt. This keeps the chain looking cleaner. Dry lubes are also typically very cheap to buy. This is because the materials to make them are virtually free.
Unfortunately that is about all the pros we can come up with for dry lube and even that is a bit of a stretch. The Cons though, are extensive. Dry Lube’s biggest con is that is just doesn’t work well at all. It is the lowest category in terms of efficiency, wear, and single application longevity. Pretty much everything you want a lubricant to do, it is the worst possible option in all conditions. The materials that make up dry lubes are also very unhealthy. Forever chemicals, also knows as PFAS, are rampant in this category. They have been shown to cause cancer and are not able to be broken down over time. The carriers that bring those chemicals to your chain are also typically not things I would want to be regularly interacting with. They are designed to be extremely quick flashing and volatile liquids so that they evaporate into the atmosphere and leave your chain dry.
Pros and Cons of Wet Lube
Wet lubes are a really great option when wax is not an option. The higher quality lubricants like SILCA’s Synergetic Chain Lube can go toe to toe on the efficiency standpoint with any other option out there. In the vast majority of cases it will be more efficient in lab conditions that all but the absolute fastest hot melt wax lubricants. Wet lube’s are easy to apply, last a long time, and can keep your chain working for much longer than a dry lube.
The downside of a wet lube is that in real world conditions, dirt exists. The oil will let dirt stick to the oil and ultimately mix itself into the chain. This creates something of a grinding paste that will increase the wear of the chain. This means to keep the wear lower you really need to stay on top of the cleaning post ride.
Why Your Dry Lube Is Destroying Your Drivetrain
Dry lube will cause serious pre-mature wear to your chain, cassette, and chainrings. Directly it will cause the chain to wear extremely quickly. We have seen some chains reach the recommended wear after about 1,000 miles when you are using dry lubricants. If you are for some reason using such a bad lubricant but paying enough attention to the wear to replace the chain on time, that means you are likely going through a chain every month or two if you are riding regularly.
Typical recommendations would be that you replace your cassette every two chains that you go through, and chainrings every four. This can cause thousands of dollars of wear every year. If you ride an average of 250 miles/week (for easy math) that means you will go through a chain every 4 weeks, a cassette every 8 weeks, and chainrings every 16 weeks. This means you are buying 12 chains, 6 cassettes, and 3 chainrings EVERY YEAR! This is if you are on top of changing the chain when it needs it, but if you rode an extra 500-600 miles you might wear the cassette and an extra 1,000 might mean you need chainrings too.
If you are running the latest SRAM Red groupset that could be upwards of about $5,000 in spare components for the year.
SILCA’s Expert Recommendations for Lube Selection
If you are looking for a drip on lubricant that is easy to use, quick, and lasts a long time, then SILCA’s Synergetic or Synerg-e would be great choices. Synerg-e is ideal for the ultimate rough conditions where Synergetic is going to be a little bit faster and attract a little bit less dirt than its counterpart. There really is no place for a dry lubricant on a bike. They might be cheaper up front, but they will wear out your components leading to a much more expensive overall experience in the long run.
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