Guitar Ted Lube-Off: Final Update

the Bubblegum Princess has done her duty.

Lube-Off Final Update: 

 Note: For the Introduction to the contenders and procedures used in this test, please see THIS POST. Also please note that the possibility of a fourth contender never materialized, so this test is just between the three lubes mentioned in the introduction. 

 The first update on the Muc-Off lube can be read here. The Squirt Lube post can be read here.

The "control" lube in the Lube-Off this time was DuMonde Tech, which has been the "Champeen" lube for several years here at Guitar Ted Productions. The set up, just as a reminder here, was as follows: Two contenders were run on gravel for six hours each. The DuMonde Tech, which was applied last sometime last Summer, was not reapplied, but was run another six hours and then would be compared to the contender lubricants.

The lubricants are all of the "dry" variety. Meant for drier conditions and also meant to be "cleaner" lubes, thus the "dry" designation. I wasn't expecting any build up on the chain or cassette, and certainly no "wet", sticky, or messy grease coming off the components when performing the "Touch Test". That test is where I run my index finger across a part of the inner run of the chain to see if I can feel any lube and detect any greasy, wet build up.

The contenders were the Muc-Off C3 Ceramic Dry Lube and Squirt Chain Lube. I will post my direct comparison and thoughts on each in my final Lube-Off post soon. Now let's take a closer look at the DuMonde Tech chain, the cassette I ran, and what I saw when I performed the "Touch Test" with this lube. Again- Please keep in mind that the DuMonde Tech was run - most likely- at least twice as many hours as the contenders were. In fact, I ended up putting on not six hours for the test, but seven hours, just for good measure. Okay, enough chit-chat.........

The DuMonde Tech lubricated chain

The close up of the DuMonde Tech lubed chain shows a bit of what appeared to be wear and pitting where the chain interfaces with the cassette cogs and crank set. Also, there appeared to be a bit of corrosion around the chain pins as well. This is the original chain on this bike, and it shows barely any wear after a year-plus of gravel riding. So, I am left to assume that I must have gotten into something that made the chain pit and tarnish like that. The rollers show no such damage, and there is minimal dust accumulated on the chain.

The cassette and a bit more of the chain. 

The cassette also showed a little bit of this as well, but again- barely any build up and it looks pretty good. Note that I tried rubbing off this irregular appearance with no luck. It's into the metal, as far as I can tell.

The chain did not make any noise. DuMonde Tech recommends that you re-lubricate when you hear chain noise. With no noise noted, I don't see any reason to dump more DuMonde Tech on this chain. Although I am sure that time is coming. Now, for the Touch Test......

Not much to show here.

I actually ran my finger over the chain in three different spots, since barely anything was coming off on my finger. It didn't matter and what you see here is all I could get. It's worth noting that in the last two rides with this set up I had bouts with wet, sloppy gravel and grit. So, this chain was exposed to some of that and not just a straight diet of dust, although it saw its fair share of that as well.

Generally at this point I would take a dry rag and just knock off any dirt or dust on this drive train and continue onward. Again- the pitting and staining on the chain is unusual and I haven't ever seen DuMonde Tech be the cause of something like this before. So I think it was a chemical or just rain water sitting on the chain that caused this, although I have no clear idea as to when that may have happened. Keep in mind that it rained at the Solstice 100, and this chain and cassette were on this bike then. It very well could have happened that weekend in Nebraska.

Stay tuned for the final Lube-Off post coming yet this week.