Guns, Bikes, and Chains

 Despite where I got this product from, and my occasional thoughts, expressed on CycleDog that "open carry for cyclists" might be the ideal jersey in order to make motorists ponder the wisdom of harassing any cyclist, this post isn't really ABOUT guns. Instead, it's about a product I've seen little about; applied to bikes. More specifically, this product is applied to bike CHAINS. This was prompted by the WD-40 controversy about the use of WD-40 as a bike chain lube. Comments about that led me to look further into far-ranging discussions about WD-40, which led me to THIS SITE and THIS SITE, which led me to wonder about this "Eezox." Before you knew it, I discovered that Eezox made a cycling-specific chain lube product. So that nobody confuses it with their gun products, they call it "Eezox CYCLE tune-up." Thank goodness that they resisted the temptation to make hay with the notion of bicycles "shot from guns."

My eBay Source is Circled

And there you have it. To make a long story short, Eezox wasn't available from any local bike shop. What's more, around DFW, it didn't appear to be readily available from anyone else. In all honesty, I didn't spend a day cruising gun stores, but nobody locally advertised the stuff in a web search. I wound up getting it from eBay. I don't think the primary market for this vendor are cyclists. But, "they had the good stuff." Actually, I would have preferred something to get dripped on the chain and cassette rather than a spray bottle, but that wasn't an option.

As with many lubes, the toughest part of applying the Eezox is getting the existing chain clean. Simple Green, water rinse, and elbow grease in several cycles does the trick. The actual application is simplicity itself; simply spray on the inside surface of the chain and on the cassette. Let it all dry. NOW comes the interesting part; namely how does this stuff last and can you simply do a "wipe and apply." For the record, the chain I applied the Eezox to has about 1500-2000 miles on it and the cassette has 6000 miles. It is a ten-speed SRAM chain and a Shimano cassette.



Is this the Wonder Product that Actually DOES What Some Hope WD-40 Might Do?
Stay Tuned. If it is Worthless, Take Comfort that it is Also Hard to Find Accidentally



Duct Tape, WD-40, and a Glimmer of Dawn

Yellow Duct Tape. For the STYLISH Cyclist With Yellow Rain Pants!

While some castigate Wally World as an evil influence on society, I went shopping there on Friday because they have yellow duct tape, which none of our local hardware stores carry. They also sell WD-40 in individual cans, whereas Lowes wants me to buy a two-pack. I like WD-40 as much as the next guy, but I figure a can twice as big as I need is sufficient. I really don’t NEED TWO cans, each of which is twice as big as I need. What’s more, they sell better quality bike locks than my LBS.

Anyway, I put the yellow duct tape to good use in preparation for the day in the future in which it rains again. My eldest daughter said I’d be tacky to tape up my yellow rain pants with black or gray tape. I have concluded that rain pants need to be more robust if you’re going to wear them to ride around on slick ice than if you’re just tootling about in a rainstorm like a rainy weather dilettante, but we have few enough ice storms in North Texas that there seems little rush to get more solid items. Still, one needs to consider the time one returns home again.

That Lock Worked EVEN BETTER With a Few Shots of WD-40

This morning, I brought my newly acquired can of WD-40 along to work and applied it to my newly unfrozen U-lock. This week’s forecast is for spring-like weather, which means the rapidly shrinking pile of ice next to the bike rack should disappear before our next chill. It also means that the WD-40 application may not be strictly necessary. Well, in any event, it makes the lock smell good.

The Pile of Ice Left Next to the Bike Rack is Looking Pretty Yucky and May be Gone Tomorrow

What was really notable this morning was the faint red glow of the morning sun. I only left a few minutes later than usual, but it seemed much brighter and earlier than last week even as I first turned onto the road. Checking a source for sunrise/sunset times showed that sunrise is only 15 minutes earlier than in the darkest mornings of January. However, fifteen minutes combined with a clear sky, gave the first real glimmering of dawn this winter during the early parts of the morning commute. It isn’t bright enough to turn the headlight off, but we’re making real progress at last.

SPEAKING of WD-40, comments about its lubrication properties may have inadvertently led me to a new bike chain lube. It MIGHT even lead Rantwick to a better winter solution than what he confessed to. I also found a second potential solution that promises true 1000 mile lubrication life between applications, but that sounds a LITTLE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

Soon, I'll See Sunrise on the Commute Again

The MIRACLE that is WD-40

Popular Uses for WD-40 on Bikes. I Can't Say I Recommend Them All, But There are a Few Good Ones That Hadn't Occurred to Me

WD-40, the popular name for "Water Displacement - 40th Attempt," has a mixed reputation in cycling circles. We're often told that it is not a lubricant, at least not one we should use on our bikes. However, such a statement is not really accurate. In truth, WD-40 is a heavy oil that is mixed up with lighter oils that evaporate easily. That is why it seems thin if you feel some freshly sprayed WD-40. That helps the stuff penetrate everywhere, displacing water and helping to clean and loosen things up. Used properly, it can make bicycle maintenance an easier and more pleasant chore. And I think it smells good as well. I've used it to free up many a frozen freewheel, among many other things.

My first job, after college, was working as an engineer at Rocketdyne. Yup, I was, more or less, a "Rocket Scientist (Engineer, actually). One of the products I worked on was the Atlas engine, which was then near the end of its lifespan. The Atlas Rocket was the application that WD-40 was originally developed for. Convair used WD-40 to coat the external rocket skin (as you might imagine, they needed a LOT) to keep water from corroding things. It worked so well that employees started smuggling the stuff home, and then they started selling it out of car trunks around San Diego. By the time that WD-40 helped John Glenn become the first American to orbit the Earth, WD-40 had become available to regular consumers. To make a long story short, the company that made WD-40, the Rocket Chemical Company, bowed to the inevitable and BECAME the WD-40 company. And it's still going strong. Pretty good for something we "shouldn't use."

WD-40 Showing a Major Early Application - Sending the Atlas Rocket and John Glenn Into Orbit

While I really don't recommend that you use WD-40 as a primary chain lubricant, it CAN be helpful in getting a wet chain dried off and clean, especially if used in conjunction with an excellent product such as Simple Green. Sprayed on the bottom of the frame, it can help winter splatter and moisture from attacking the metal in a bike frame. And, yes, WD-40 lists BICYCLE U-LOCKS as one of the favorite consumer uses.

So, if someone tries to tell you that WD-40 isn't good enough for your bike, you tell THEM that, properly used, WD-40 is one of the most successful spinoffs of the manned space program - EVER. I'll bet John Glenn keeps some around HIS house.