In the Bike Shop: Eezox Cycle Tune-Up

In the ongoing Bike Shop quest for the “best lube ever,” the legendary framebuilder Bill Davidson told me about Eezox Cycle Tune-Up yesterday. By way of the gun community, a truly obsessive corrosion review, and an observation that the Vashon Island hippies would love it, cause it’s not petroleum based. He’s thinking it’s an unknown, to-be-discovered miracle lube that, “is a unique synthetic high-tech formula that will prevent excessive wear and dirt pick-up because it goes on wet, and lubricates dry.”

The conversation with Bill reminded me of Boeshield’s arrival in the bike shops, which is a great waxy lube until you try to clean your chain and realize that it doesn’t come off and what works for aerospace parts … well not so much for bike chains. Then there’s the stalwart Dumonde Tech that I run on my race bikes. Problem is, as Bill noted, when cyclists clean their chains by soaking them, they remove the oil between the plates and you can’t get that back in (why Shimano doesn’t sell that odd-smelling briny lube the chains ships with, I don’t know).

And here’s my secret lube tip: we had our garage door spring replaced (that’s a good way to learn about how energy is stored and released when one of those springs breaks in your garage!) a couple years ago and the installer left behind a can of this nasty-ass Lubriplate Chain and Cable Fluid that the Vashon Island hippies would definitely not dig.

So one dreary morning, about to ride my rain bike, I was desperate for lube and sprayed the Lubriplate all over the chain and haven’t cleaned it since. Not only does Lubriplate fill the house with the essence of an oil well, it also, cleans (lifts and separates), penetrates, and quiets the chain. The chain ain’t pretty to look at, but hey it’s a rain bike.

A lube that did the same thing, was synthetic, didn’t tap an oil well, and smelled better, I’m all for trying it. Bill is definitely onto something.

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