Oh yeah, there’s some quality riding in there too.

White Lightning’s Clean Ride is a great chain lube if you’re short on time. It goes on wet – it’s a very liquid lube so take care when applying – and leaves a dry wax film. Unlike wet lubes, the waxy finish doesn’t attract dirt and grime so your chain stays cleaner for longer.

The product’s real neat trick is how it cleans your chain during use. Yes that’s right, it actually cleans your chain when you’re riding. Any built-up dirt simply flakes off with little bits of wax. In use it works rather well, our chain was noticeably cleaner after several rides compared to another test bike upon which we applied a wet lube.

It’s a little tricky to apply. For best results it needs to be applied to a clean chain. Then there’s the milky consistency which, if you’re not careful, will have your kitchen floor covered in white lube. It’s also not that long-lasting – we had to frequently reapply – so if you prefer to lube-and-forget, this isn’t the product for you. If you’re prepared to apply frequently, you’ll be rewarded with a cleaner chain. Good job it comes in a large 240ml size bottles then.

Verdict

For keeping your chain clean, provided you’re happy with the tricky application, Clean Ride is to be recommended. The secret is the frequent application required for good longevity. Great for those who don’t want to clean their chains.

£9.99 for a 240ml bottle // www.whitelightningco.com

With so many chain lubes on the market, it’s hard to know where to start. We were sent some of Juice Lubes Ceramic Chain Lube a few months ago and have been using it extensively since, and we’re constantly impressed with how well it works.

Juice Lubes have been going a few years now and offer a nice range of products, from cleaners to degreasers and chain lubes. Ceramic Chain Lube uses state-of-the-art synthetic lubricant technology with ceramic boron nitride, so you can be confident your chain is getting the best sort of treatment it’s possible to get.

It works by building a ceramic coating on the surface of the chain, and fluoropolymers give a non-stick finish. It’s pretty hard wearing and runs smooth and importantly delivers a quiet drivetrain. It also does well to resist grime and muck building up on the chain, so you’re not dragging half the trail around with you.

Application is easy with the twist nozzle that lets you modulate the flow easily. Like Clean Ride the chain needs to be thoroughly cleaned before you let loose. The consistency makes it reasonably easy to apply, with the excess wiped away with a rag leaving a good covering of lube on the chain.

Verdict

Ceramic lubes cope better in a wider range of conditions, including damp weather, making them a good choice for the constantly changing British weather. The ceramic coating produces a very low friction coating that noticeably makes the drivetrain quiet, and longevity is impressive.

£9.99 for a 100ml bottle – www.juicelubes.co.uk

Juice Lubes launched a couple of years ago and their range of lubes and cleaners hit the market with quite an impact, thanks to their cool bold packaging and the effectiveness of their products.

From their range of lubes we’ve been using Viking Juice. Now, it’s actually a lube aimed at road cyclists (it was developed with Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt and designed to last the length of the 257km race) but we’ve found it perfect for mountain biking, where you want a lube that will last the ride – especially if that ride is a 12-hour solo mountain bike race.

It’s intended for use in all conditions and as we’ve had precisely that over the last few months, Viking Juice has been serving us well. We get annoyed when chains start squeaking towards the end of a ride, something that is accelerated when it’s as dry and dusty as the trails currently are, but we never once experienced a noisy chain using this stuff.

The lube uses a solvent carrier to help it penetrate the links of the chain, evaporating to leave the lubricant adhered firmly to the chain. Unlike a wet lube, it doesn’t attract dirt and crap, keeping the chain nice and clean. It coped reasonably well with some wetter weather but we wouldn’t reach for it ahead of a weekend of bog riding, it’s best suited to dry summer riding.

The bottles nozzle makes for easy application, allowing you to unscrew the lid just enough to get the right degree of flow. Juice Lubes recommend a clean and degreased chain before application, though when we applied it to a slightly mucky chain it still worked reasonably well. For best results though we found applying after a good degrease of the chain, and applying several layers (allowing each layer to dry) gave the best performance.

A 100ml bottle costs £9.99.

Verdict

A good lube for the summer where it keeps the chain clean and free of grit build-up, but requires a little more time and effort to apply for best results.

www.juicelubes.co.uk

Keeping your bike running in tip top mechanical order at this time of year can be far from easy, what with all that mud, crap and ice threatening to derail your best efforts at every opportunity.

We decided to ask owner of a company specialising in lubes and maintenance products to share some advice for us mountain bikers. Luckily Green Oil’s Simon Nash thought this was splendid idea and thoroughly agreed, and gave us the great advice you can read below.

Seven mountain bike maintenance top tips

Snow means salt so coat it in oil

Generally, its not a good thing to put on too much lube on your chain. However, when it snows, that salt on the road changes things. For snowy weather, we recommend a thick layer of wet lube to coat your whole chain. This will protect from salt flinging up from the road, thereby preventing rust.

Lube those gaps

You need oil mainly between the links of the bicycle chain – this is where friction occurs, and oil is needed. Excess lube on the outside of the chain can attract dirt and dust. Therefore, lube the inside of the chain for one length, spin the cranks to work it in, then wipe off excess with a rag.

Cable rub

Cables can rub against your frame, and if aluminium, wear it away. This can be solved cheaply by putting a sticker or plaster over the affected area. Then just replace these as they wear out. Purpose- made patches can purchased at your local bike shop. Or you can use nail vanish, to keep covering the rubbing area (see tip below).

Too lazy to wash?

If you are lazy, at least lube up the chain every three weeks, wiping off excess with a rag – this is the most basic aspect of bike maintenance

Inflate your tyres

Pumping up tyres to the correct level is a second most basic step to keep your bike running swiftly.

Rejuvenate your saddle

Tarnished or plastic fabric saddle looking grey and old? This can be brought back to new with a bit of chain oil! This maintenance secret is mainly for aesthetic purposes, if for example you are hoping to sell that old bike that’s been in the shed for a few years. It will make the saddle look shiny and new.

First, dab some biodegradable chain lube onto a cloth – you probably don’t want petrochemicals on your rear. Wipe the oil all over the saddle fabric, applying more oil until the saddle is shiny. Wipe over again with a fresh rag to remove excess. It will go from a light dull grey, to a dark shiny black. This also works on aged tyres, though of course watch out loss of grip caused.

Nail those chips

If you want to cover scratches and chips on your frame, nail varnish can work a treat, protecting the metal underneath. It won’t look great, but that can be a good thing to stop the bike getting stolen! Old bottles of nail varnish can often be found at charity shops or Christmas boot sales very cheaply, and even come with their own brush.

Written by Simon Nash, Director of Green Oil UK Limited. See the full range of products at www.Green-Oil.net

Let us know what you think of these tips in the comments box below.

Apparently “most chain lubes have warnings and orange symbols on the back” saying things like “Irritant” and “Dangerous for the environment”.

A quick glance at the various bottles we’ve got kicking around reveals just “Highly Flammable” and warnings not to ingest, but that’s only four bottles so not exactly a full environmental audit of the entire market.

It’s certainly true that the majority of chain lubes are based on petrochemicals or high-carbon-footprint synthetics of one sort or another, which makes Green Oil’s naturally-occurring, plant extract ingredients look much more ecologically fluffy. As it’s made in Britain, it hasn’t had to travel far to reach your transmission, either. Plus which the HDPE bottle is recycleable (or you can send it back to Green Oil for them to reuse, which gets you 20p off your next bottle too) and the label is printed on recycled paper.

Of course, all of this would be for nought if Green Oil didn’t work, but work it does. It’s on the thick side and impressively sticky – in our experience it doesn’t manage to hang around quite as long as our current favourite Finish Line Cross-Country, but everything runs quietly while its there. The thoughtful inclusion of a long nozzle makes it easy to apply, too.