Good lube, this, and not to be confused with delicate wax lubes that demand you soak your chain in lavender oil for three weeks and then pick out the dirt with a toothpick before you apply it. You can just slap this stuff on, and after a few applications when excess wax starts to build up on the chain, you can easily brush it off, keeping your chain nice and clean. It stays put, too.
The Squirt people describe their wax lube as "an emulsion that is blended under special controlled conditions from a number of waxes" - it's basically a suspension of the wax in water, which differs from most wax lubes that dissolve the wax in an VOC-based carrier. That means it's more environmentally friendly, and it doesn't seem to affect the penetration.
The first test was to add some to a dryish chain and see how it fared under normal conditions. The milky-white liquid is easy to see on the chain, and when the water evaporates you get that slightly greasy wax-lube feel. The Squirt lube easily survived 30-odd miles of normal commuting in all weathers, at which point it faced about the sternest test possible: 40 miles in the salt, snow and rain finishing up on the muddy, puddle-strewn canal towpath. I wouldn't expect any lube to survive that and the chain showed some evidence of rust the next day after a hose down, but it wasn't noisy - there was still some lube in there, so it's pretty tenacious stuff. Squirt market the wax lube at MTBers as well as roadies, and it's certainly a good choice for both. In terms of longevity it's not quite up with the best wet lubes, but it's much better than most of the other dry and wax lubes I've tested.
I was sceptical about Squirt's claim that "excess wax gets expelled by the chain and falls off during riding - cleaning with a dry brush is adequate", but it turns out there's some truth in that. The excess wax is pretty easy to get rid of: it doesn't readily fall off of its own accord but a quick brush buffs up your chain nicely, and dirt doesn't stick to it like it would with a wet lube.
Verdict
Easy to apply, tenacious and clean running wax lube
If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website
road.cc test report
Make and model: Squirt Wax lube
Size tested: 120ml
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes: easy, clean and durable
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
About the tester
Age: 36 Height: 190cm Weight: 98kg
I usually ride: whatever I\'m testing... My best bike is: Trek 1.5 with Ultegra 6700
I've been riding for: 10-20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling, track
Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.
6 comments
Spiffing stuff this. I bore the a**e off people telling them how good it is.
yeah, really good stuff. One proviso - don't leave it in the shed when it's -6° because it's water-based and it freezes
seems to thaw okay though, gave it a shake and it's fine!
I've got a crate of it at home! I guess inviting people round for a "Squirt" party would sound inappropriate? Perhaps not then...
The importer Carl has done Idita Bike 5 times. If he is willing to back it for use in tough conditions I think its good enough for the rest of us mortals.
Tops!
Put some on a new chain I thought was cleaned up and it has turned into something like hairspray residue. Did have the idea that it would feel, well, dry? I must confess to this being my first experience of a dry lube anyway but its hard to imagine dirt falling off during riding: I would have thought that it'll be attracting dirt like iron filings to a magnet
If you have to ride in british weather and find regular oil based lube rapidly turning into a grinding paste and effing up your transmission and being a bitch to clean – this stuff is the bomb! Easy to clean and almost no residue. Just a shame more high street stores don’t sell it.
You can just apply it without any need to clean and degrease the chain?