TF2 Lubricant Smart Spray with Teflon is a great solution to keeping your bike and components running smoothly and squeak-free, taking pretty much everything in its stride.
- Pros: Stands up well to bad weather; smart spray head works better than the straw
- Cons: Can get washed off your chain quite quickly in really heavy rain
It's an ideal spray can to keep in your shed or toolkit for general maintenance on your bike, whether post-wash or keeping things running smoothly through the various seasons.
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The test period has seen me riding various bikes through the snow and subsequent salt-covered roads, through to dry and dusty gravel rides in warm and sunny conditions.
Storing a test bike in the shed after one of the snowy rides without cleaning it left it with a fair amount of rusty, stiff links in the chain – not surprising, as all that had been on the chain before the ride was the original coating from the manufacturer. After a bit of a soaking with TF2, once in the evening and once the following morning, it soon had everything moving freely and looking clean and shiny.
TF2 isn't as thick as some non-spray chain oils, so the only thing I would say is that if you ride a lot in heavy rain with lots of road spray then you'll find that it washes off quite easily and you'll need to reapply it religiously.
For more run-of-the-mill conditions it lasts surprisingly well. I've been using it weekly on my winter bike where it has been keeping the gears, brakes and bottom bracket running smoothly and quietly.
Going off road in the wet and dry, TF2 has also worked well without seeming to attract too much in the way of grit and dust.
The lubricant is available in the standard aerosol or this new Smart Spray version, which has a foldaway nozzle that removes the need to keep poking the small straw into the top. It's much better for getting into nooks and crannies, and the large button is easy to use from all angles.
Value-wise, at £7.99 (400ml) it looks a better bet than the WD-40 Bike All Conditions Lube which costs £6.49 for 250ml. TF2 sounds like it performs better too.
It also works out cheaper than B'twin's Teflon Aerosol Lubricant, which is £3.99 for 150ml and has no straw to target the spray.
Overall, TF2 lubricant does a great general maintenance job for a decent price, and only high-mileage, all-weather riders might need something more specialist for their chain.
At the time of writing, the new smart-spray option isn't readily available to buy online (at least not without a premium) but we're assured by Weldtite (TF2 is a Weldtite brand) that it is stocked by independent bike shops – find your nearest using the link at the start of the review.
Verdict
Simple and effective lubricant that'll take care of the majority of jobs on the bike
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: TF2 Lubricant Smart Spray with Teflon
Size tested: 400ml
Tell us what the product is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Weldtite says, "TF2 Lubricant Spray with Teflon is an advanced, multi-purpose lubricant with excellent dirt repellence, water resistance and anti-corrosion effects."
In the Weldtite catalogue it says:
TF2 ULTIMATE SMART SPRAY
Our best-selling line just got better. The evolution of our TF2 Ultimate Spray now includes an innovative SMART head with integrated straw for better penetration and less wastage.
> Repels dirt and cleans surfaces leaving a protective film
> Enhanced with Teflon™ surface protector
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Teflon® surface protector coating with high lubricity
Built-in repellant to disperse water
High penetration into bearing surfaces of chain
Repels dirt and cleans surfaces leaving protective film
Also suitable for motorcycles, cars, boats, etc
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
You can't really knock it for general bike maintenance.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
Ease of use and overall performance.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Can wash off quickly in heavy rain.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
It's one of the cheapest we've tested.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
Some more expensive specialist products may work better on the chain for extreme weather, but this still covers most of the bases really well.
About the tester
Age: 40
I usually ride: This month's test bike My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed
With 20 years of road cycling and over 150,000 miles in his legs it's safe to say Stu is happiest when on the bike whatever the weather. Since writing his first review for road.cc back in 2009 he has also had a career in engineering including 3D-CAD design and product development, so has a real passion for all of the latest technology coming through in the industry but is also a sucker for a classic steel frame, skinny tyres, rim brakes and a damn good paintjob.
His fascination with gravel bikes is getting out of control too!
12 comments
I do like the smart spray head, I think my big can of WD40 (never on the bike) has something similar. I miss the Finish Line trigger, and still have some. It's nice when they think about the applicator as well as the lube, even though I didn't get on the the Muc-Off wet ceramic, or the wet which I preferred, the nozzle is brilliant. Finish Line wet, my favorite, has a very basic nozzle, much more difficult to control drop size.
why compare it to wd40 rather than GT85, thats got teflon in it too?
The WD-40 referred to - WD-40 All Conditions - contains PTFE, which I believe is the same thing.
There's loads of these sprays about, I suspect all of a muchness, so it probably comes down to price and as Ktache points out, the practicality of the applicator (bit of a tongue-twister!).
Whether or not they're much of a muchness must depend on the size of the teflon particles in the oil spray. The teflon particles need to be small enough* to move into the gaps between the pins and the bushes of your chain and stay there to coat the potential wear surfaces. (If they don't, the journals wear, the gaps get bigger, your chain "stretches" and the teeth start to deform.)
I guess I'm pondering this because I've just got to the point, this week, when I need to replace my chainrings, chain and most of the sprockets** on my hack. So thank you Spa Cycles and Probikeshop for the quick delivery of my orders, the speed of which matched this week's amazing deterioration from calm pedalling to annoying skipping in many gears. Luckily the rest of my bike hasn't heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay!
*Sprays that I can find, that quote their particle sizes, are 2-3 μm, 3.7 μm and 5 μm. I guess that smaller is better so maybe I should buy Sigma Aldrich 1 μm PTFE powder and mix my own lubricant? Then again, maybe I don' want to be breathing PTFE dust.
**No half measures, I'm replacing all the sprockets.
For the record, I'm old enough to remember using Duckhams graphite grease to soak motorcycle and bicycle chains. (You put the tin on the cooker and heated it until your cleaned chain sank into the liquid. Then you hung the chain up to let the excess grease drip off. Woe betide you if you forgot to turn the cooker off!) Graphite was the only dry lubricant that we had in those days. (Cue: "shoebox in the middle of the road ...")
There's a bit of marketing and trade mark semantics involved, as Du Pont Teflon® = PTFE but PTFE is not Teflon. I actually designed the original TF2 spray 25 years ago along with quite a few other of their products -- ICI's (as was) version of PTFE was called Fluon so we could have used that instead but everyone knew Teflon so we stuck with that and also gained the rights to use the Du Pont trademark. GT85 and WD40 can say they contain PTFE but they can't use the word Teflon unless it is indeed Du Pont Teflon. That's why they only say 'PTFE'.
BTW PTFE powder is all but insoluble so if anyone wanted to mix their own with eg a synthetic oil, eventually the PTFE will drop out and fall to the bottom. It likely won't distribute uniformly throughout a bottle of oil. I did some trials of this at the time and they weren't very successful.
-- Alan W
Thats very interesting, I love reading things like this from people who have been involved with the development of something, so much more interesting than the usual marketing crap or second hand information passed on by people pretending that they know what they are talking about. Thanks for posting that Alan
At one point I had the idea to mix paraffin wax with PTFE and graphite, but the PTFE didn't turn up from some chinese eBay seller so I just went with the graphite. I wonder if it would have worked well.
If anyone's interested in how TF2 originally evolved, I wrote a blog about it a few years ago. Also there's a pic of the very first aerosol can design that I originally signed off. I'm more involved with other sectors nowadays but my original write-up on TF2 can be found here. I also added some interesting aerosol snippets of info at the end
-- Alan W
The problem was how to get a uniform blend of product. It isn't like PTFE dissolves into grease, you just end up with a brown grease containing lots of irregular white specks. In oil it was worse, it separated out over time. I did actually try mixing PTFE powder with grease and we did a short run of Teflon grease (whatever) but it wasn't a very good product really and it wasn't homogenous. PTFE was also incredibly expensive.
That sounds like it might have worked a bit with wax as long as you keep the hot wax and powder mixed whilst immersing the chain.
PTFE is cheap enough on eBay (50-100g for around a tenner) but I have no idea if it's a quality product or not.
First post for me - Finally something I know a little about. It's not too hard to copy some of the commercial brands(Say R&R Gold for example).Evaporate the solvent and weigh what's left to establish a wax/solvent ratio. Hawkinspeter is dead right. PFTE is a bugger to use-it forms small clumps that are hard to break up.Smear it around a glass plate with some grease using a spatula,then dissolve in the wax/shellite solution.Even with the bought stuff the PFTE settles out -shake before use!
Best method so far is to make up "Candles" of Wax/grease/moly/etc. Using a shield between the chain and wheel,warm the lower run of the chain with a heat gun and apply the lube stick . It's drawn deep into the links and displaces any dirty stuff that's left. Cleaning (after initial clean) isn't required.
Don't use too much grease or it'll attract dirt. Lube needs to be more waxy than greasy.
An application lasts a couple of hundred ks depending on type of solid lubricant used.Plain old wax/grease mix works nearly as well.
Be patient mixing wax and grease.Use a double boiler on an electric hotplate.Wax melts easily.Grease has a high melting point.Use a whisk and great care!
This was my lube for the last 13 years till i got a free bottle of Finish Line Dry with the purchase of my bike box from chainreaction.
The TF2 tends to be a bit sticky. It does the job but you are better off applying it and then rubbing most of it off.