Silca Synergetic Drip Lube

Mixed first impressions from me. Applied to a previously waxed Ultegra chain which had first been washed almost clean on a very wet gravel ride, but then bathed in white spirits and citrus degreaser, so pretty clean.

First couple of applications of Synergetic have both performed the same, fast (completely subjective, all I can say is that the bike feels faster than it did, could be my legs or just sneaky tailwinds though! 😂) drivetrain impressively clean and quiet

BUT on both occasions, circa 60-75km days out in very wet and muddy conditions, I've got home with the beginnings of a grumbling drivetrain, and after the usual hose down and wiping of vhain with an oily rag, I nonetheless came out to a rusty chain this afternoon (only small portions, presumably where water had been held between chainring or jockey wheel teeth).

So at best it looks like I can expect perhaps 75-80km per application, and I reckon I'm going to get approx 20 applications out of the bottle, or 1600km 😂

What am I doing wrong? Does it need repeated applications at the beginning? Beginning to yearn for the days of good old Finish Line green at this rate... 🙄

I have previously always resisted stuff like this, but I may have to reconsider and give this stuff a go! It wasn't immediately obvious, but it appears that the '% wear' reading is the % of 0.5mm per link. I am using a Rohloff checker, which measures at A = 0.075mm and B = 0.1mm per link, and my assumption was that Rohloff considers A is part knackered and B is fully knackered and ready for the bin. Therefore, I was surprised to see them testing to 5 x the extension of B. My policy of running about 5 identical split-link chains per chainring pair to level A wear then replacing- leaving them in a jam jar covered in oily muck, cleaning them before second use in petrol or detergent  and running them all round again to level B may be reasonable then!

However, it can't be denied that my chains tend to carry a lot of gunge even when I haven't been on the Pennine Bridleway out of Settle (I wish I'd taken a picture of the thick mud everywhere- it was January) and have just been everday cycling on wet and gritty winter roads. Maybe I need to do better.

Hi Mike,

Sorry to bump an old thread, but what chain were you running when you reviewed this?

I'm having issues on my gravel bike (Perthshire, not quite Highland 😎) and think I've narrowed it down to the chain, a gold coated YBN.

The same wax products seem to last a lot longer on Shimano chains but I'm not sure if these are pre Sil-tec coating.

The chain is already past 0.75% and I have 200km of Ullapool gravel next week with no time to replace it, hoping a fresh application of Fenwick's Pro lasts the distance 😬

Your results are similar to what I get using Dumonde Tech, which is some sort of Polymer lube that takes about 3 to 5 applications to coat the chain in that polymer, but once that coating is established I can run roughly 500 miles before I have to reapply it, and I don't have to clean the chain before applying.  According to the instructions, I do have to wipe the chain down after every ride.  It isn't as clean as the wax lubes, but the Dumonde Tech holds up to rain extremely well.  

Dumonde Tech was recommended to me by people who do a lot of bike touring, saying that of all the lubes they've tried that one not only lasted the longest, but the chains lasted a lot longer than when using other lubes.  So far after 5,000 miles, there is no chain wear happening?!  That surprised me too.

I use that Dumonde Tech on all my bikes now, but I have never used the Silca synergetic lube, I might try it on my road bike to see how it works just for kicks.

It is not clean. It will turn your drive train black and gunky, just like any other wet lube I've ever used. It might be ultra efficient but for this reason it still gets relegated to my winter hack.

I shall stick with Squirt wax for my other bikes.

This performance comes close to what I get from good old WD40. 400-500 km per application Chain replaced every 3-3500 km and drive train in tip-top condition.

I started using Silca's immersive wax last year and I will never go back to a drip lube. However, for my indoor Zwift bike,  this seems like a good option. 

I migrated to Silca Super Secret Chain Lube to reduce chainset grime rather than eek micro-watts advantage or a few km extra life out of my components, benefits given testimony in videos and academic papers that are at the limits of my grasp.  

The absence of grease, grit, and sand caking up my drive chain is something I do understand and don't miss. I can rotate the chain rollers between my fingers, and my derailleur wheels actually rotate.... unlike some I see parked outside cafes on my rides.  

The only adjustment required is lubing post-ride rather than pre-ride....and every month or so I pop the chain off, clean it, and immerse it in the wax, let it dry and go back to silent running.  

Bought - I'm all for anything than can help reduce maintenance.

I hate to sound like sour grapes on such an EXPENSIVE oil, but according to the editor he said that there are 50 applications for 12,000km, well I live in America so let me put that into our measurement system then you all can put that back into your measurements.  So basically if you divide 12,000 km, or 7,456 miles into 50 you get 150 (rounded up) miles per application for $44 per 2 ounce bottle.  So here's the weird thing, I use Dumonde Tech Lite lube, now this stuff you have reapply once after the first application and ride with the stuff on the chain, then reapply again about 100 miles after the second application, after that I only reapply it every 600 miles, and I could have gone longer because the chain isn't making noise! Then all you have to do is wipe the chain down between rides. Dumonde Tech Lite is only $16 for a 4 oz bottle.  

Dumonde holds up excellently to rain, I was bike camping and it rained all night on my bike, then I had to ride it in the rain the next day, that early afternoon when it stopped raining I heard no noise from the chain.

Silca has a way with fancy words, which they have to since they have to have some sort of excuse to sell very expensive products that you can find similar for less than half the price elsewhere, and so it's true with their lube.

On the colour of the review lube pictured vs the dark grey bottles you might see online / buy, this just in from Josh Poertner at Silca:

As the WS2 is a heavy nanoparticle that wants to fall out of suspension, it initially proved very difficult to keep consistent color with our bottling equipment as tiny changes in percentage made a notable change to the color, it only needs to be a light grey to get the job done, but a little extra can dramatically change the color.

We then had dealers and consumers sorting through the bottles assuming the darker ones were better (more is better right?) and ultimately made the decision to more than double the quantity of nanoparticle to achieve a more consistent dark grey color, so newer bottles are much darker than original bottles.

Having said this, there is no measurable performance advantage to this higher percentage, though there could be some performance decrease to having too few of them, so we have adjusted the formula to always err on the side of too much - which also provides more consistent coloration.  Shake well!

Looks like I don't even understand the basics here !

If you wipe the chain completely clean how do you stop the metal chain wearing against metal sprockets?

Or put another way - what is the main objective of a chain lube ?