Wolf Tooth WT-1 All Conditions Chain Lube

Every so often a new lube claims to be the elixir of chain life, offering cleaner/smoother/longer-lasting running with no downsides. Wolf Tooth's WT-1 Chain Lube may be the first I've tried that really delivers everything I want from it – and quite a bit more besides.

WT-1 is not just a lube, apparently – it's 'premium synthetic drivetrain treatment.' Wolf Tooth says it was developed because it wanted a product to maximise the life of its transmission products – the company produces over 300 different chainrings. Not being oily types, Wolf Tooth did it in partnership with SCC Tech, and if you hunt around you'll find this same stuff as SCC Slick All Conditions Bike Chain Lubricant.

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It's a blue-green liquid that's thick enough to apply sparingly, one link at a time. There's no need to remove old lube first, but I started with a freshly-degreased drivetrain anyway, because I wanted to see exactly what this does differently.

Once applied you can run the chain through the transmission a couple of dozen times, or go for a short ride. This allows the 'detergent-like' component to get to work. After this, a wipe with a 'micro-cloth' brings off a remarkable amount of black gunk – so much so, I found it hard to imagine any lubricant being left behind. However, on the next ride the chain ran impressively quietly and smoothly.

After around 120 miles of 'ride and wipe,' the amount of dirt coming off was much reduced. What's really impressive, for me at least, is that the black dirt comes off so easily; no solvents involved, just the cloth. It wipes just as easily from chainring and sprocket teeth as it does from the chain.

I would ride 400 miles

In a blasé kind of way, Wolf Tooth suggests you reapply 'once every 400 miles.' I lost my nerve and reapplied after the next ride (around 160 miles), but I don't believe it made any difference. What I did find was that, after each subsequent wipe, the chain took on a pleasing lustre, like polished pewter.

After that, I didn't apply it again for the next 200 miles, at which point I found the chain wear was past its replacement point. Looking at my Strava records I'd run up 3,400 miles on that chain, so it was on borrowed time and I don't think the WT-1 had resulted in excessive wear.

And I would ride 400 more

If you take quiet running as a proxy for low wear (noise = friction = wear), this seems a very effective lubricant.

In the meantime, the dry summer conditions had given way and, on a ride back from watching the Tour of Britain make its way out of Weardale towards Allendale, I got caught in torrential rain.

It was like being in a car wash. I had to pull over because I couldn't see where I was going. The roads flooded, I was soaked through from head to foot, and the spray from the wheels must have utterly doused the transmission; but I put the bike away after another good wipe down and, next time I rode, the chain still looked good. No traces of surface corrosion.

Downsides

Is there anything not to like? You have to add on the price of a soon-to-be-filthy microfibre cloth to the lubricant. There's nothing to stop you using an ordinary rag, but Wolf Tooth recommends the synthetic fibre and I found it was soon covered. On the other hand, the amount of degreaser required is reduced pretty much to zero, as all you need to do is re-apply the WT-1 and wipe.

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The last wonder-lube I reviewed for road.cc was Smoove Universal Chain Lube, which more than lived up to expectations for long-life running. However, I found it soon turned the transmission grey with residue, and needed solvents to get it off. Over the winter I stopped using it because it left the chain outer plates exposed to road salt – while the resulting corrosion was generally superficial, I don't want an orange chain.

Value

WT-1, being American, comes in a fluid half-ounce bottle (15ml) at £7, or a two-ounce bottle for £19. According to Wolf Tooth that's 20g and 64g, but that includes the bottle... nevertheless, at £15 for 125ml (or just over 4floz), Smoove is easily less than half the price.

On the other hand, other lubes allegedly cutting-edge lubes also come up expensive. Recently Mike Stead tested Silca Synergetic Drip Lube and that, at £32 for a 64g bottle, is getting on for twice the price of WT-1. And while Mike really frothed about the performance, it sounds like its doing a very similar job to WT-1.

Also, we can (and do) argue about the price of lubricants, but with top-end cassettes costing hundreds of pounds – if you can get them at all! – whether a drop of lube costs a penny or five pence seems an irrelevance.

Overall

WT-1 ticks all the boxes for me: it's easy to use, long-lasting, weather-resistant and – perhaps best of all – makes your transmission really easy to keep clean.

Verdict

Last well and performs impressively – especially if you value a clean transmission