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SEVEN DAY CYCLIST
CYCLING, BUT NOT USUALLY RACING
LATEST UPDATE: DECEMBER 4th
HOW DO WE DECIDE OUR OVERALL RATINGS FOR PRODUCTS WE REVIEW?
SILKOLENE PREMIUM CYCLE LUBE EVERYDAY
100ml £7.99
Silkolene’s range of lubes include, like many others, a dry, a wet, and this one - “Everyday.” Designed for mixed duties all year round, there’s an array of competitors lined up. However, it has shown good tenacity and pleasing cleanliness.
Pros: Better than average mud-flinging, in my opinion.
Cons: At the pricier end of the everyday market.
Spec
Unlike its Premium Cycle Lube Dry club-mate, the Everyday lube is fully biodegradable. As you’d expect, it claims to offer protection and smooth-running in all weather conditions, as well as having broader application with regard to cables, cleats, derailleurs and various mechanical bits.
It is based on Silkolene’s Plantohyd family of environmentally friendly, high performance lubricating and hydraulic oils.It is designed with technologythey apply to products supplied to environmentally sensitive customers, such as the Forestry Commission.
Allergy advice is that the Everyday lube contains Tolutriaxole derivativs, which can cause a nasty reaction in some cases. I’ve not felt the need to don gloves, but that is individual choice.
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Application
Clean the chain and dry it, before giving the tube a good shake and applying. More viscose than its Dry sibling, the liquid pours nicely, giving a decent coat first time round with a few turns of the pedals. Cleanliness is helped by Silkolene’s neat twist ’n’ pour nozzle. The few drips that escaped were easily wiped up.
Recommended curing is thirty minutes. Those in a morning-panic can be reassured that things will work out ok, although it may take a few minutes and another application before everything become really smooth.
Its Dry and Wet siblings are coloured, to match their bottles. The Everyday is less exotic appearing to be clear with a hint of yellow, however, coverage was readily detected.
Performance
“Everyday” won’t get many pulses racing, but let’s not be unfair. This is meant to be a dependable, decently performing lube for regular all occasion use, and that, pretty much is what it is.
I’ve got around 300 miles out of it during a period of genuinely changeable weather - alright, no extremes of cold, no snow, and no salt-monster, but plenty of rain and the ususal late summer, early autumn fare that the UK serves up. It even survived a couple of blow-over washes post dirty gravel ventures. So expect a few more miles.
Having said that, a single application of Crankalicious Limon Degreaser diluted in a chain bath has been enough to get things ship-shape for the next application. Mind you, that reduces most grime to nothing pretty rapidly. Green Oil Degreaser Jelly did a similar job. That and the usual rub over with the proverbial old rag.
Impressive is the word for its cleanliness, in my experience. After a fifty miler on mainly dirty country lanes; mud, puddles, and a four hundred metre linear dung heap, had been dismissed en route. A quick wipe with an old rag got things back to normal. This with a KMC X10 EPT chain, similarly - durable rather than flashy.
Conclusion
Like many workhorses, it ain’t sexy. For real silkiness season specific concoctions will suit the road-race or audax favourite. At the other extreme winter gravel junkies and general dirt-hounds will seek soemthing even more muck-repellent. On tour, decent performance away from the chain as well as on it might find it a berth in the tool kit. Likewise, for utilitarian and commuting duties; it does a decent job, especially given cleanliness of application, tenacity, and dirt-expulsion.
In a world where wax, ceramic, and a bewikdering mixture of potions are increasingly available, this might all seem a bit mundane; but this is “Everyday” in the best sense.
Verdict 3.5/5 Sound lube, toward the upper end of its price point.
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Steve Dyster
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https://www.silkolene.com/bicycle/
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PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2018
