Finish Line Ceramic Wet Lube Early Review
I’ve been given the opportunity to check out Finish Line’s Ceramic Wet Lube on my chain by my local bike shop. I’ve been a devotee of Boeshield T-9 ever since I started cycling and I’ve used that exclusively which puts me in a unique position to give the Finish Line product a good comparison. I’ve got over 9,000 miles on Boeshield and I haven’t strayed because I am so utterly pleased with its performance. While out on my Saturday ride I stopped into the bike shop to pick up a new bottle but they’d run out since the last time I was in and were expecting a new shipment shortly. To tide me over, my mechanic gave me a 1/4 used sample bottle of the ceramic wet lube to try out in exchange for feedback.
Saturday evening I completely cleaned and lubed up my 5200 so I would be able to really pay attention to any differences – and there were two… One good and one not so good. First, I applied the Finish Line in the same manner that I normally apply Boeshield. I double degrease the chain – I run it through a chain scrubber once, wipe it down and let it dry while I attend to cleaning the cassette, and then I run it through a fresh reservoir of degreaser again, then wipe it down and let it dry. After allowing at least six hours of dry time, I then apply one fair drop of the lubricant to each roller.
First, I can say without a doubt that the Finish Line product is noisier on the chain. Not by much, it’s barely perceptible, but it is just not as quiet as a fresh coating of Boeshield.
On the other hand, there’s less friction with the Ceramic Wet Lube – the ride itself is much smoother. Now, would a straight up noob notice the difference? Probably not, but I could absolutely feel the fact that the pedals really were easier to push around. In fact, on my Sunday ride (an easy recovery pace), with a fair wind that hurt as much as helped, I was able to maintain an easy 18.7 mph average without much effort at all. In fact, when the wind was helping I was pushing one gear harder than normal (for that condition) with no increased effort. My recognition of this is based solely on perceived effort, but I can tell you for certain, I’ve got enough miles on that bike to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the ride is indeed easier. It also helped into the wind – for the effort that I put out, I definitely would have normally been in a lower gear.
This is only a first ride analysis. I’ll have more in the following weeks on durability and any other issues that might pop up. I can say for certain, at least so far, my interest in the Finish Line Ceramic Wet Lube is piqued. I never would have expected the first ride results.
Wooow! I Feel Good!
Wooow! I feel good… Though I won’t go so far as to say I knew that I would now…
I woke up this morning feeling a little rough. A little bit sore, a little bit stiff… Feeling a little bit old. Once I got moving though, it was all good. This has more to do with a shortage of sleep than of actually being or feeling “old”.
I can remember, not entirely too long ago, believing that 40 was a big mark representing a shift in how long it took for me to recover from a workout. Back then I was only running (probably with a bit of bad form) and recovery did seem to stretch out a bit. With the addition of cycling to the routine things are much different though.
While there’s no doubt I’m no longer 18, there’s no question that I feel better at 42 than I did at 40 and what I find interesting is exactly what I consider an acceptable amount of pain nowadays. For instance, if I really want to know what pain is, all I have to do is take a week off from cycling. The balance between pain related to exercise and pain related to lethargy has always been a hot topic for me. This is so partially because I used the excuse quite often to justify gaining weight and not doing something about it – and partially because I hear the excuse used now that I do have excellent control over my weight.
When it comes to cycling, I can ride ten days in a row and feel marvelous, as long as I’m not going all out every day. When I go more than 10 days, up to 14, without a day off, I do tighten up a bit and my legs feel a bit clunky. That said, when I take more than a couple of days off in a row, that’s when I start to feel old. That’s when I feel the aches and pain others have attributed to age. Put simply, I hurt a lot less when I keep moving.
The thing that really saddens me about this reality is that so many people who could otherwise be active and mobile try to use ‘pain’ as their excuse to keep from getting off of the couch when in the vast majority of cases, becoming active would alleviate many of the symptoms that people complain about in the first place. It’s a sad state of affairs for certain and I wish that I had the silver bullet solution.
In the end, all I really can do is try the best I can to lead by example – and know more than most about the research that’s been done on the subject that supports the fact that my experience is the norm, not the exception.
1000 Marbles
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it. I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning talk show. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business himself.
He was talking…
View original post 557 more words
Fit Recovery 