I never thought about that...

This month's (Feb 2013) VeloNews has a very interesting article by Caley Fretz and Friction Facts about the efficiency of chain lubes, or lack thereof. Maybe 'interesting' is overstating the case for non-engineering nerds, but certainly useful. I always just cleaned the chain and put on some more White Lightning (probably subliminally influenced by 'Lighting' - must be fast, right?). Turns out the trick setup is melting a block of paraffin wax and throwing the chain in. Clean, fast, repels dirt, what more could you ask for. I'll have to try it - I need all the watts I can get! - but I hope it doesn't turn into XC skiing:

XC ski wax chart

"No honey, I have NO idea why the slow cooker is covered in bike grease!"

Turns out there's a LOT of discussion about bike chain lubes on the internet (try Googling 'bike chain paraffin wax') - some people think about this stuff a lot more than I do, which is pretty amazing.

Nice ride at Island Lake in the snow this afternoon - not fast, but very pretty with the big snow flakes falling in the pines, and much better than another ride in the basement watching 'Breaking Away' for the millionth time. You start to notice stuff like this:

Dave, you'd be faster if you didn't stop to reverse your drivetrain all the time

Eventually, you start making up your own dialog...

"Mama Mia, the Greyhounds, they are coming soon! Like the wind they fly! Like the birds they sing!"

I guess I'll find out about that last part at the team party next month when the karaoke machine comes out.

Still a great movie. OK, not 'Citizen Kane' great, but neither is 'Citizen Kane'.  But maybe if Rosebud where a bicycle instead of a sled I'd understand the fixation better...