[ssg]

Honda recommends SAE 90 gear oil as chain lubricant.
Can I use it ?

Cheers,

[Carlsberg Wordsworth]

I use EP90 gear oil personally.

[no bs]

just replaced the chain on my klr with an rk, which calls for 90w gear oil(non-oring).

[Richard230]

Pretty much all of the chain and motorcycle manufacturers recommend 90 wt gear oil as a chain lube for O-ring chains.  I am sure it works well, but you will have to put up with it flinging on to your wheel rim. 

[Guaire]

If your leg isn’t covered with oil, you’re not trying!

Hard core guys hang out here. I’ve been spraying on my chain lube with ‘no fling’ technology for years. You can call me high tech if you like.

[REpozer]

What’s  the point of using 90w gear oil? Is it to save money? If so , as a kid we would apply used engine motor oil on the chain, it was “ free”.

[no bs]

i apply the goo sparingly with a acid brush; no more fling than some other types i've used, and less than most!

[Arizoni]

Honda recommends SAE 90 gear oil as chain lubricant.
Can I use it ?

Cheers,

Sure you can use it to lube your rear chain but like the others said, it's going to be thrown off of the chain onto your rear rim and onto the engine case around the front sprocket.

If it is available, buy yourself a can of quality chain spray like PJ1, Motul, Mixima or half a dozen other brands.

Look for the ones that brag about it not getting thrown off of the chain.

These lubes are thin oil when they are put on the chain so they can penetrate down into the links and rollers, but the solvent evaporates in about 1/2 hour leaving a coating of thick lubrication where it's needed that doesn't get thrown off of the chain when it's moving.

[Bilgemaster]

Any lube's better than none. You can buy the spray can stuff, or just use whatever's handy. In fact, some Nortons have a sort of engine breather tube oiler located over the drive chain that slowly drips engine oil onto it (though most folks seal it off, since it makes a real mess, is sort of anti-social behavior, and old engine oil is not really the ideal chain lube anyhow...though it's perhaps better than none at all). In my case, I happen to have just drained my new-to-me Enfield's gearbox as a matter of course, and it seemed tip-top. So, I strained it, together with about a cup of some equally decent-looking Type F tranny fluid drawn from the primary/clutch drive case, through a coffee filter, allowed it to settle a couple of days, and tossed most of that into a medium-sized plastic lidded jar along with a little 2 inch cheapo Harbor Freight real bristle chip brush, and Presto!: Bilgemaster's Gourmet Chain Lube_TM with Custom Application System!  An old cookie sheet or whatever set under the lower run of the chain to keep things neat, slather just that section, let drip, rinse, lather, repeat. Done every couple-few weeks or so on whatever section of chain happens to present itself as the lowest run, and your chain and drive sprockets will thank you with extended service life.

For a depiction of chain travel and sprockets movement, please click here.

[ssg]

What’s  the point of using 90w gear oil? Is it to save money? If so , as a kid we would apply used engine motor oil on the chain, it was “ free”.

Definitely money matters
Any engine oil won't match with 90W gear oil as viscosity matters.
It's going to be thrown off of the chain onto the rear rim and may do the same under the front sprocket engine casing areas. This is a matter of great concern, I have observed that SAE 90 very soon dries off as it has a very poor addictive power.

[REpozer]

Right, if you have money purchase some cycle  chain lube . I’m currently using Yamaha chain lube .
If you are cheaping out , any oil is better then no oil.

[Rattlebattle]

Anybody remember Linklyfe? In days of old the idea was to run two chains. Periodically you’d change them over, using the fitted one to pull the spare one over the gearbox sprocket. Once removed, you’d then put the tin of Linklyfe on a lit gas hob and out the chain in it, leaving it to gently simmer (and stink the house out). Linklyfe contained graphite and the idea behind it was to infuse all the links with the stuff. This was before o ring chains. I used it once; whilst effective it was simply too much phaff and rather odorous, so I reverted to gear oil; only later on did spray can grease become available. Yes, you can use gear oil, but IMHO it’s better to use purpose-designed lubricant, especially on o or x ring chains. The world has moved on.

[Richard230]

Anybody remember Linklyfe? In days of old the idea was to run two chains. Periodically you’d change them over, using the fitted one to pull the spare one over the gearbox sprocket. Once removed, you’d then put the tin of Linklyfe on a lit gas hob and out the chain in it, leaving it to gently simmer (and stink the house out). Linklyfe contained graphite and the idea behind it was to infuse all the links with the stuff. This was before o ring chains. I used it once; whilst effective it was simply too much phaff and rather odorous, so I reverted to gear oil; only later on did spray can grease become available. Yes, you can use gear oil, but IMHO it’s better to use purpose-designed lubricant, especially on o or x ring chains. The world has moved on.

As have chain master links.  The new press-on links for O-ring chains don't make replacing chains as much fun as it used to be.   

[Bilgemaster]

Anybody remember Linklyfe? In days of old the idea was to run two chains. Periodically you’d change them over, using the fitted one to pull the spare one over the gearbox sprocket. Once removed, you’d then put the tin of Linklyfe on a lit gas hob and out the chain in it, leaving it to gently simmer (and stink the house out). Linklyfe contained graphite and the idea behind it was to infuse all the links with the stuff. This was before o ring chains. I used it once; whilst effective it was simply too much phaff and rather odorous, so I reverted to gear oil; only later on did spray can grease become available. Yes, you can use gear oil, but IMHO it’s better to use purpose-designed lubricant, especially on o or x ring chains. The world has moved on

Can't recall the brand name, but I do remember seeing something like that when I lived in Scotland in the motorcycle shops there: a big round tin, maybe a foot in diameter and half a foot tall in which one made "drive chain stew". I cannot say I ever met anyone who, like you, did so more than once. I am fairly certain one's wife would need to be either visiting her mom out of town or in a coma for a second treatment to occur.

[longstrokeclassic]

I've tried several but keep coming back to Wurth chain lube.  Clean rims and a clean chain