Chain Lube

[nimadd]

Hi All

I bought a Tao Tao ATA 110-B for my son’s b-day. This is probably the neubeeist of neubee questions but is their a correct way to lube the chain and what do I use.

[mywifesquad]

Welcome to the forum nimadd!

I use BelRay Chain lube...but thats not as important as lubing a warm chain...i usually ride around for a few minutes and then lube the chain. I raise the rear wheels and spray under the chain as I spin the tires...Lubing the inside of the chain lets chain lube get thrown thru the chain when you ride and not get thrown off the chain..

Did that make sense?

[aaronrkelly]

.....and dont forget to lube the plates of the chain (on the outside).....thats where the wear and stretching occurs.....spraying tons of lube on the rollers does nothing.

[nimadd]

Thanks for the tips. I couldn't find BelRay at the local Wally World (they had Champion. I took both of your advise and what a difference. His quad is quiter and runs smoother.

[aaronrkelly]

Originally Posted by nimadd

Thanks for the tips. I couldn't find BelRay at the local Wally World (they had Champion. I took both of your advise and what a difference. His quad is quiter and runs smoother.

Ive actually got some of that Champion chain lube.....as well as some made by Gunk under their Liquid Wrench label (that I got at Harbor Freight for $3 a can). I would never use it on a road bike (I use good stuff like the BelRay and PJ1 products for that) but I think on a utility or kids ATV it works great. If I was running a sport quad at high speeds I think I would go with the nicer stuff as well.....but for my purposes the cheap stuff is great and I can buy 3 can to 1 can of the good stuff. I lube often due to mud and water so why waste the good stuff. .......and any lube is better than no lube.

[xcitmt]

Welcome to the forum... Being a newB myself I am finding there isn't much these guys have never heard. I myself have asked what I thought are "newB" questions and they are all great with knowledgable responses.

[nimadd]

Thanks for the input aaronrkelly and xcitmt. My street bike is shaft drive and the previous one was a belt drive no chains. The first time my boy rode the quad it ran great. The longer he rode it the more throttle he needed to give it to get it going (centrifugal clutch). My first thought was this is a cheep piece of junk and I just wasted 500 bucks. Then it dawned on me, while I was putting the thing together I remember the chain was dry as a bone. Like I said in the “Introduce Yourself” section of this forum I always look for a good internet forum for my new toys and this one seemed to be the best. So I posted this thread and got to meet you good people.

I’ve read a lot of posts on here and there is a ton of good information here. Hopefully as I become more experienced with quads I’ll be able to give back some of what I get out of this forum. For right now I’m just a neubee learning.

By the way after my boy had been riding for about four hours Saturday the quad wouldn’t idle. So I started reading here about carbs. Sunday morning I pulled the carb, cleaned and adjusted it and ran all day Sunday with no problems. Thanks again to the great people on here for their experience.

[LT80]

The great chain lube debate. LOL
Biggest consumer rip-off there is IMO.
If you have a o-ring chain, lube is a mute point, the lube doesn't get to the pins.
A non o-ring chain wears out fast with or without lube.

[nimadd]

OK LT80 how can you tell an O ring chain from a non O ring chain. From what I can tell spraying lube on the chain did make a difference so the 3 bucks I spent was worth it.

[LT80]

You can usually see a lil black thing in the chain on o-rings.
It's a fair bet that if your chain is stock, then it's a non o-ring chain. And yes, for a few bucks you might as well use a lube.