Maintenance of our bike chains is as important as getting our bike serviced, cleaned up and the engine oil changed for a better performance. Now if you happen to get it cleaned up at a local garage near you, then you rely on whatever products they use. But if you are among the DIY types who believe in giving your bike some personal love, then there is one huge headache in front of us, which product is the best one for our bikes. There are just so many products available in the market today, we decided to get them all reviewed to check out if they are good and get the job done satisfactorily.So this time we have on our table the CASPOL Chain Clean and CASPOL Chain Lube for bikes. A little background about the company as not many know about it. Caspol Care is a company mainly into car care products and has recently entered into bike care products with the Chain Clean and Chain Lube. Their primary product lineup includes car wash and car care products. So it will be to be seen if their expertise there has any positive impact on their products here.
Caspol Chain Clean:The packing of the product is pretty standard like with all others in the market. It comes in a 500ml pack instead of a 400ml one like some of its mainstream competition. Before using the product on the chain of the bike we had made sure to get the bike through the paces by running it nearly 350kms in the city as well as on the highway to make sure the chain was really dirty and see how well the cleaner performs.
During the cleanup process the chain clean was very generously sprayed on to the chain and kept it on for about 4-5 minutes. Later on the grunge brush was used to scrub the dirt and grime off the chain. In case you wish to get a grunge brush for yourself, you can follow the link below at the end of the review. Or else you can also use an old toothbrush for the cleanup process. Once the scrubbing was done, we sprayed on some more Caspol Chain Clean on it and let it still for another couple of minutes before wiping it off with a lint free cloth.
READ MORE: How To Clean & Maintain Motorcycle Drive Chain
The cleaner did a pretty decent job and the chain came out to be quite clean than what it was before. Most of the grime from the linkages of the chain and also from the rear sprocket was satisfactory cleaned up. So as for the review for the Caspol Chain Clean, it does the job pretty well.
Caspol Chain Lube:After the cleaning process was done, it was time for the lubing of the chain. The lube is actually an oil based product and not foam based like some other products in the market. But when you apply the lube, the product that comes out feels a lot solid and it sticks together to itself to form balls or lumps together like what you see with those artificial snow sprays. It somewhat feels like it is waxy or wax based on the way it comes out and gets applied on the chain.
When the lube is being applied and the wheel rotated, the application is not at all uniform and the spread is very much erratic. So one needs a lot of patience when the applying the lube as they need to apply the lube at one part, let it melt and spread to that area and later again move on to the next part.
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After the first failed attempt to apply the lube how it is done the conventional way, we had to apply the patient method to make sure the lube gets properly applied to the entire chain and no part of it is left unlubed. Once that was done, we left the bike overnight with the lube without disturbing it to make sure the lube penetrated to all parts of the chain on the inside too properly else generally the lube starts splattering around everywhere when the bike is driven at speeds of over 25 kmph. This then gets on the rear brakes and nullifies the bite causing stopping issues.
On the next day it was time to ride. We noticed in the morning that there was a pool of liquid accumulated just below the engine casing and it was all black and murky. The conclusion was pretty simple that it was all the grime and dirt that had accumulated on the small chain sprocket which is connected to the gearbox. The dirt and grime that had been loosened up by the chain clean had all flown down along with the excess lube that had accumulated on that sprocket.We took the bike out on the street and run it the whole day through traffic and potholes and the works whatever the city had to throw. The bike had run over 50 kms for the day but the speed had not crossed over 75 kmph. The chain did pretty well; there were no issues at all. The chain noise had reduced a bit or was it the helmet? The gear shifts were pretty smooth, but still not as smooth as our experience was with other lubes that we had used on the bike before. During the shifts you could still feel the clucking and the feel of the shifts on your leg when you tugged on the lever. It was not all that smooth as butter as was expected from previous experiences.
READ MORE: Drive Chains: O Ring/ X Ring Vs Non-O Ring Standard Chains
At the end of the day we noticed that the chain was still pretty clean as we had ridden quite some path through a lot of dirt filled roads and near construction sites. The next day we took the bike on a long distance highway ride to see how it fared there. We took the bike on the Old Pune-Mumbai Highway of NH4 and ran it pretty fast to make it to our destination and back in record time. At the end we had covered 348 kms in a single day and the chain of the bike by then had caught up quite some grime and dirt.
All through the journey the chain did not give any issues at all. It was not all smooth, but we did not notice gear slips or miss-shifts except for the occasional Neutral in the city. There was no power loss to the bike due to the chain and the bike ran pretty much the way it was expected. By the time we returned back, the chain had become quite dirty and we realized that the chain lube does not have much of a life to it. Once applied completely and properly, the lube lasts on the chain for something like 120-150 kms, after which the effect starts decreasing and ultimately after running past 350 kms the chain becomes dirty again to be cleaned and lubed for the next lot.
Our Impression:The overall review of the Caspol Chain Clean was a pretty satisfactory one. It does its job pretty well without any issues and the chain is totally cleaned. If you happen to have any rust spots on the chain, those will not be taken care of by the Caspol Chain Clean but you can be sure that further deterioration of the chain will definitely stop by this.
As for the lube, application of the lube is quite some headache. One could as much as go to the lengths to say that it can piss them off while applying the lube and the life of the lube is pretty less. So there is still a lot to improve on that front for Caspol. But all in all if you are looking for something in your DIY kit, you could give Caspol a try.
READ MORE: Motorcycle Chain Tensioner And Its Utility
The links to purchase the product are given below. Both the Caspol Chain Clean and Caspol Chain Lube are available in 500ml packs and cost INR 520/- each. They are available for purchase online; links for which are provided below. We would like to thank Caspol Car care for providing us the sample for review and Mr. Yogesh Salunke for the Grunge brush. You can buy the grunge brush from him; links and details for which are provided below.
Do share this with your friends and hit us back at the comments section to let us know what you feel about this product, if you have used it or not and also if you have any more specific queries about the product. Do keep a watch for this space for some product reviews like this. Ride Hard, Ride Safe.
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By: Pratik Patole