White Lightning Clean Ride claims to shed dirt and grime while you ride. Naturally, this intrigued us, and after just 50km on the road, the white film turned into a black sludge that wiped away easily, leaving a surprisingly clean chain beneath.
When it's applied to a clean chain, the lube cures into a white film that is dry to the touch after 10 minutes. As with any wax-based lube, it's important that you clean your chain before you apply it.
Clean Ride is not a ‘lube and forget’ kind of product. Its thin nature means you need to reapply it frequently; we found it was necessary after every road ride. However, despite the lack of lasting lubrication, our drivetrain stayed remarkably clean. There was minimal buildup on chainrings and jockey wheels, meaning we didn't have to clean them so often.
The lube runs quite smoothly but very loudly. We found shifting in dry conditions to be brisk, although the same cannot be said for wet conditions. In a heavy downpour, we were quickly met with poor shifting as the wax became wet and sticky.
The thin liquid lube penetrates rollers quickly, but also coats chainstays, wheels and anything in the splash zone of the bottle if you aren’t careful.
Clean Ride slots into the upper price range of dry wax lubes, and its limited durability means it is quite an expensive choice. That said, a larger 8oz bottle is available, which offers better value.
Although our drivetrains remained gunk-free, Clean Ride proved to be a little too thin for longer jaunts and was a headache in wet conditions - its best kept for dry, short rides.
Note: Price is for a 4oz bottle, 2oz (pictured) and 8oz bottles are also available.