Maxima Racing Oils come from the powersports' world. This means their oils, fluids, and lubricants are developed to meet the high-stress applications produced by often high-output internal combustion. What this also means is that their bicycle line of products has a very high benchmark.
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- How to replace your worn out bike chain
Best bottle ever
First of all, Maxima's tapered screw top is a thing of beauty. Sure, it seems pretty trite, but after using it and then going back to aerosol sprays or drip-applied lubes, the ease of Maxima's cap is so welcome.
The small tapered end makes it simple to hit the chain rollers, not just slop lube everywhere. And there's no cap to misplace or drop into the abyss that is the standard biker's workshop.
Clean, quiet riding
Maxima bills Chain Pro as a dry conditions chain lube, and luckily I live in the perfect testing zone, the arid, dusty Rocky Mountains. Shifts were quiet, as was pedaling. The chain stayed clean, I could rub against my bike's chain and not look like I was playing with coals.
As long as conditions were dry, I was able to get a two to three rides without really any chain noise or need for reapplication. If I was blasting through streams or got caught in the rain, the reapplication interval predictably went way down.
In contrast to our typical drying out period of late summer, lately the rains have been coming daily. While this redlines my stoke meter, it was also ideal to see if the Chain Pro lube would work outside of its intended dry parameters.
Since it's a very thin lube it would need some more viscosity to stick through the wet, but that would make the drivetrain gunk up that much quicker. Bottom line: it sort of works, just not nearly as well with some obvious drivetrain racket and crunching coming through.
In both wet or dry conditions, Chain Pro lube kept the chain looking clean and shiny. And more importantly didn't attract dirt and grime.
One other note is the scent. Maxima's products don't have the typical oil smell, to my rather particular nose, it's a mix of cinnamon and bathroom aerosol spray used to cover up, well, bathroom smells. I put the scent in both the positives and negatives column, because everyone's different.