Average Joe reviews... Purple Extreme Bike Lube

Gone are the days of using your old man's engine oil from his rusty old can. After a brief flirtation with spray grease, I have finally accepted that proper bike lube is the way forward. These days, I use dry Teflon lube in the summer and wet lube in the winter. The holy grail of bike lubes is one that acts like a dry lube but stays on the chain in the winter like a wet lube.   On the surface this stuff looks good and appeals to those of us who want something tried and tested in the harshest conditions. Purple extreme makes this claim but this comes at a price (nearly a tenner a bottle) and thus Average Joe put it on long term test.     Six months in and half a bottle gone, the results are mixed. I'm not one to lovingly clean my chain other than a wipe with a rag twice a year (one of my bikes has had the same chain for 14 years). New lube goes on top of old lube without a second thought. Washing my bikes doesn't happen very often so if any lube was to be a stand out performer then it needed to be really special.   First impressions are interesting, developed for the oil exploration industry and heralded as ‘deep penetrating’ this had the potential to be the real thing. The lube is purple and looks more like a watery Teflon lube than a winter lube. Applying it to the links of a rusty chain shows it’s deep penetrating action as it soaks into the links and revitalises a tired chain instantly.   In the dry this lube excels; it works as well as a Teflon lube but with a penetrating action which surely offers longevity to a chain. In the wet however this lube doesn't really live up to its hard man status as it needs to be applied before every ride. After a wet, sloppy ride followed by a hose down of the bike (not an intensive clean) the chain is left completely un-lubricated and rust will develop.   The verdict then is that unless you are an obsessive with your chain and clean and lube it after every ride then this lube will only excel in the summer months. If you are interested in something that is a bit more 'apply every few rides' in the winter then you are better going elsewhere. If you want to lavish the highest amount of love on your chain in the winter months then this first followed by a wet lube would probably offer the best protection money can buy.   If they made this one the summer lube and brought out a thicker, stickier winter lube then they might just corner the market...