Wrapping a valve cover gasket with plumbers tape managed to stop an
impossible to stop oil leak.

The worst thing that can happen with the chain is the tape will come
off and I'll have wasted 15 minutes and 50 cents.

An approach I've seen on some Dahon bikes is to enclose the outer face
and sides of the chain in a length of split-open flexible cable conduit.
This rotates around with the chain, keeping the oil off your leg (and
presumably the bulk of the dust off the oil).

Doesn't work with derailleurs, for obvious reasons.

Only the front derailleur is scrapping the Teflon tape off the sides of the chain. Otherwise it might stay on the chain for hours. To determine this only switch chain rings at one bare place on the chain if at all. Shifting would take some care or the bare spot might end up being half the chain.

A rear derailleur might be designed without any fold backs but there would be less wrap around and the slack chain would be closer to the dirt when on a small chain ring / small sprocket combinations.

Back to magic lubricating oils: Is there a long chain molecule that breaks into lighter factions, much like the cracker unit at a refinery except it's triggered by UV light instead of a catalyst?

Slop that oil onto the chain to get it into the friction surfaces as usual then hit all the exposed surfaces with UV. The lighter products then evaporate off leaving those surfaces oil free.

Only the oil shielded from the UV light remains.


Bret Cahill