Liqui Moly Chain Spray Race – A Do-It-All High-Performance Road Chain Lube

Dec 12, 2023

With 2023 drawing to a close, we’re all spending our last few weeks finishing work, rushing to the stores for Christmas shopping, and preparing our motorcycles for a well-deserved trip. Just like we need our holidays to reboot after a hard year’s work, so too do our 2-wheeled machines need that long open road. Life and its stresses are one thing, but hectic weather conditions, rough roads, and daily commuting are many of the stresses we put our machines through.

So, unless you run a belt drive or shaft drive, the chain is one of the hardest working components on your motorcycle and therefore we think you need to give your motorcycle chain some TLC this December period.

Even though motorcycle chain technology has come a long way since needing to be lubricated after each ride, the motorcycle chain still needs regular lubrication—given that it works tirelessly to keep your rear wheel rotating smoothly in all conditions. Whether you’re a hard charger or just a daily commuter, a huge amount of metal-on-metal contact is continuously created by the interaction between the chain and the rest of the drivetrain.

A good chain lube can smooth the chain’s engagement with the sprockets and chainrings, and maintain proper shifting performance. It also helps prevent corrosion and reduces friction and drivetrain wear. Stating the obvious, I know! The thing is, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to chain lubes, with countless brands offering a range of different types of lubes and formulas. I mean, you’ve got wet lubes, dry lubes, ceramic lubes and wax lubes. My point is, that finding the best chain oil isn’t always as easy as you think. Unless you think a sandwich is a sandwich.

In my garage, I bring to you the new and now my favourite chain lube, Liqui Moly Chain Spray Race. This is Liqui Moly’s latest high-performance chain spray and yes it is a fully synthetic micro-ceramic chain spray. While ceramic lubes aren’t the new kid on the block, they are not as popular as wax lubes and thin fully synthetic road lubes, however, they promise to be the best of both parts. Liqui Moly’s combination of ceramic solid lubricants and chemical wear protection ensures minimum friction and maximum chain life.

The elephant in the room for most road riders and adventure riders will be the word “Race” printed on the can. In my experience, anything that has race associated in its name means it has been extremely well tested and engineered to handle the most difficult conditions both on and off-road, in Liqui Moly’s case. For example, Chain Spray Race provides optimum creep properties, excellent corrosion protection, and due to good adhesion, this means it results in low spin-off—the chain surroundings remain clean. With these tests being conducted in high-performance scenarios, this means it will work even better for lower-performance riding, just like daily commuting or weekend adventure riding.

Liqui Moly’s Chain Spray Race comes in a 400ml can and has the new red permanently attached long tube nozzle which can bend at 90 degrees, allowing it to fold up for storage. The spray can be used with the long nozzle folded in, mimicking a short nozzle—no more caps or nozzles to lose. This chain spray is red in colour, helping you visually cover as much of the chain as possible.

Your typical advice before lubing your chain is to shake the can and clean the chain before applying the lube. One extra thing I like to do is go for a fast ride to warm up the chain before cleaning it with Motorbike Chain and Brake Cleaner and then spraying the chain lube onto the warm chain. This is just something I’ve always done as it makes cleaning the chain so much easier and I tend to ride my bike after doing morning maintenance, therefore I want to speed up the lube’s settling process as this usually takes 20 min when cold. Some people even leave it overnight to settle completely, which isn’t wrong, but I like to spend more time on my bike as opposed to next to it.

High-revving four cylinders, grunty triples, torque-rich twins, and even your hardcore thumpers will love this stuff! Chain Spray Race applies smoothly onto all types of chains (O-/X-/Z-rings), it attains its final red consistency and adherence once the solvent has evaporated. I’ve used the lube on my classic 2-stroke race rep, my daily commuter, and my adventure bike. Across all disciplines, the micro-ceramic chain spray from Liqui Moly in my opinion is an all-rounder and slides nicely between a hardcore wax and the normal fully synthetic chain spray. What this means is, that you get to benefit from a good covering when applying, longer chain life, better dust resistance, and an excellent anti-fling.

So there you have it, Liqui Moly’s new Chain Spray Race is a sublime must-have for the garage, not only does it work well for many applications, but it will save you the need to buy different chain lubes for multiple riding disciplines and conditions. Chain Spray Race has now become my do-it-all road-riding chain lube of choice.