TESTED: Silca Synergetic chain lube

Words: Will Shaw
Photos: Tim Bardsley-Smith

Silca are a premium brand who only release products they believe are best in class. Editor Mike Blewitt has tested Silca’s Super-Secret Chain Lube in both the wax melt and drip lube format in the last couple of years, and he’s a big fan of both. For this reason, I was excited to receive Silca’s Synergetic lube, a wet lube aimed at riders who like a simple approach to chain lubrication. 

Not content with being anything but the best, Silca claim Synergetic offers a 50 percent reduction in friction, and 90 percent reduction in wear over competitors’ wet lubricants. If these numbers were correct, it would mean that despite the $49.95 cost for a 59ml bottle, you’d save money by using Synergetic as opposed to a cheaper product that will wear your chain, cassette, and chain ring faster. 

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Preparing the chain and applying Synergetic is a breeze, and I used it on three different drivetrains. Whilst I had the best results with a brand-new chain degreased off the bike prior to application, the lube worked fine on a chain that’s been lubricated with several wet lubes over a period of years, which I only wiped with a rag prior to applying Synergetic. 

After cleaning your chain, Silca recommend adding one drop of Synergetic to each roller. This is easy due to the precise drip applicator, which helps to avoid accidentally squirting lubricant on the side of your chain, and it also reduces over application. 

Once Synergetic has been applied, Silca recommend backpedalling the chain 12 times to let the lubricant work its way into the pins and rollers. Silca say you can wipe the chain down immediately and start riding, but I had the best results by doing an initial wipe down, then leaving the chain overnight and wiping it again the following morning. When I came back the next morning there would always be additional lube on the outside of the chain. 

Whilst it’s hard to provide any quantitative analysis on the long-term performance of Synergetic having not done thousands of kilometres on a single chain, in the few hundred kilometres of riding I’ve done I’m confident in saying the lack of friction in dry to medium conditions is unmatched by other wet lubricants I’ve used. When it’s clean, the chain feels smooth moving through the gears, and is very quiet also. This was particularly noticeable compared to my usual lubricants of choice, which are two drip on wax lubricants (Squirt and Smoove). Silca claim Synergetic is a great lube to use on an indoor trainer bike, and I’d agree with that. 

In wet conditions, Synergetic kept the chain lubricated, but required thorough degreasing and re-application after every wet ride to achieve the same smooth shifting I was getting in dry conditions. For the long spells of rain we’ve had on the East Coast this year, keeping my drivetrain clean, quiet, and shifting well has required more work with Synergetic than with my usual wax-based lubes. 

If you’re a fair-weather rider, or you like smooth shifting and a quiet drivetrain and are happy to put the time in to degrease your drivetrain after a wet ride, Synergetic is a product that improves the performance of your bike. If you ride in the wet and are happy to do the thorough initial degrease required to use a wax-based lubricant (be that an immersion or drip-based product), I’d opt for a wax-based lube.  

Price: $49.95  

From: Echelon Sports 

Hits:

• Long lasting
• Smooth shifting
• Quiet drivetrain in dry to medium conditions 

Misses:

• Time consuming for wet usage 
• Expensive for primarily wet usage