ACF-50 or GT85, too good to be true?

[Fordulike]

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/motorcycle.htm

Home - GT85 Professional Spray Maintenance

Both of these products make various claims about protecting and lubricating your bike.

The questions are:

1) Are these products any good at protecting and/or lubricating?
2) Disregarding any price difference, which one would you choose if you were to buy one?

 

[Yamdude]

ACF 50 is highly respected in the motorcycle community for stopping corrosion. Use really sparingly with a brush or a rag and a little goes a long way, which you want because its expensive.
I don't use it personally, because i'm always cleaning my motorcycle and like it looking pristine all the time. ACF 50 will wash off with detergents and power washers, so needs to be reapplied every time you wash the bike.
Guys who use their motorcycles for commuting will apply ACF 50 and just let the crud build up throughout the winter, safe in the knowledge that ACF 50 is doing its job under all the dirt. They will then give the bike a good clean come spring and reapply ACF 50.

 

[Alan Quay]

I use GT85 for general bike lubrication jobs. For a quick job it pretty good. Quick spray into v-brake pivots, and into the joints of front and rear mechs. Also good for spraying into brake/gear cables to keep them lubed.

Most suprising use though is cleaning car interiors. Works an absolute treat on most plastic dash's.

 

[EddiePJ]

I use both and have done for many years.


ACF50 is a bit of an odd one, as it seems to work okay both the cycle and motorbike, but doesn't even last a weekend on my carpentry tools.

Tri-Flow with Teflon is superior to both.

 

[Scimitar]

ACF 50 is highly respected in the motorcycle community for stopping corrosion. Use really sparingly with a brush or a rag and a little goes a long way, which you want because its expensive.
I don't use it personally, because i'm always cleaning my motorcycle and like it looking pristine all the time. ACF 50 will wash off with detergents and power washers, so needs to be reapplied every time you wash the bike.
Guys who use their motorcycles for commuting will apply ACF 50 and just let the crud build up throughout the winter, safe in the knowledge that ACF 50 is doing its job under all the dirt. They will then give the bike a good clean come spring and reapply ACF 50.

Exactly wot 'e sed.
Ditto.
The GT85 is used for general spray lube in my workshop, but very sparingly. For ordinary lube I use a 50/50 mix of engine oil/diesel and the GT85 is for special occasions.

 

[Clockwise]

I generally like to use whatever is on special offer, at the moment gt85 as that was on special offer last time I went to buy some stuff but next time I could just go crazy and end up with anything.

 

[RobF]

I use GT 85 as a 'spray and wipe all over' after most rides.

It leaves a bit of shine on the bike which looks nice and means the next dirt doesn't stick too badly.

As well as a very light lube for anything around the house, GT 85 can also be used to clean plastics such as car dashboards.

 

[tillson]

The best chain lube is the sticky grease which coats a new chain. If I could buy it, I would use it all the time.

 

[RobF]

The best chain lube is the sticky grease which coats a new chain. If I could buy it, I would use it all the time.

GT85 is not up to lubing a chain.

I use it to spray and wipe the chain, which takes some of the dirt off, then lube with one of the 'dry' chain oils.

I still have a large aerosol from when I had a motorbike, although the little drip bottles allow more accurate application.

 

[EddiePJ]

I use a dry lube in the summer, and a wet one in the winter.

I was still surprised to have only got 500miles out of the chain on the BH though. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was more than that.

 

[RobF]

I was still surprised to have only got 500miles out of the chain on the BH though. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was more than that.

My Rose/Bosch bike has done 600+ miles and the chain is barely showing any wear.

I expect your problem is garbage original equipment.

The chain supplied with the Rose is a Shimano Dura-Ace which retails at £30 or so.

Your BH probably had a £5 Halford's special.

 

[EddiePJ]

My Rose/Bosch bike has done 600+ miles and the chain is barely showing any wear.

I expect your problem is garbage original equipment.

The chain supplied with the Rose is a Shimano Dura-Ace which retails at £30 or so.

Your BH probably had a £5 Halford's special.

Close.

It was £5.49 from Chainreaction when I did a Google searched for it. Shimano HG40

 

[RobF]

Close.

It was £5.49 from Chainreaction when I did a Google searched for it. Shimano HG40

At least it was branded.

Five hundred miles even for a cheapie sounds poor to me - especially for a hub drive bike.

 

[ghouluk]

i used ACF-50 on the yamaha MT-01 i had for a while, really good for keeping things prone to rusting from rusting (MT's have this weird painted matt finish instead of powdercoating and very prone to corrosion) its good stuff, if you need it!

...and by the by the chain on my BH has lasted almost 3,000 miles so far without any problems

 

[Cakey]

My chain on my Storck is now over 4500 miles , shimano .
Not an ounce of slip yet , but I will swap cassette and front ring when due .
I use acf 50 on all my motor bikes never had any rust . Put it on before winter , gets full of crap , clean off in spring , works a treat .

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Hi,

I have used both lubricants. Can vouch for GT85, we use it a lot here in our workshops.
I go way back with the owner of GT85. Do you know why he added the sweet lavender smell?
Back in the early days when car mechanics worked in pits under the cars they used to get very smelly in the pits with old fluids collecting down there. John the owner added the scent to the lubricant to make a nicer working environment for the mechanics.

Visit our workshop it always smells so sweet

On a side note I prefer GT85 because it dries and leaves a PTFE layer protecting the materials. A lot of other lubricants stay wet. All the muck/dust then sticks to the wet lubricant causing more problems down the line. GT85 does not do this. Interestingly we seem to make a can of GT last much longer too. Every little helps.

If you send them an enquiry through the website I am actually the other guy on the ends that responds to tech enquiries..


Regards
Martin

 

[EddiePJ]

It has to be said that GT85 is worth buying just for the smell. Very clever bit of marketing there.

Interestingly GT85 has just managed to free off and lubricate a tool of mine at work that no other proprietary oil has been able to touch. I've been trying to free it off for the best part of four weeks with no success. Not sure how or why it has worked, but it has just saved me nearly £650.00