Nothing could seem greener these days than riding a bicycle. Especially when you are panting away and feel like your lungs are filtering out of the particulates emitted by neighbouring motor vehicles. But even bikes give off 'emissions'. I go through a small bottle of bike oil every year and my bikes would probably appreciate it if I went through more, so what is it that is dripping off my bikes and that I tiresomely wash from my hands?
Well bike oil isn't just sump oil as it used to be. Well, like so many "outdoor" things, so often oil now contain magical PTFE! Polytetrafluoroethylene is a chemical found in so many products, but now regarded with increasing suspicion due to both the carcinogenic chemical precursor materials used in its manufacture (PFOAs) and the bio-accumulative effects of the particle and its unknown life cycle.
PTFE is used across so many applications because it is so inert - it is hard to stick things to it (water runs off a proofed jacket, eggs don't stick to the non-stick frying pan, etc.) And because it is so inert we don't know what happens when, like all things it comes to an end?
In the context of bike oils the useful life of PTFE is to lubricate, to prevent surfaces from reacting to one another (in the form of friction), and (theoretically) to aid the shedding of water from oil treated parts. But oil isn't immune from gravity and much of it is lost on the road or trail, as well as during the bike washing processes. Because it isn't reactive it doesn't transform or breakdown with chemical and UV exposure.
One should expect it to mix with the environments top cleaning and lubricating fluid - water. Of course, water gets absorbed by most living things, often themselves being eaten by those at the top of the food chain - Big critters like human beings. What it does inside us isn't easily answered, a fact that takes little intelligence to understand why. But there is alarming anecdotal evidence for what it might do.
So in steps Green Oil a new branded bicycle oil. It promises that, unlike other oils, it is not harmful, not an irritant, and not dangerous for the environment. :)
Now how about some green bicycle parts and frames?
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