For me there is only one......Castrol Chain Wax. Its a little more difficult to get hold of but its the best one I have tried, goes on well, good coverage, sets nice and thick and easy to get off the wheels etc with a little wd40/duck oil. It also flings a lot less than most.
For a while my choice was Shell advance but its quite hard to get a hold of now. I've been using Motul factory line for a few years now and it's very good. Lubes well and stays put quite well. The key is to clean the chain beforehand so it can work in well and stick. Dry lube is a waste of time. It's clean, but the lube property is very poor.
Anything. Anything at all; all you're doing is stopping the plates from going rusty. Check the O-rings are in good nick and the chain is well adjusted - don't over-clean it or you stand a chance of washing out the real lube behind the O-rings. Then bung any old shite on the plates and rollers.
I used Wurth Dry Chain Lube for 5 years on my Fireblade, perhaps one of the 'cleanest' to use, being clear and not sticky when trying to wipe it off the rim. Chain life wasn't as good as using a scottoiler and needed constant adjusting every few weeks. Have a scottoiler on my Monster but even on its lowest setting it puts out too much oil, i've even taken it apart and tweaked it but generally now i have it disconnected and just carefully drip scottoil(straight from the bottle) on the chain every few hundred miles/2 weeks or use Wurth. I'm with Figaro and his earlier post, the important grease is inside, so what you use outside isn't too important as long as the o/x-rings aren't bone dry.
My experience of Scottoilers is not good. Sure they work, and sure they increase chain life, but they also make an unholy mess meaning you're forever cleaning the back end of the bike. I daresay they were worth their weight in gold before chains grew O-rings, but I can't see the point of them now unless you're a real high-mileage rider.
Get them 'just right' and they're great, no more than 1 drip per minute-and-a-bit(80secs?) IMO. Scottoiler says 1-2 drips per min but thats an oily mess after 30miles riding. Twice a year i used to remove the chain from my GPZ500(sold it earlier this year sadly/regret it now), clean it in WD40, then hang it up vertically and drip feed thick engine or gearbox oil from the top until gravity had it dripping from the bottom. Leave it a few hours then wipe, wipe and wipe again and re-fit(horseshoe link). Old skool but my GPZ loved me for doing that!
On both the scottoilers I had the minimum setting was still too much, covering the back of the bikes in crap. What I saved in chain wear was more than lost in the amount of extra cleaning kit I had to buy.
I use a Scott oiler, and yes sure it does make a mess, but at least the mess washes off....which was difficult when I used chain wax....that stuff stuck to everything! After every wash, it's important to put oil or wd40 on the chain to stop surface corrosion! Forgot to do it last time and a week later....don't even want to talk about it!
Profi Dry Lube - not much fling, but you have to clean original grease off first. Chain at 15k miles, adjusted 3 times and anticipate another 5k life minimum?
