1st off, congrats on the new ride, Aasland.
Isn't lubing the chain 2 or 3 times a day sort of inconvenient?
It depends on who you ask.
Some people think you still need to lube your chain at every gas stop. That kind of thinking is mostly a hold over from the past when chains were not as advanced as they are today.
If you look at the wear points on a drive chain, it is primarily at the pin / roller interface, where the male pins on the outer half chain links run through the hollow rollers of the inner half links. On modern drive chain that area is pre-lubricated with heavy grease and sealed with o-rings. When the chain is in use the rollers contact the teeth of the sprocket and roll down the ramps of the teeth, so there is no friction or wear on those teeth unless / until you lose the sealed lubrication and the rollers start to seize up.
On a properly aligned driveline there is minimal contact of the chain plates with the sides of the sprockets, only enough to keep the chain centered on them, so the wear there should also also be minimal. The main thing you are doing by lubricating a modern o-ring chain is weather protection, helping to keep the chain from rusting, and keeping the o-rings sealed and lubricated from the outside so they do not wear out and lose their internal lube.
One of the worst things that you can do to a chain is to clean it too much. Scrubbing a chain with solvent and a brush is a great way to force dirt behind the o-rings, which is the beginning of the end for your chain. You are much better off using a relatively dry type of lubricant that does not attract dirt and doesn't need a lot of cleaning. When you do clean it, using a light oil (WD40 as an example) and rags is preferable to brush scrubbing or soaking in cleaner / solvent.
I have taken to using Dupont Teflon Spray lube ion my chains for several reasons. It sprays on thin and clear, and dries to a waxy paste that coats the chain, but will not fling off and make a mess. It also doesn't seem to attract nearly as much dirt as some of the gooey spray lubes do. I find that I do not have to clean the chain nearly as often, which as described above, is a very good thing.
I tend to just spray my chains every now and then with the Dupont stuff without cleaning. Not even every day, if there has been no rain. Maybe twice a season I will clean the chain when I am cleaning the rest of the bike. And my chains last as long or longer than most other folks. 20-30k miles is a reasonable expectation, though I have heard of 50k miles and more on some bikes using the same regimen. The cost is equivalent to a set of tires, not such a big deal.
