Cycling UK Forum

Chain Care

I seen many suggestion on care and up keep of a cycle chains on this forum.

I use the Mick F Spambuster method , but I was wondering if after the cleaning you used a sonic bath to remove any residue grit/muck , then submerge or brush on dry chain with thick oil that had warmed to make it thinner so it can work it way in between the rollers would that be wise.

Comments

I am sure that method would be quite good. Even better if the chain is warmed too.

I dont think that any oil will need warming. The gaps in a derailleur chain are quite large as far as oil goes.

Mike Burrows advocates immersing a chain in heated gear oil. This may have a benefit in two respects

1) the oil is definitely going to penetrate every crevice of the chain (which it might not otherwise) and

2) as the surplus oil drains from the chain, it carries wear debris away with it, i.e. the chain is cleaner than it would be otherwise.

Lubricants that contain waxes or greases that melt at elevated temperature do need to be melted before they are applied.

cheers

Brucey wrote:Mike Burrows advocates immersing a chain in heated gear oil. This may have a benefit in two respects

1) the oil is definitely going to penetrate every crevice of the chain (which it might not otherwise) and

2) as the surplus oil drains from the chain, it carries wear debris away with it, i.e. the chain is cleaner than it would be otherwise.

Lubricants that contain waxes or greases that melt at elevated temperature do need to be melted before they are applied.

cheers

I used to do that with my motorbike chains....it's got to be well over forty years ago.

Nothing new in the world eh ??

Tiberius wrote:

Brucey wrote:Mike Burrows advocates immersing a chain in heated gear oil. This may have a benefit in two respects

1) the oil is definitely going to penetrate every crevice of the chain (which it might not otherwise) and

2) as the surplus oil drains from the chain, it carries wear debris away with it, i.e. the chain is cleaner than it would be otherwise.

Lubricants that contain waxes or greases that melt at elevated temperature do need to be melted before they are applied.

cheers

I used to do that with my motorbike chains....it's got to be well over forty years ago.

Nothing new in the world eh ??

"Link life" - a heavy grease full of graphite. One boiled one's chain in the tin, extracted it hot and wiped it clean.

Assuming a clean chain went in, the stuff was a marvellous lubricant. However, it did imprint indelible chain patterns upon the legs and clothing. The leg ones faded as the skin sloughed off the surface after a couple of weeks. The clothing never recovered.

Cugel

I remember doing a tour on my motorcycle and I thought to save weight and space I would just drip some (probably engine) oil on the chain each night as you would a push bike.
The (new) chain was destroyed before I got home. Just Sheffield to Vienna.

1066enthalpies1939 wrote:Chain Care

I seen many suggestion on care and up keep of a cycle chains on this forum.

I use the Mick F Spambuster method , but I was wondering if after the cleaning you used a sonic bath to remove any residue grit/muck , then submerge or brush on dry chain with thick oil that had warmed to make it thinner so it can work it way in between the rollers would that be wise.

Comments

If you do what I have suggested, you can eat your dinner with your chain afterwards.

After refitting the chain, use a chain lubricant of your choice. Don't just leave it like that. Repeat the whole cleaning process when it needs it. Maybe weekly if required if the weather is wet.
Have two or three chains if you want, and just take one off and re-fit a clean one to clean the dirty one at your leisure.

You don't need to go to any lengths to lubricate a bike chain, just use a proper one. I like White Lightning Clean Ride on Mercian, but Epic Ride on Moulton as the chain run is very low down near the road and it get very dirty. Epic Ride cleans off very very much easier and quicker than the wax lube Clean Ride. Mercian's chain doesn't need cleaning as often.

Brucey wrote:Mike Burrows advocates immersing a chain in heated gear oil. This may have a benefit in two respects

1) the oil is definitely going to penetrate every crevice of the chain (which it might not otherwise) and

2) as the surplus oil drains from the chain, it carries wear debris away with it, i.e. the chain is cleaner than it would be otherwise.

Lubricants that contain waxes or greases that melt at elevated temperature do need to be melted before they are applied.

cheers

Ah the old Linklyfe tubs of solid grease you put on the stove to melt it - I didnt find it any good for motor cycle chains but I suspect cycle chains would be a different matter.

What I do is to take the chanin off and run thru some old nylon sheets ( seems to be very good good for removing the outer grime) then hang it up and use Carlube spraying from the top and let it drip/run down taking any rubbish with it.

Doesn’t removing the chain all the time cause damage/west to the link?

Not if you use a "powerlink" or similar.
They are designed for repeated tool-free use.

Mick F wrote:

1066enthalpies1939 wrote:Chain Care

I seen many suggestion on care and up keep of a cycle chains on this forum.

I use the Mick F Spambuster method , but I was wondering if after the cleaning you used a sonic bath to remove any residue grit/muck , then submerge or brush on dry chain with thick oil that had warmed to make it thinner so it can work it way in between the rollers would that be wise.

Comments

If you do what I have suggested, you can eat your dinner with your chain afterwards.

After refitting the chain, use a chain lubricant of your choice. Don't just leave it like that. Repeat the whole cleaning process when it needs it. Maybe weekly if required if the weather is wet.
Have two or three chains if you want, and just take one off and re-fit a clean one to clean the dirty one at your leisure.

You don't need to go to any lengths to lubricate a bike chain, just use a proper one. I like White Lightning Clean Ride on Mercian, but Epic Ride on Moulton as the chain run is very low down near the road and it get very dirty. Epic Ride cleans off very very much easier and quicker than the wax lube Clean Ride. Mercian's chain doesn't need cleaning as often.

My experience is that Epic ride is the worst chain lubricant I have ever encountered.

I gave up on it very rapidly after a bad long weekend - lubricated the chain on the Thursday (yes I did shake it thoroughly before application) & set off for a couple of nights camping on the Friday. No rain at all but there was a heavy dew both nights (& the bike was out in the open overnight) & fog on the Sunday morning for a while. By the time I got home on the Sunday the chain was developing stiff links.

Monday went & bought new chain lube. I've never had that problem with any other chain lubes I have used before or since (apart from when a dog decided to wee on my chain when it was parked while on a tour in rural France in the 1970s & it was a while before I found somewhere to buy some oil!)

You should have put more on?

I cleaned and lubed Moulton's chain on Tuesday last week.
Measured it = one eighth of an inch over at 39" as measured on my long ruler.
Done just over 1,800miles since new with never a stiff link.
Done just under 50miles since then over two rides.
I'll maybe add some more Epic Ride before the next ride.

FWIW this makes for interesting reading

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WLE.pdf

anyone know what the patent number is for WL's 1999 patent?

Also of interest is

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/chaintesting/

note that the cost of parts locally will make a difference to the cost per 10000km. Slightly odd that they chose a lube that performed so poorly to use when they carried out their longevity tests....?

Also see

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/lubetesting/

cheers

Not read all that, sorry.
I did read the test bits and the comments.

I think they must have used a different formulation than I use and from a different bottle.
The bottles do not say "Extreme Durability", but they do say to use it generously and the fact that you'll need to clean the chain from time to time.
Both of those things I do, and I haven't had any issues whatsoever of excess wear or squeaking.



Bit of background ..........
If you look through this forum, you'll see that I raised the issue of WL Clean Ride seemingly less waxy and how when the bottle settles, the wax level at the bottom was far less than it used to be. We had a few contributors putting up photographs of their settled bottles and some were pitiful like mine and some were generous.

I emailed WL and put the problem to them with a link to the forum.
They replied that they had a QA problem and it had been sorted.
Next thing I knew, I had a package arrive with a eight bottles of Epic Ride.
Consequently, I use it on Moulton, though wouldn't have bought any as I prefer Clean Ride ............... when it's good.

Since this episode, I've bought a couple of bottles Clean Ride and they are as generous in wax as they used to be.