Clean front and rear gear sprockets in situ or remove?

[LittleGreyCat]

I've just cleaned my drive train thoroughly for the first time (which makes me a bad person).

I took the chain off, removed the rear wheel.

Cleaned the front cogs in situ with an Evans special brush and citrus degreaser, then gently rinsed. This took a while.
Leaned the rear wheel at an angle over a bowl and cleaned the cogs with the Evans brush then gently rinsed off. This also took a while.

An alternative would be to take off the outer and middle front rings and dunk them in cleaning fluid, and take the rear cluster off and dunk that.

The second option looks like less effort in that the components can be soaked, and potentially vibrated in a cleaning bath, making the cleaning easier and removing the issue of getting cleaning fluid on the bike and the wheel in places it shouldn't be.

I am, however, wary of little unexpected extra things which pop up when you don't use the simplest method.

Any downside to a partial strip down for cleaning?

[Mick F]

Not partial, but full.
The more often you do it, the easier and quicker it is.

However, there is a school of thought that none of this matters at all. Run things to destruction, then replace the whole lot .......... chain, cassette and eventually chainrings as well.

Personally, I'd rather keep everything clean and long-lasting.

[alexnharvey]

I took off a cassette and disassembled last week to clean it. So much easier than buggering about with rags down the gaps.

[David9694]

It is nice to get the front chainwheel off (I’ve never taken the rings off) and give that part of the bike a good clean. It’s also satisfying to put a mucky cassette in a vibrating jewellery cleaner and loosen all that gunge.

[mattsccm]

if the cassette is filthy I use a wire brush on it first then maybe a washing up brush and some petrol. Sometimes I yank the cassette off and wipe it over in a ice cream tub with a drop of some fuel in it.
Chain ring gets a wipe with the rag I dried the cassette with. Quick and easy.

[Brucey]

Hot pressure wash works better (and quicker) than anything. Needs to be directed with discretion though, and your seals/greasing needs to be in first class shape too.

cheers

[keyboardmonkey]

I took off a cassette and disassembled last week to clean it. So much easier than buggering about with rags down the gaps.

Yes, that’s what I do.

Next chain that goes on will have a Shimano pin holding it together rather than a quick link. The chain will be cleaned with a chain bath or brush or rag until it’s dumped.

[GranvilleThomas]

Not partial, but full.
The more often you do it, the easier and quicker it is.

However, there is a school of thought that none of this matters at all. Run things to destruction, then replace the whole lot .......... chain, cassette and eventually chainrings as well.

Yes, this is what I do and I find it the most economical way to do things in the long run as well as the fact that with work commitments and having to spend time with my children, I find it a difficult balancing act to find the time to strip and clean the transmission (and i'm lazy!), I may once a year give things like the chain, cassette and jockey wheels a 'scrape'.

Any spare time I have I would rather be riding my bike.

Oh and to further put the cat amongst the pigeons, I think people who pay a fortune for chain lube are mad as hatters, I mean, come on, for example Wiggle are asking £36.44 for a 50 ML bottle of Muc-off Nanotube chain lube and that's reduced from £49.99, add it all up, surely it's cheaper to buy a new chain, or cassette or chainrings every 10 years rather than spend money on tiny bottles of 'snake oil'?

I have used GT85 on all mine and my children's bikes for many years and have had no problems whatsoever. Don't get me wrong if people have the time and want to take off and strip down their chains and cassettes and chainrings etc, every few months or every year and 'boil' them 'de grease' them, 'lube' them measure them and then put it all back together and that's what floats their boats then good luck to them!

I would not criticise anyone for this course of action but I have never seen it as necessary and everything works fine, in fact I still have an ancient 7spd Sedis chain on one of my bikes and I have honestly forgotten how long ago I purchased it but it still works as expected, so I can see no reason to change my methods

[Carlton green]

I've just cleaned my drive train thoroughly for the first time (which makes me a bad person).

I took the chain off, removed the rear wheel.

Cleaned the front cogs in situ with an Evans special brush and citrus degreaser, then gently rinsed. This took a while.
Leaned the rear wheel at an angle over a bowl and cleaned the cogs with the Evans brush then gently rinsed off. This also took a while.

An alternative would be to take off the outer and middle front rings and dunk them in cleaning fluid, and take the rear cluster off and dunk that.

The second option looks like less effort in that the components can be soaked, and potentially vibrated in a cleaning bath, making the cleaning easier and removing the issue of getting cleaning fluid on the bike and the wheel in places it shouldn't be.

I am, however, wary of little unexpected extra things which pop up when you don't use the simplest method.

I’ve never used fancy oil on my chain or any other part of the bike. For a long time standard 3 in 1 served my needs well for literally thousands of miles. Now any oil that’s in the workshop for say a mower is a fine general purpose lubricant, IMHO it’s a bike not some finely tuned high performance rocket vehicle.

Any downside to a partial strip down for cleaning?

Yes there is a downside to partial strip down for cleaning. It takes ages and it risks disturbing things that might not go back together as intended (bits get damaged, parts get lost and somethings just get put back together incorrectly).

My day to day ride is a hub gear bike and one of the reasons for that is the ease of maintenance, however I have derailleur bikes too and recently dusted them off plus cleaned the transmission up. I use the thin blade of a wall paper / paint scrapper tool (eg. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amtech-G0665-2 ... Cdiy%2C180 ) to move hard muck off of the chainwheels and between the rear sprockets followed up with rags. Turn the cranks, position scraper and off comes the bulk of the crud. The chain is cleaned with oil and rag, sometimes an old paint brush comes in handy too to brush off and poke out crud. The jockey wheels might need removing and greasing, I didn’t bother last time but I should have done - probably best to do one jockey wheel at a time.

Though I aim to it isn’t actually necessary to remove every last bit of grime and crud, just try to keep things oiled and the working/wearing surfaces of parts clean.

[gxaustin]

Yes there is a downside to partial strip down for cleaning. It takes ages and it risks disturbing things that might not go back together as intended (bits get damaged, parts get lost and somethings just get put back together incorrectly).

I'd like to know how you can damage/lose parts from a cassette by taking it off to clean it. Its easy and takes no longer than messing with cloths IMO. I often take my chains off, using a quicklink and have never had a problem re-making it.

[francovendee]

Once in every four clean ups I take the drive train off the bike and clean it in white spirit.
It does take a little longer but gives you an opportunity to have a good look at everything and spot potential problems.
On or off the bike it's still a messy job.

[Carlton green]

Once in every four clean ups I take the drive train off the bike and clean it in white spirit.
It does take a little longer but gives you an opportunity to have a good look at everything and spot potential problems.
On or off the bike it's still a messy job.

That seems logical enough to me. Cleaning stuff removes abrasive materials and that removal has a value, it also allows you to see damage and wear which is valuable too. Sometimes damage and wear has happened in places that can’t be seen without disassembly but in my experience it’s rare enough to follow your route of not dissembling everything every time you clean.

[Carlton green]

Yes there is a downside to partial strip down for cleaning. It takes ages and it risks disturbing things that might not go back together as intended (bits get damaged, parts get lost and somethings just get put back together incorrectly).

I'd like to know how you can damage/lose parts from a cassette by taking it off to clean it. Its easy and takes no longer than messing with cloths IMO. I often take my chains off, using a quicklink and have never had a problem re-making it.

My bikes have screw on free-wheels rather than cassettes and I don’t use quick-links (I split and rejoin the chain when needed). What I use might not be ‘modern’ or ‘the best’ but it works for me and similar has worked for loads of people over vast mileages and over many decades - which means it’s an effective way of doing things. If taking stuff apart and reassembling it makes you happy then be happy, my experience is that once parts are properly assembled it’s best to monitor and leave them that way until corrective action is actually needed. YMMV, we all find ways forward that work for us as individuals .

[mattheus]

Yes there is a downside to partial strip down for cleaning. It takes ages and it risks disturbing things that might not go back together as intended (bits get damaged, parts get lost and somethings just get put back together incorrectly).

I'd like to know how you can damage/lose parts from a cassette by taking it off to clean it. Its easy and takes no longer than messing with cloths IMO. I often take my chains off, using a quicklink and have never had a problem re-making it.

If you take something - with several sub-parts - off the bike, then there is a chance of damaging/losing bits.

Quick-link parts are even smaller than cassette parts => easier to lose.

If you leave the above parts ON the bike, you much reduce the change of loss or damage.
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The only reason I would take these parts off to clean them would be that it is IMMENSELY satisfying when I have the time. I couldn't justify it on any other grounds.

[hamster]

I have used GT85 on all mine and my children's bikes for many years and have had no problems whatsoever. Don't get me wrong if people have the time and want to take off and strip down their chains and cassettes and chainrings etc, every few months or every year and 'boil' them 'de grease' them, 'lube' them measure them and then put it all back together and that's what floats their boats then good luck to them!

GT85 has a nasty habit of getting into freehub bodies where it then washes the grease out. It's then followed by water which rusts the things solid. I used to get through a freehub body a year on my MTB.
On the advice of Chris Juden (and an explanation of the above) I went away from GT 85 and have never killed a freehub body in the 20 years since.
I agree that non-exotic general oils are often as good, but a thicker oil applied dropwise to the chain keeps it in the intended places.