jb wrote:Chain cleaners - a salesman's dream, they make the outside shiny nice whilst pushing all the grit inside. Their also good at replacing the chain lubricant with chain cleaner which then takes a couple of rides to be replaced with oil.
As a rough test, If you twist a chain between for-finger and thumb a clean chain will be silent, a still contaminated dry chain will crackle.
I disagree,cleaning a not too mucky chain with a chain scrubber does get it clean and the twist/bend test proves it,if it crackles I run it through the scrubber a second time with clean WS which is seldom needed.
Ether take them off & clean them regularly, or apply oil often & leave them alone letting the dirt sit harmlessly on the outside.
But it doesn't sit harlessly on the surface it get ground up between rollers and cogs/chainrings,that's why I try to keep chains clean.