Chain degreasing on the bike

[Manc33]

Sometimes its cheaper to just buy a new chain (it is on 8-speed) than these cleaning products... but then you've got 100 miles of a new chain wearing into your old cassette.

Whats absurd is you can buy a 12 Oz can of that Clean Streak stuff in the US for about $3 (£2.11) but in the UK it costs £5 a can and £5 to courier it to you because it is an aerosol.

Let's face it, anyone ordering dry degreaser must be in cahoots with Bin Laden.

What I want to know is how the hell does a shop take a delivery of said aerosols when they probably have a thousand ruddy cans of it on one lorry? Thats OK but one can can't be sent to an individual?! We're getting the **** taken out of us. As long as no one complains it won't ever stop.

[Tangled Metal]

If the chain degreaser is on of these:- http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-ma ... oCljfw_wcB
I'd suggest it's user error as I've had one for donkeys and it work very well,if it's fitted together correctly

That's the one. It's fitted around the chain and closed ok but the lever part goes onto the jockey wheel of the derailleur according to the instructions. This didn't seem to fit well. Most of the time it kept coming off.

I ended up closing the lever like the single speed instruction said then holding it in place while backpedaling. This worked ok but I wasn't impressed. Thought it should be easier. Reckon the park tools version would be better with its handle. I've.got a good set of bike brushes that would be just as fast as I found the Halfords gadget. I've got a spray degreaser from muc-off that worked better than the Halfords degreaser that came with the tool. The Halfords tool seemed to catch on the chain too, the opening just caught unless you held it just so.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll get the practise with it as my chain seems to get mucky quickly despite not using too much lube. I use wet lube because of the wet weather in the northwest here but only drip it into the top of the chain just.before it goes round the cassette. I do one round of the chain, as best as I can guess. I have wiped off excess if needed. This does seem to make the chain run better.

[Brucey]

a hot jetwash (and a squirt or two of something before and after as necessary) will clean any in-situ chain to bare metal in about three minutes. It'll clean the sprockets and chainrings too.

cheers

Excellent idea to damage the paintjob of the bike, decals, and especially to have moisture in the frame AND to contaminate the bearings around (freehub, bottom bracket....)
....

yes of course, and if you are daft enough to do all that by being so clumsy then perhaps you should be specially careful that you don't point the jetwash at your face too....

Any tool is only as good as the bloke using it; I've cleaned the same bikes hundreds of times using a jetwash and not wrecked anything....

cheers

[Manc33]

I remember when my mate borrowed my bike and brought it back filthy.

"Its OK I will take it to the jetwash" he said. Hey come back, no you won't!

After what happened with Muc-Off that time (chain went rusty in one week) I ain't putting anything water based anywhere near my chain. I'm even in two minds these days about using diesel and that's the one always recommended because it leaves a thin layer of lubrication in the chain.

I tried petrol and paraffin and they are too erm... volatile? They strip out everything including that magic wax stuff Sheldon Brown used to talk about.

The only thing I have never done but can see myself doing it is the wax in a frying pan trick... if you can get that magic wax from somewhere, then I think thats a great way to do it because it forms into something that repels water and isn't all that thin.

It doesn't matter how many rinses it has in diesel, there's always grey oil comes out afterwards.

I think a big part of it is getting a decent chain. Since the first KMC I bought I have never wanted another brand, I reckon these KMC (8/9) are the best chains I have ever used.

[Gattonero]

...

Any tool is only as good as the bloke using it; I've cleaned the same bikes hundreds of times using a jetwash and not wrecked anything....

cheers

Correct, so I would be careful before advising a procedure that is done only by professional mechanics (and even them, they never put degreaser right on the sprockets)

In real life, a bucket of water and a brush do suffice very well for cleaning a bicycle in the best way, and it doesn't even take that long: scrub the big dirt first (drivetrain and brakes) then finish with the sponge&washing up liquid.
Like I said, a bicycle well kept needs no big degreasing. IMO, jet-washing is not an excuse for quickly doing the cleaning that had never been done before

[Vorpal]

Any tool is only as good as the bloke using it

Or woman using it, even.

[Davesport]

I use a slightly different approach as I ride in some very muddy areas & also on the beach.

Firstly I don't lubricate my chains with anything other than a dry wax lube. It's a wax emulsion that dries on to form a hard film. This prevents sand sticking to it as it does with conventional lubes/oil. When I get home and deem that the chain needs cleaned I use a Park tools chain scrubber filled with diluted bike cleaner. That gets rid of the grot & most of the old lube, I then rinse everything with fresh water. I know that not everyone has a compressor but I then use the airline to get all the remaining water out of the chain. This leaves the chain clean & dry. I then apply more wax and put the bike away until I need it again. All of the above takes me less than 5 minutes.

A couple of points. If the drive train is covered in mud I do this when I return from every ride. Riding on the road the wax easily last most of the week without any intervention. The wax lube shrugs off dirt / water and lasts a long time between re-applications. I'm 53, been cycling all my life and this is the best solution I've found. You can't mix dry lubes with oily chains, so there's no point just throwing some wax on when it takes your fancy. One big advantage of using wax is that your transmission never gets dirty That oily black clag that gets stuck in the cassette and jockey wheels. You get a wee bit build up of wax but the stuff that doesn't drop off is easily removed.

D.

[Brucey]

I have yet to find a wax lube that really works well in wet weather and/or resists road salt in any meaningful way. I think wax lubes can work well in some other conditions though.

If you use a hot jetwash it can shift everything out of the chain in double-quick time. There are lots of ways of cleaning a bike (including the transmission) but there are none quicker that I have found.

BTW it is very easy to draw the wrong conclusions about what makes a bike go rusty, especially around this time of year.

Clean water does not make anything go rusty very quickly; it is all the other crud in the water that is the main cause of rust.

I have several bikes that live outdoors and get rained on. In the normal run of things the chains (which are not special chains in any way) don't go rusty at any appreciable rate, and the chains don't need to be oiled repeatedly or anything.

However a single ride on a gritted road and an unwashed chain can go rusty overnight. The absolute worst thing I can do is to park a bike that has been ridden on a gritted road in the shed without washing it; the corrosion will set in and it won't quit, not ever. By comparison a nice rinse of rainwater can help wash out all the salt and will actually stop the bike from corroding as quickly.

NB if you have washed a chain and you want to dry it off, a fair spray of a good water displacer (eg GT85) and then a little agitation/wiping will shift most of the water.

cheers

[Gattonero]

I have yet to find a wax lube that really works well in wet weather and/or resists road salt in any meaningful way. I think wax lubes can work well in some other conditions though.
...

However a single ride on a gritted road and an unwashed chain can go rusty overnight. The absolute worst thing I can do is to park a bike that has been ridden on a gritted road in the shed without washing it; the corrosion will set in and it won't quit, not ever. By comparison a nice rinse of rainwater can help wash out all the salt and will actually stop the bike from corroding as quickly.

NB if you have washed a chain and you want to dry it off, a fair spray of a good water displacer (eg GT85) and then a little agitation/wiping will shift most of the water.

cheers

Agree wit the above. Roads are ful of chemicals too, talk to me about corrosion on alluminium parts!
GT85 is cyclist's friend, much better than WD40

[pwa]

Cleaning the chain without taking the chain off? My suggestion, because I asked a similar question a while back, is to TAKE THE CHAIN OFF. You'll be glad you did as its by far the easiest and best method. Shake it in a jar of diesel, white spirit but not petrol. Really.

Thanks to my coach, Mick down in Cornwall [emoji6]

+1

Not what you asked for, but it's so easy and thorough at the same time. Assuming you have a re-usable Quick-link type link that allows you to remove the chain. Jiggle in paint thinners (white spirit) and hang to drip dry. Re-lube with it spread on sheets of newspaper. And having no chain on allows much easier wiping of the jockey wheels and chain rings. Try it. You may like it.

[reohn2]

NB if you have washed a chain and you want to dry it off, a fair spray of a good water displacer (eg GT85) and then a little agitation/wiping will shift most of the water.

cheers

Two applications of TF2 will do that and lube the chain,left to soak in for a few minutes then back pedal the chain through a rag to remove any excess.
I do use GT85 on other parts to displace any water,such as pivots on mechs and brakes,and brake adjusters as it's very clean and leaves little residue.

[Keezx]

Cleaning the chain without taking the chain off? My suggestion, because I asked a similar question a while back, is to TAKE THE CHAIN OFF. You'll be glad you did as its by far the easiest and best method. Shake it in a jar of diesel, white spirit but not petrol. Really.

+1
Whatever companies invent the wheel again, there is still 1 proper way , take the chain off.
Only a few seconds with a masterlink and far easier too to clean chainwheels an jockeys

[Tangled Metal]

I had a newish bike that had a chain go rusty on the surface overnight. It hadn't been ridden at any time when grit had been on the roads. It had been clean before we drove to our destination. On arrival it had been checked (no sign of rust) and not ridden.

We had just managed to put the tent up and move kit inside when the heavens opened for an hour and a half. We had no time to put the bikes under a bike cover so they got the.full force of the rain. After the rain I put both bikes under a bike cover and noticed the surface rust on my chain not my partner's. I'm guessing it's not caused much damage but that was just rain. Although it might also be down to the chain itself. Either way I avoid rain when storing my bike as much as possible.