How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets? (jockey/pulley wheels)
How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets? (jockey/pulley wheels)
Just back from a Munich to Rome tour courtesy of Peak Tours.
The chain has gone from 0.5 to 0.75 on the wear scale and so this getting replaced. As I've got the wheels and cassette off I wondered if I should take the derailleur sprockets apart and service them.
How often do people dismantle their sprockets ?
The chain has gone from 0.5 to 0.75 on the wear scale and so this getting replaced. As I've got the wheels and cassette off I wondered if I should take the derailleur sprockets apart and service them.
How often do people dismantle their sprockets ?
Last edited by Jules59 on 30 Sep 2022, 3:47pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Remove, clean and replace cassette (wheel) sprockets and derailleur pulley wheels and (if possible - some are fixed) the crank toothed rings too. Any muck and wear-inducing particles that were present on the chain will also be present on those items so will quickly coat the new chain if you leave them dirty.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Never, I might point a tin of WD40 in their general direction from time to time.Jules59 wrote: ↑27 Sep 2022, 9:01am Just back from a Munich to Rome tour courtesy of Peak Tours.
The chain has gone from 0.5 to 0.75 on the wear scale and so this getting replaced. As I've got the wheels and cassette off I wondered if I should take the derailleur sprockets apart and service them.
How often do people dismantle their sprockets ?
It has fallen into the life is to short to worry about category
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Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Never, because it seems to me that it is possible, with a bit of care and poking about, to get all of the wearing interfaces clean without doing so. Jockey wheels I do sometimes take out, because they are impossible to get clean, and certainly impossible to get free of entangled strands of grass, without doing that.
I’m now borderline obsessive about cleaning all the wearing interfaces, because it’s so blasted expensive to buy new bits when they do wear out, a lesson I learned the expensive way.
PS: Have I given a contradictory answer, because I’m using a different name from the OP for the same part?
If so, the answer is: as often as necessary, which varies between every ride and many weeks. I do ride a lot @cross country” on bridleways though, which gets jockey wheels a lot dirtier and more entangled than road riding.
I’m now borderline obsessive about cleaning all the wearing interfaces, because it’s so blasted expensive to buy new bits when they do wear out, a lesson I learned the expensive way.
PS: Have I given a contradictory answer, because I’m using a different name from the OP for the same part?
If so, the answer is: as often as necessary, which varies between every ride and many weeks. I do ride a lot @cross country” on bridleways though, which gets jockey wheels a lot dirtier and more entangled than road riding.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
When I fit a new chain, I clean the whole drive-train, derailleurs, cassette, chain rings. If the cassette is very dirty I take it off and dismantle it, chainrings and jockey wheels likewise. I don't lubricate the cassette sprockets or the chainrings, just the chain. Jockey-wheels replaced if necessary, otherwise cleaned and greased.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
I may be slightly more fastidious about chain and associated equipment maintenance if I was faced with spending many hundreds on replacements. But most of my spares are rescued from dumped bikes. I'm currently running a chain wheel ,chain and hydro brakes that came out of the canal thanks to some benevolent magnet fisher men. Sunday tea time is ussualy good for a spares run, before someone throws them back in againNearholmer wrote: ↑27 Sep 2022, 2:16pm Never, because it seems to me that it is possible, with a bit of care and poking about, to get all of the wearing interfaces clean without doing so. Jockey wheels I do sometimes take out, because they are impossible to get clean, and certainly impossible to get free of entangled strands of grass, without doing that.
I’m now borderline obsessive about cleaning all the wearing interfaces, because it’s so blasted expensive to buy new bits when they do wear out, a lesson I learned the expensive way.
PS: Have I given a contradictory answer, because I’m using a different name from the OP for the same part?
If so, the answer is: as often as necessary, which varies between every ride and many weeks. I do ride a lot @cross country” on bridleways though, which gets jockey wheels a lot dirtier and more entangled than road riding.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
So I took one of the sprockets out to find it has a sealed ball bearing, unlike my previous bike which had just a bush. So nothing to lube - just a clean up.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
I yank them out if they get stiff or noisy. If they have a bearing I pop the seals and grease. If a bush I grease. Mostly I lob them in the bin as they don't go noisy until knackered.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Is there a bit of confusion here about what a derailleur sprocket is?
Either it’s a pulley wheel (there are two) that is part of the rear mech
Or it’s a cassette sprocket (the derailleur moves the chain across them) mounted on the rear wheel.
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
..er, I'm supposed to do what now....?
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
No confusion on my part.
My understanding is that sprockets have teeth and are used for chains (or caterpillar tracks), pulleys have no teeth and are used with belts or ropes.
Cassette sprockets don't have bearings as they are fixed to the freehub.
The two Derailleur sprockets fit in the rear mech cage (Some people do refer to these as pulleys though) and have a variety of bearings.
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Understood. Sometimes these threads start and it’s difficult to tell just how accurate the OP is being with specific terms. In this case, however, it seems you are being far more accurate than the manufacturers. Chapeau!
The older I get the more I’m inclined to act my shoe size, not my age.
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Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
I assume the manufacturers named them pulleys because the ones on early derailleurs had no teeth.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154840124187 ... 55f8d0b289
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Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
Strictly speaking I'd call them idler wheels or gears. As they do nothing at all apart from keep the chain off the metal, so idle as far as the drive chain s concernedaxel_knutt wrote: ↑29 Sep 2022, 1:43pmI assume the manufacturers named them pulleys because the ones on early derailleurs had no teeth.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154840124187 ... 55f8d0b289
Re: How often do you dismantle and lube derailleur sprockets?
thats interesting - thanks - I didnt know they once had no teethaxel_knutt wrote: ↑29 Sep 2022, 1:43pmI assume the manufacturers named them pulleys because the ones on early derailleurs had no teeth.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154840124187 ... 55f8d0b289