Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Topic started by: cpjmathieson on 26 January, 2009, 07:29:40 pm
-
Being fairly new to the cycling world....how often should you/Do you clean and lube your chain??
What methods and lubes recommended.....I currently clean once every one to two months, clean old grime off with WD40 and rag and then re lube using cycle oil, just trying finish line wet lube at the mo.
-
You're about to find out that everyone has their own way of doing this because there simply isn't any one single correct answer.
I clean mine about every 1000km using a jar of white spirit and an old toothbrush. I don't bother wiping it down inbetween these deep cleans.
Once I've got it clean looking I'll put it back on the bike and relube with Finish Line Wet.
-
How often? Err. How long is a piece of string? It'll depend how much crap your chain picks up which will vary according to one or all of the following:
- How wet the weather is.
- How filthy the roads are (surprising how much filth you can gather on a country road).
- The type of lubricant you use.
- Other stuff I've forgotten which someone else will fill in.
It's probably (to borrow an RCM term or two) an 'on condition' rather than a 'scheduled' task.
As to cleaning, consensus hereabouts seems to be; unship the chain, shoogle it in a jar of your favourite degreaser (paraffin/white spirit/diesel/other), refix and 'oil' with your preferred lubricant. A lot of people hereabouts go for either Finish Line Wet (green top) or Purple, but it's all a matter of what works best for you and that's going to require a little trial and error.
This is a perennial topic. If you hunt around the forum you'll find other posts discussing this.
-
When? The point in time at which I can be arsed and the need is there, coincide.
How? Chain off, into a jar of diesel, Slosh Slosh Slosh.
Lube? Finish Line Wet, or Chainsaw Oil for the 1/8ths.
-
I've stopped cleaning mine - just a wipe with a rag when it's filthy/noisy/rusty and bung more lube on. Single speed drivetrains are much more forgiving than multi geared setups - and I treat chains as consumables.
-
When mine gets wet (from rain or washing), I let it dry a bit, then use WD40 followed by a spray lube like TF3 once it's dripped through.
Otherwise, it gets the occasional lube.
And I like to buy a new chain every year, though, if I'm honest, even on the hard-used chains (commuter/tourer & tandem) it's every other year.
-
Here's a previous thread. (http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6128.0)
-
Muc off degreaser in a chain bath, like the Park or BBB one. Takes 2 minutes. Apply lube later when chain dry. I use dry lube if its dry and wet lube if its wet. ;) Personally, I find Pedros Synlube to be my favourite wet lube as it seems to stay clean and lube better for longer. That White Lightening stuff is shit.
I ride everyday, often through mud and shit on lanes. I clean my chain at least once a week in winter (so every 150 miles, if I'm just commuting)
-
Once a week:
dribble on a nice wetting of Prolink gold lube, backpedal to run chain for a minute or two.
wipe off by running chain through my chain cloth.
Result: sparkling clean chain all the time, even in winter. No muck buildup on the chain. Minor muck on the jockey wheels and sprockets - scrubbed off every 6 months or 3000 miles or thereabouts.
An "expensive" lube but a 32 oz can has lasted me years so far..
-
:thumbsup: CHEERS :thumbsup: I'll look through the other threads!
-
Well my new bike is about six years old. I don't believe in taking the chain off unless it's knackered.
My simple process is turn the bike over, clean the chain with an old toothbrush. I use some parafin in a plastic container plus some rags to protect the bike. When the chain is reasonably clean, wipe it with an old rag and lightly oil with 3 in 1 or sewing machine oil.
-
Depends on the bike. The commuter gets a load of fresh lube on the chain, plus a good long wipe with a rag. Rarely anything more (and it keeps pretty clean that way). Similar to pdm.
The cross bike gets mud and sand and stuff all over the chain so it's a degrease in a chain-cleaning bath followed by running through a sponge with hot soapy water until it stops feeling gritty.
The TT bike gets like the commuter but with the occasional thorough clean because I like it to be shiny. Road bike similarly so.
-
Here we go again ;D
I lube every 100 miles with a Wax Lube (ljerams will be along in a minute to say use 3-in-1 oil). I have forgotten before and gone up to 500 or 600 miles between lubes.
Cleaning? I did it once out of interest... that chain has over 10,000 miles on it now, I wonder if I should do it again?
-
I used a wax lube on a 200k last saturday, it was totally useless after about 150k, dry and squeaky. The stuff appeared to have just dried and fallen off. I wonder if the near zero temps had a part to play.
-
I had to lube the chain this morning (with Finish Line Wet) as it was squeaking like a squeaky thing coming back from football last night.
That's 540km of winter riding since its last lube. It's kept indoors when not in use (except for a few hours whilst playing football or in the pub) and is ridden in all weathers, including endless rain.
-
Here we go again ;D
I lube every 100 miles with a Wax Lube (ljerams will be along in a minute to say use 3-in-1 oil). I have forgotten before and gone up to 500 or 600 miles between lubes.
Cleaning? I did it once out of interest... that chain has over 10,000 miles on it now, I wonder if I should do it again?
Wakey wakey, I was two posts ahead of you :P
-
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Whoops, I slide past that post in my freshly lubed state. Unable to stop and take note ;D
memo to self, take those photos of the tandem and fixie that are spattered with 3-in-1 where you tried the 3-in-1 oil again.
-
Oh FFS. Just get a room you two (and lube yourself up with a mixture of 3-in-1 and Finish Line Wet).
-
Does a mixture work OK? :P
-
Here we go again ;D
I lube every 100 miles with a Wax Lube (ljerams will be along in a minute to say use 3-in-1 oil). I have forgotten before and gone up to 500 or 600 miles between lubes.
Cleaning? I did it once out of interest... that chain has over 10,000 miles on it now, I wonder if I should do it again?
Which wax lube do you use (I thinking of trying clean ride while I have a relatively clean chain).
How does it do in the wet - do you re-apply more often?
-
I used White Lightning original.
No real issues in wet or dry. One of the rides was a week of commuting, a 600K Audax which included 16 hours of rain, and then another week of commuting when the first squeak reminded me that it had been a considerable time since I last lubed up.
Other people's experience with this lube hasn't been as good; hence me not naming it upthread. But I love it.
ps, for ljerams - me chain's squeaking and rattling on the fixie. Last lubed 150 miles ago with 3-in-1. The rear wheel and frame are covered in oil now :(
-
You must have bought some fake 3 in 1 ;D
In 50 years, I've never had any of your problems :P
Even Thai 3 in 1 performs better than you report.
-
Thread resurrection: herewith the most complicated chain cleaning plan imaginable.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html
tee hee
-
Recent convert to "Rock N Roll. Lubrication"
Well happy with it.
Squirt it on liberally and regularly. It claims to be a cleaner as well as a lube. The drive chain has stayed much cleaner than prior lubes I have used.
You get an audible sound when pedaling when using this stuff , not dissimilar to the whistling of a dry chain (to my old ears anyway)
Once you realize that its not a creaking chain, the sound is kind of cool.
I used to use Phils tenacious, and everything stuck to it. Its basically too tenacious.
-
I treat chains as disposable items. I may lube (Finish Line Wet Weather) but I replace them rather than clean them.
-
Type 1, Manual Lubrication
Oil is applied periodically with a brush or oil
can, preferably once every 8 hours of operation.
Volume and frequency should be sufficient to
just keep the chain wet with oil and allow
penetration of clean lubricant into the chain
joints.
Applying lubricant by aerosol can be satisfactory
under some conditions, but it is important that
the aerosol lubricant is of an approved type for
the application, such as that supplied by
Renold. This type of lubricant penetrates into
the pin/bush/roller clearances, resisting both
the tendency to drip or drain when the chain
is stationary and centrifugal “flinging”when
the chain is moving.
From the Renold catalogue.
-
I treat chains as disposable items. I may lube (Finish Line Wet Weather) but I replace them rather than clean them.
This.
new chain every 6 months 5000 km.
-
As reply#8 but not necessarily weekly.
Before an audax - usually
After an audax - it's been wet
-
Surely it depends on the riding conditions? If you've been riding on particularly sandy roads, the chain will have picked up sand and grit. It is worth getting this cleaned off or it will wear out your cassette/chainring.
-
Surely it depends on the riding conditions? If you've been riding on particularly sandy roads, the chain will have picked up sand and grit. It is worth getting this cleaned off or it will wear out your cassette/chainring.
Don't be ridiculous. It is quite possible to apply scientific rigour to the problem to result in an adequate chain cleaning/lubricating regime that will accommodate all situations, for all bikes, for every rider in every weather.
However, ICBA.
(ETA: on re-reading this I think it was only 'funny' in my head last night after some wine. Today it reads like a grumpy rant. I was trying to use sarcasm to agree with you, MrC. Apologies if that wasn't clear).
-
I cleaned my chain a couple of months ago where I took it off the bike, doused It in a tin of de-greaser, used a brush to clean off the crud, dried it and lubed It with muc-off dry. All worked fine and then left bike in garage for last three weeks, came to ride it this morning when I found chain seized solid, chain now swimming in de-greaser again :facepalm:
May buy a new one instead.
-
I don't understand why people use degreaser. The closest I come to a degreaser, with a really, really mucky chain, is a jar half full of diesel. Drop chain in, swirl around, pull chain out (an old spoke is good for this) scrub off the dirt that hasn't fallen off. Hang chain up over jar until most of the diesel has run off. Wipe down with rag, put back on bike. Oil.
That's a deep clean.
Surely a degreaser is just going to take the lube out from between the rollers. Sounds a really bad idea to me.
-
Surely it depends on the riding conditions? If you've been riding on particularly sandy roads, the chain will have picked up sand and grit. It is worth getting this cleaned off or it will wear out your cassette/chainring.
Don't be ridiculous. It is quite possible to apply scientific rigour to the problem to result in an adequate chain cleaning/lubricating regime that will accommodate all situations, for all bikes, for every rider in every weather.
However, ICBA.
(ETA: on re-reading this I think it was only 'funny' in my head last night after some wine. Today it reads like a grumpy rant. I was trying to use sarcasm to agree with you, MrC. Apologies if that wasn't clear).
That seems to me to be an entirely rational reply compared with most of the posts on this perennial topic.
AFAIK there have been only 2 experimental results (sometimes known as facts ;)) posted here on this subject. Can anyone provide any more?
-
Back in Ye Olden Days when there was only one cycling mag with coloured pictures (I think called Bicycling but I could be wrong) they had a test done at Southampton Uni by people wearing white coats. The result was a win for WD40 over more conventional lubricants, which will no doubt be greeted with mirth and derision in this place.
I used to use Sheldon Brown's shake it in a bottle with cleaner method, but found the chains never really got clean. I now use Finish Line Wet and occasionally scrape off the thick layer of greasy road grit the collects all around the jockey wheels and chainwheels. For some reason chains seem to have got more expensive while cassettes have got cheaper - or maybe I just no longer worry about saving the odd 10 grams!
Bryn
-
I don't understand why people use degreaser....
....Surely a degreaser is just going to take the lube out from between the rollers. Sounds a really bad idea to me.
well, if that lube was dirty, why on earth would you want to keep it there?
Looking at it rationally there are only a few things to worry about;
1) the 'grinding paste' between the chain rollers and the sprockets (which wears the sprockets)
2) the 'grinding paste' behind the rollers, which wears the rollers looser and looser on the chain, (but can't be too harmful, else chains wouldn't come new with differing roller clearances...)
3) the 'grinding paste' between the side plates, which causes the chain to become (laterally) floppier and floppier
4) the 'grinding paste' in the pin bushings, which wears the chain longer and longer.
The last of these is the most common sort of wear that leads to a chain becoming unserviceable. The rate of such wear varies strongly with how dirty the lubricant is in the chain bushings. If the outside of a chain is at all dirty, then -excepting those chains with a wax or grease lubrication, in which it takes a little while for the dirt to penetrate the bushings- you can immediately assume that there is dirt in the bushings too.
Note that modern chains are nearly all 'bushingless' which means that both lube and contaminants more quickly penetrate the pin bushings.
There is a simple test to see if your chain is properly clean or not; having cleaned it, refit it to the bike and spray it with something like GT85. If, after a few tens of turns of the pedals, the chain is at all dirty, you will see dirt ooze out of the links, and you will know that you didn't really clean it properly.
One tip I have is that if you use any chain lube that contains solvent, whilst it is a good idea to work the chain so that the lube penetrates fully, it is a bad idea to ride the bike before all the solvent has flashed off. With solvent still present, much of the lube will simply be thrown off the chain too easily; what remains will have a very poor film strength, and will allow metal to metal contact in the bushings more easily than normal.
The subject of chain lubrication and care has probably generated longer lines of discussion and argument than the length of all the chains in the World put together; despite this there is -as someone commented upthread- no one 'best solution' to the problem.
cheers
-
Paraffin wash chain off bike once every 1000km (maybe !) then chain saw oil , cheap and cheerful and doesn`t pick up grit but washes off; OR if wet a wet lube such as Muc Off / Finish line wet but although they stay on after a bit chain becomes tacky and picks up grit / or Rock and Roll Gold thin , clean but doesn`t last long. So no one answer. Had spell almost entirely chain saw oil in winter but in wet, had keep replacing so swopped out to a wet conditions lube.
-
Following my last post, after a day in de-greaser, chain was solid on most of the links including the rollers. Can only put this down to the muc-off dry lube which I believe solidifies as a wax coating, this was the reason for it solidifying within.
Then went to use white spirit and after that I had to use pliers to break the wax in the pins, then onto petrol which seemed to loosen it up nicely, took hours to get all the links loose. Had to rotate each roller by hand and use a small flat screwdriver to remove enough wax for the rollers to rotate. Finally checked for wear and found it to be servicible so lubed with normal oil after drying said chain, probably would have been easier to buy a new one though. Muc-off dry is now in the bin.
-
There is a simple test to see if your chain is properly clean or not; having cleaned it, refit it to the bike and spray it with something like GT85. If, after a few tens of turns of the pedals, the chain is at all dirty, you will see dirt ooze out of the links, and you will know that you didn't really clean it properly.
My current summer bike regime of Morgan Blue Degreaser sprayed on and scrubbed with a toothbrush, Muc-Off chain cleaner filled with water/Tesco Car Shampoo, followed by ProGold results in a remarkably clean chain when judged in this way. Best yet so far.
-
Buying a decent oil can is a tad problematic these days and Reiling are a bit expensive.
-
i've decided to do an experiment a few months back when i installed a new chain (kmc gold) to see how long the factory lube lasts in dry conditions. i've cleaned all the sticky lube off the links with wet wipes, only leaving it inside the rollers. same procedure after every subsequent ride - just wipe any excess grease that's pushed out from inside the rollers, leaving the chain sparkling clean and shiny (but still lubed inside). finally the chain started to get chatty (but not squeaky yet) after ~1200km and i oiled it for the first time after 1350km. these chains typically last for up to 7000km when they get stretched 0.7%.
-
I've stopped cleaning mine - just a wipe with a rag when it's filthy/noisy/rusty and bung more lube on. Single speed drivetrains are much more forgiving than multi geared setups - and I treat chains as consumables.
On the fixed I rend to find that it's the cogs that need the cleaning, the chain itself just needs a quick wipe-down and relube.
-
Purists (such as myself O:-) ) remove the chain, put it in a closed container with some white spirit and shakes vigorously until your arms ache and then some more.
Remove chain and wipe off excess white spirit the repeat the shaking process with clean white spirit.
Remove chain dry off excess white spirit then twist chain. If the chain feels gritty do another shake in white spirit until the chain no longer feels gritty.
Remove white spirit from the chain ( I use a rinse in isopropanol).
When you put the chain back onto a bike with cleaned rear mech, sprockets and chainrings apply your favoured lubricant (mine is purple extreme). Run the chain backwards for 30 seconds or so to ensure lubricant penetrates. Wipe off excess lubricant from the chain, it's no use on the outside of the chain but does act as a dirt magnet.
If required wait until the next day for you lube to dry then off you go.
Some folks use this process with chain rotation, that is you have two or more chains do that when you take the dirty one off you have a clean one ready to go on. Chain rotation also reduces wear on your cassette and chainset.
Good luck whatever you choose to do.