Tips for chain cleaning

Polly said:

I never seem to get my chain clean enough.
So Id like to hear different ways to clean a chain.

thanks

Use a quick link like Sram powerlink or the Whipperman one and take the
chain off the bike drop it in a jug with some degreaser and shake well.
Rinse and repeat. Hang to dry.

Though there is such thing as clean enough. I just apply lube to my mtb
chains and wipe off the excess taking some of the dirt with it. Don't
obsess...ride.

Mike - I suppose you could "floss" it with a pipe cleaner. ;^)

Polly said:

I never seem to get my chain clean enough.
So Id like to hear different ways to clean a chain.

thanks

Polly -

I'm sure others will reply with good advice, but if you'd rather not
wait, you might try searching rec.bicycles.tech. Perhaps no subject
has been discussed in more detail than chain cleaning.

Cheers.

Polly said:

I never seem to get my chain clean enough.
So Id like to hear different ways to clean a chain.

Don't worry if the outside of the chain isn't shiny clean. What matters
is keeping dirt and grit from getting inside the chain where you can't
see it.

The only really effective way to clean a chain is to remove it, and
agitate it in a solvent such as mineral spirits. Then allow it to dry
completely, and lubricate with oil.

See:
http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/8d.2.html

Art Harris

"Art Harris" wrote: (clip) Then allow it to dry completely, and lubricate
with oil. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This comes from my motorcycling days: A good way to accomplish the above
(dry and lubricate) is to immerse the chain in oil in a coffee can. The
heat it gently on the stove. The heat will drive off the solvent from
inside the links. If you then let it cool, the oil will be sucked into the
interior spaces in the chain (or you could say DRIVEN in, by atmospheric
pressure.

On my motorcycles, I used to use paraffin and graphite instead of oil,
heated to melting in the coffee can. After cooling, the paraffin inside the
links tends to stay there, and the part on the outside has little tendency
to collect dirt.

this sounds nutty but i have a 7000 mile chain with less
than .3/16" 'stretch'.

take the bike outside.
squirt the chain with engine degreaser.
let it sit a little.
use high pressure water hose to blast through the links as
you pedal backwards by hand.
do this for a minute or so.
spin and shake water off.
wipe chain with rag.
apply any lubricant [currently i use wd 40, i don;t care, it works,
though i have to reapply it maybe every 100 miles, big deal. also, my
procedure is so short, i can clean the chain
every 200 miles or so anyway so it doesn;t matter how long it lasts.]
wipe excess lube off with rag.
done.

wle.

On 17 May 2005 18:55:00 -0700, "wle" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

this sounds nutty but i have a 7000 mile chain with less
than .3/16" 'stretch'.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

wle.

Dear WLE,

Possibly that 3/16ths of an inch wear was a typo?

If not, your sprockets have probably been damaged enough to
skip badly if you mount a new chain--that's three times the
normal replacement point.

The usual recommendation is to replace the chain at 1/16th
inch in 12 inches, about 0.5% elongation (1/192):

"If the rivet is less than 1/16" past the mark, all is
well."

"If the rivet is 1/16" past the mark, you should replace the
chain, but the sprockets are probably undamaged."

"If the rivet is 1/8" past the mark, you have left it too
long, and the sprockets (at least the favorite ones) will be
too badly worn. If you replace a chain at the 1/8" point,
without replacing the sprockets, it may run OK and not skip,
but the worn sprockets will cause the new chain to wear much
faster than it should, until it catches up with the wear
state of the sprockets."

"If the rivet is past the 1/8" mark, a new chain will almost
certainly skip on the worn sprockets, especially the smaller
ones."

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html

Carl Fogel

probably should have typed 0.3/16ths.

i did put the point in, but like this .3/16.

at 3/16ths wear, i doubt anything would work.

wle.

JH said:

Polly said:

I never seem to get my chain clean enough.
So Id like to hear different ways to clean a chain.

thanks

Polly -

I'm sure others will reply with good advice, but if you'd rather not
wait, you might try searching rec.bicycles.tech. Perhaps no subject
has been discussed in more detail than chain cleaning.

Cheers.

And . . . on May 11th . . . Polly posted the same question. Same
e-mail address for both of 'em....

Does . . . uh . . . that make Polly a . . . troll??

Can't we all just talk about chain *lube* instead?

Quoted message said:

On 17 May 2005 18:55:00 -0700, "wle" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

this sounds nutty but i have a 7000 mile chain with less
than .3/16" 'stretch'.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

wle.

Dear WLE,

Possibly that 3/16ths of an inch wear was a typo?

Dear Carl.

Switch to decaf recently?

Bill "." S.

Bill Sornson said:

Quoted message said:

On 17 May 2005 18:55:00 -0700, "wle" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

this sounds nutty but i have a 7000 mile chain with less
than .3/16" 'stretch'.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

wle.

Dear WLE,

Possibly that 3/16ths of an inch wear was a typo?

Dear Carl.

Switch to decaf recently?

Bill "." S.

Dear Bill,

Without mentioning any names, one problem with writing
without capitals and leaving out punctuation is that when
you mean 0.3/16ths of an inch, writing .3/16" is
mystifying--was the "." intentional or a typo?

(True, .30-30 rifles and .38 pistols and the .30-'06 omit
the leading zero, but a 0.3/16 would be a pipsqueak indeed.
And the preceding sentence will choke many proofreading
programs, since a space and period rarely follow a comma.)

And where on earth do we find a ruler marked in tenths of a
sixteenth of an inch? Is it near where they sell the metric
rulers marked in sixteenths of a centimeter? Or is it over
where the 1/7th inch drill bits are always on sale?

Of course, if you meant to praise my tentative effort to
omit needless words (as long as they're someone else's),
then I'm flattered that my snipping merits comment.

Carl Fogel

Art Harris said:

Polly said:

I never seem to get my chain clean enough.
So Id like to hear different ways to clean a chain.

Don't worry if the outside of the chain isn't shiny clean. What matters
is keeping dirt and grit from getting inside the chain where you can't
see it.

The only really effective way to clean a chain is to remove it, and
agitate it in a solvent such as mineral spirits. Then allow it to dry
completely, and lubricate with oil.

See:
http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/8d.2.html

I thought the latest "science" was that cleaning a chain didn't affect
lifetime. I've stopped cleaning mine.

Peter Cole said:

I thought the latest "science" was that cleaning a chain didn't

affect

Quoted message said:

lifetime. I've stopped cleaning mine.

But even if this is true, the bike just runs so much more smoothly and
quietly with a clean chain.

JH said:

Peter Cole said:

I thought the latest "science" was that cleaning a chain didn't

affect

Quoted message said:

lifetime. I've stopped cleaning mine.

But even if this is true, the bike just runs so much more smoothly and
quietly with a clean chain.

Really? I've never noticed. I do oil it and wipe off the big chunks.

Peter Cole said:

JH said:

Peter Cole said:

I thought the latest "science" was that cleaning a chain didn't

affect

Quoted message said:

lifetime. I've stopped cleaning mine.

But even if this is true, the bike just runs so much more smoothly and
quietly with a clean chain.

Really? I've never noticed. I do oil it and wipe off the big chunks.

I'm with you on this. If I've done some really nasty riding--either
rain riding on the road bike, or mud riding on the mtb--I use WD-40, a
rag, and a toothbrush, but have *never* removed a chain for cleaning.

They run fine, whisper-quiet, get good life, and don't seem to be
cog-eaters.

I'd rather be riding....

And where on earth do we find a ruler marked in tenths of a
sixteenth of an inch? Is it near where they sell the metric
rulers marked in sixteenths of a centimeter? Or is it over
where the 1/7th inch drill bits are always on sale?

--ruler marked in 1/16ths.

--0.3 is a visual estimate - pretty easy to make.

--it;s nowhere near a whole 16th, not near half of one, kind of
just the other side of where the quarter would be.

--wle.

"wle" wrote: (clip)--0.3 is a visual estimate - pretty easy to make. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Language like, "half a thou," or even "a third of sixteenth," would never be
misunderstood. But .3/16 is strange, and so, easily questioned.

Neil Brooks said:

Peter Cole said:

JH said:

Peter Cole wrote:

>I thought the latest "science" was that cleaning a chain didn't

affect

>lifetime. I've stopped cleaning mine.

But even if this is true, the bike just runs so much more smoothly

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

quietly with a clean chain.

Really? I've never noticed. I do oil it and wipe off the big chunks.

I'm with you on this. If I've done some really nasty riding--either

Quoted message said:

rain riding on the road bike, or mud riding on the mtb--I use WD-40,

a

Quoted message said:

rag, and a toothbrush, but have *never* removed a chain for cleaning.

They run fine, whisper-quiet, get good life, and don't seem to be
cog-eaters.

I'd rather be riding....

I suppose I'm probably imagining most of the "improvement" from the
clean chain. In any case I certainly agree that I'd rather be riding.
I save the chain cleaning for rainy nights.

Quoted message said:

And . . . on May 11th . . . Polly posted the same question. Same
e-mail address for both of 'em....

Does . . . uh . . . that make Polly a . . . troll??

Can't we all just talk about chain *lube* instead?

No that doesnt make me a TROLL I posted that message and it never showed
up..
Thanks for the replies to the post, Im not too keen on ripping every single
customers chain off thier bike and heating them.. although I could see where
I could easily charge extra for something like that.
I'll start a couple more threads on chain lube and chain cleaning devices.
PS Neil show me the link to that post..

Polly said:

Quoted message said:

And . . . on May 11th . . . Polly posted the same question. Same
e-mail address for both of 'em....

Does . . . uh . . . that make Polly a . . . troll??

Can't we all just talk about chain *lube* instead?

No that doesnt make me a TROLL I posted that message and it never showed
up..
Thanks for the replies to the post, Im not too keen on ripping every single
customers chain off thier bike and heating them.. although I could see where
I could easily charge extra for something like that.
I'll start a couple more threads on chain lube and chain cleaning devices.
PS Neil show me the link to that post..

Dear Polly,

If you go to a post in Google Groups, you can click on
show-options, which will then offer to
find-messages-by-this-author, which can then be sorted by
date.

Here's your previous May 11th post about chain-cleaning,
which provoked 55 replies:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.bicycles.tech/browse_frm/thread/ce6148835ff43ad6/45c684f375747b65?q=&rnum=2&hl=en#45c684f375747b65

Possibly you posted it and then lost track of it.

Searching Google Groups for posts containing words
describing your interest is a fast way to find and browse
lots of comments without waiting for replies or exposing
yourself to the usual heckling.

Carl Fogel