clean sprockets and chainrings?

Tony Sweeney said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
chainrings and jockey wheels?

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO. The grunge
inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain, really, and
their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of friction.

Lazy, rationalizing Bill

(PS: I do sort of clean the jokey wheels whenever I lube the chain, as it's
easy.)

Bill Sornson said:

Tony Sweeney wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
chainrings and jockey wheels?

Quoted message said:

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO. The grunge
inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain, really, and
their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of friction.

Only until you lube on your new chain, which will dissolve all
that crud and contaminate your new chain.

If you're going to the trouble to install a new chain, it takes only a few
more minutes to run a solvent-soaked rag around the gears. I do it when I
relube, every several hundred miles.

Matt O.

Tony Sweeney said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
chainrings and jockey wheels?

SNIP

Nowadays when I replace a chain, I also replace the cassette and the
rear derailleur at the same time. Only the chainrings (sometimes)
remain and are easily cleaned.

I have no success running new chains on used cassettes and vice versa
anymore. It worked with the old 5speed stuff but not with the new Super
WhizBang UltraSuperExtraNarrow cogs.

And every time I need a new chain, it seems that there are yet another
tooth or two added to the system so a new derailleur is in order.

bill said:

Nowadays when I replace a chain, I also replace the cassette and the
rear derailleur at the same time. Only the chainrings (sometimes)
remain and are easily cleaned.

Did you mean to say "remove"? Why on earth would you /replace/ the rear
derailleur every time you change chains? (Ooops. I see your comment below.
Even curiouser!)

Quoted message said:

I have no success running new chains on used cassettes and vice versa
anymore. It worked with the old 5speed stuff but not with the new
Super WhizBang UltraSuperExtraNarrow cogs.

And every time I need a new chain, it seems that there are yet another
tooth or two added to the system so a new derailleur is in order.

That makes no sense to me. Unless you're going from a 5-speed corncob to a
10-speed wide-range (just for example), a rear derailleur should not "care"
what gears you're running.

Bill "overdue to change chains on the roadie (over 4,000 miles and cassette
has much more), and not planning on replacing anything" S.

"Bill Sornson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tony Sweeney said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the

sprockets,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

chainrings and jockey wheels?

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO.

The grunge

Quoted message said:

inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain,

really, and

Quoted message said:

their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of friction.

Lazy, rationalizing Bill

I like to knock off the giant grease clods on my pulleys. -- Jay
Beattie.

Jay Beattie said:

"Bill Sornson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tony Sweeney said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
chainrings and jockey wheels?

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO. The
grunge inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain,
really, and their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of
friction.

Lazy, rationalizing Bill

I like to knock off the giant grease clods on my pulleys. -- Jay
Beattie.

Um, that's why I wrote this below that: "(PS: I do sort of clean the jokey
wheels whenever I lube the chain, as it's
easy.)"

PS: Jokey wheels! They funny.

Bill Sornson said:

bill said:

Nowadays when I replace a chain, I also replace the cassette and the
rear derailleur at the same time. Only the chainrings (sometimes)
remain and are easily cleaned.

Did you mean to say "remove"? Why on earth would you /replace/ the rear
derailleur every time you change chains? (Ooops. I see your comment
below. Even curiouser!)

Quite. Even if it was worn down, you'd only have to replace the jockey
wheels for a new chain.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I have no success running new chains on used cassettes and vice versa
anymore. It worked with the old 5speed stuff but not with the new
Super WhizBang UltraSuperExtraNarrow cogs.

And every time I need a new chain, it seems that there are yet another
tooth or two added to the system so a new derailleur is in order.

That makes no sense to me. Unless you're going from a 5-speed corncob to
a 10-speed wide-range (just for example), a rear derailleur should not
"care" what gears you're running.

Bill "overdue to change chains on the roadie (over 4,000 miles and
cassette has much more), and not planning on replacing anything" S.

Bill Sornson said:

bill said:

Nowadays when I replace a chain, I also replace the cassette and the
rear derailleur at the same time. Only the chainrings (sometimes)
remain and are easily cleaned.

Did you mean to say "remove"? Why on earth would you /replace/ the rear
derailleur every time you change chains? (Ooops. I see your comment below.
Even curiouser!)

Quoted message said:

I have no success running new chains on used cassettes and vice versa
anymore. It worked with the old 5speed stuff but not with the new
Super WhizBang UltraSuperExtraNarrow cogs.

And every time I need a new chain, it seems that there are yet another
tooth or two added to the system so a new derailleur is in order.

That makes no sense to me. Unless you're going from a 5-speed corncob to a
10-speed wide-range (just for example), a rear derailleur should not "care"
what gears you're running.

Bill "overdue to change chains on the roadie (over 4,000 miles and cassette
has much more), and not planning on replacing anything" S.

Well, I seem to get 5,000 miles out of a chain nowadays.

I was riding standard 7 speed equipment, and then when I went to the
modern 8, the throw of the derailleur I was using was ridiculously long
so I went to a new one. Then when that chain and sprocket wore out, 9
speed was a better choice, and so I had to replace again. Then when
that chain wore out, it did something strange which destroyed the
derailleur and so replaced the whole business again.

Really all the replacement started with this indexed many gears war. I
know that it is *possible* to use an old fashioned derailleur with the
new chains. But that doesn't make it work well. I have a pile of super
record and nuovo record, superbe pro, even a jubilee, but they don't
work as well as the new one.

There is no doubt however about the skipping chain problem. The first
time that became a big deal was when I was still trying to ride with
freewheels, and the only ones out there were Sachs, and the classic
Sedisport chain was no longer available. For some reason it used to be
possible to go through 3 or 4 sedisport chains on one freewheel in the
old days (SunTour new winner). What changed going from that, to the
Sachs freewheel / sachs chain?

Tony Sweeney said:

I wonder how much extra life you get from the chain
by going to the trouble of cleaning everything.

By virtue of keeping everything clean (and almost never riding that
bike in the rain) I got 18,142.4 miles from a Dura Ace chain. See my
posting in the thread at: http://tinyurl.com/y53be6

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

Matt O'Toole said:

Bill Sornson said:

Tony Sweeney wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
chainrings and jockey wheels?

Quoted message said:

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO. The grunge
inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain, really, and
their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of friction.

Only until you lube on your new chain, which will dissolve all
that crud and contaminate your new chain.

If you're going to the trouble to install a new chain, it takes only a few
more minutes to run a solvent-soaked rag around the gears. I do it when I
relube, every several hundred miles.

What I meant with my original post was if this kind of quick clean (or
no clean at all) means that you will wear you chain out after
significantly less miles than if you do a proper clean.

I say this or not bothering cleaning at all because I'm not sure that
spending a couple of minutes running a rag around things achieves
anything in terms of extending chain wear. It makes things *look*
cleaner and would prevent the build up of seriously thick gunge and for
that reason I would do it when swapping a chain in any case.

Bu in my experience just doing the quick 'rag clean' still leaves black
grime on the contact points of the teeth of the rings and sprockets.

The lovely clear lube that comes on a new chain turns black after one
ride unless you clean the rings and sprockets properly. That is take
them off the bike and clean them in paraffin with a toothbrush and cloth
until they have no grime on them anywhere. Then the new lube stays clean
for longer. But the job is horrible and messy and takes an hour or more.
And I'm not so sure that you gain enough extra miles from the chain to
justify the job. But I'd like to be sure of it before stopping my 'full
clean' routine with every chain swap.

Tony

Tony Sweeney said:

Matt O'Toole said:

Bill Sornson said:

Tony Sweeney wrote:

Quoted message said:

> When putting on a new chain, do you bother cleaning the sprockets,
> chainrings and jockey wheels?

Quoted message said:

The only reason to do so would be for looks (appearance) IMO. The grunge
inbetween your rings and sprockets never touches the chain, really, and
their teeth should be clean just by the virtue of friction.

Only until you lube on your new chain, which will dissolve all
that crud and contaminate your new chain.

If you're going to the trouble to install a new chain, it takes only a few
more minutes to run a solvent-soaked rag around the gears. I do it when I
relube, every several hundred miles.

What I meant with my original post was if this kind of quick clean (or
no clean at all) means that you will wear you chain out after
significantly less miles than if you do a proper clean.

I say this or not bothering cleaning at all because I'm not sure that
spending a couple of minutes running a rag around things achieves
anything in terms of extending chain wear. It makes things *look*
cleaner and would prevent the build up of seriously thick gunge and for
that reason I would do it when swapping a chain in any case.

Bu in my experience just doing the quick 'rag clean' still leaves black
grime on the contact points of the teeth of the rings and sprockets.

The lovely clear lube that comes on a new chain turns black after one
ride unless you clean the rings and sprockets properly. That is take
them off the bike and clean them in paraffin with a toothbrush and cloth
until they have no grime on them anywhere. Then the new lube stays clean
for longer. But the job is horrible and messy and takes an hour or more.

An hour or more to unbolt the chainrings and clean them? After you
have already removed the chain since you are putting on a new one. Now
it could stretch to an hour if you remove the chain, cassette, and
chainrings and clean all of them in soap and water and reinstall them,
replacing the chain so no cleaning involved. I usually do remove and
clean the rings and cassette when changing chains. Its nice to start
everything clean. For chain cleaning I use the SRAM quick link things
so just take the chain off and soak it for awhile in degreaser then
clena with soap and water. I do not usually take off the cassette and
rings when just cleaning the chains. I will use a stiff bristle brush
on the rings and cassette when doing a complete bike cleaning. Soap
and water. And of course the jockey wheels get the stiff bristle brush
too.

As for objective tests and mileage differences between thorough
cleaning and partial cleaning? My 9 speed chains cost me $6.50 each.
Nashbar KMC recumbent chains (232 links) bought for $12 plus shipping
allocation. So if thorough cleaning means the chain lasts 10% longer,
I save about $0.65 for the effort. I do the thorough cleaning more for
aesthetics and personal satisfaction in having a clean bike than for
increased longevity.

Quoted message said:

And I'm not so sure that you gain enough extra miles from the chain to
justify the job. But I'd like to be sure of it before stopping my 'full
clean' routine with every chain swap.

Tony