Dave Cutter

I really enjoy keeping my bicycles very clean. That includes the chain. I find it very simple and easy to just wash and inspect my bikes after maybe ten rides or so. I carry the portable bike stand to the backyard put the bike in and spray the oily, grimey parts with a little degreaser while I get a bucket of hot soapy (Dawn dish soap/detergent) ready. I use a toilet brush and old toothbrush on the chain and derailleur and a big sponge on everything else. It doesn't take ten minutes.

I let the bike dry air/sun dry before re-lubing.

FullGas

well, to put things in perspective...I've collected venomous snakes, performed hazardous waste site investigations, and scuba dived in underwater caves, so cleaning parts with gasoline isn't all that high on my worry list.

a little common sense usually goes a long ways on mitigating risk.

San Rensho 

Never take off your chain and clean it.

Put a new chain on. Lube it with oil sparingly. After Every time you ride grab the chain with a rag and turn the cranks backwards to clean the chain. Measure the chain religiously and replace it well before the wear limit.

Hermes1

On a weekly basis after anywhere between 50 & 100 miles of riding, I wipe the chain with a rag and re-lube it. If during that week, I encounter rain or particularly dirty conditions, I take my rear wheel off, wipe the chain with a rag, then put some degreaser in my Park Tool Cyclone cleaner and run the chain through it 30 plus rotations. Then wash with soapy water and a dedicated sponge, rinse thoroughly, clean the cog while the wheel is off the bike with degreaser. After I put the wheel back on, I lube the chain and let soak anywhere between 2 and 24 hours after which I wipe the excess oil with a rag.

Tim_Iowa

Why not?

steelbikeguy

regarding San Rensho's admonition to never remove the chain and clean it... I agree with Tim. Why not?

For me, at least, I just remove the SRAM master link and clean the chain with Dawn soap, rinse it, remove the water with some WD-40, and lube later. Not a big deal, and besides, I periodically remove the chainrings and cassette/freewheel to clean the goo off of them too.

I've been doing this since the 70's, and it seems to work.


Steve in Peoria

cyccommute 

Yup. Common sense like finding a different solvent with far lower hazards.

bikehoarder

Spray the chain with that junky degreaser from the auto parts store, soak, run through a rag, spray with soapy water, run through a cleaner rag lol, and re-lube.
I mean, you need to upgrade chains after a while anyways , right?

cyccommute 

I somewhat agree with San Rensho but from a slightly different angle. I don't remove my chain to clean it because it doesn't need it. I've shown these before but here's what my drivetrain looks like in the dead of winter even after riding in snow and slush




The rust you can see on a couple of links is the biggest problem I have during the winter. I solved that problem this winter by going to a KMC EcoProTeq rust resistant chain. Works like a charm.





This one isn't in winter but it demonstrates the general cleanliness of my drivetrain



My chains get a single cleaning and then never needs it again. I lubricate with a wax based lube about as often as most people do with oil based lubes but I don't have to constantly clean the lubricant off. It doesn't get dirty. The finger test above is on a chain that has seen about a couple of years of use and had about 3000 miles on it.

By the way, the WD-40 treatment you do is mostly useless. As discussed earlier, the "water displacing" properties of WD-40 are over blown. The Dawn step is okay as is the rinsing step but neither does as good a job with as low a volume of solvent as mineral spirits. A cup of mineral spirits will do a dozen or more chains and the main reason that it doesn't more is that removing the chain takes enough liquid with it to diminish the volume significantly after a dozen chains.

FullGas

chain cleaning threads are always the same.

on one side of the aisle are fanatic members of the Cult of Immaculate Cleaning that see an absolute necessity to use ultrasonic baths, solvents, detergents, water-displacers, then oven-dry, and re-lube with unicorn tears...

and on the other, are the lazy heathens who are fine with a casual wipe-down.

I used to do the high-maintenance routine when waxing chains was in vogue, but eventually realized that they're just relatively inexpensive wear items that don't really need clean-room treatment to perform well.

so, now they get wiped and lubed as needed. they last just as long and other drive train components don't seem to suffer any premature aging symptoms.

ymmv.

ltxi

My solution. Simple Green using a Park Tool chain cleaner for routine cleaning and for periodically soaking removed chain for a bit in a quart jar.

Wheever

I just took my bike out for the first spin after the OMS cleaning last weekend, and I CANNOT believe how much quieter it is. I'll say it again, wipe and lube--while it might be adequate for keeping the chain alive--does not do the job removing crud and grit that the OMS cleaning routine does. Not even close. Maybe if you ride only on pavement in urban areas, but for those of us that ride where there is sand? Not even close!

canklecat

This. +1000. Just don't do it.

Otherwise I'll be forced to copypasta my usual boilerplate document of horrors I saw as a nurse and safety inspector about burns and fatalities resulting from careless handling of gasoline by people who should have known better.

canklecat

FWIW, I'm too lazy for a proper chain cleaning. So I have two methods.

If I'm cleaning the entire bike I begin with hot water and Dawn, usually with some Stanley or similar water soluble degreaser, and wash the entire bike, including the chain. Because my comfy hybrid has a chain ring guard its hard to reach both sides of the three chain rings, so I use an old figure-8 type bath brush with long stiff bristles. Does pretty well.

Then I follow up with WD-40 on the chain, cassette and chain rings, spin it both directions a bunch of times. Wipe it down. Finish with Park CL-1 chain lube (not a recommendation, just happens to be what I have on hand).

If I'm not cleaning the entire bike I just squirt WD-40, use a toothbrush and rags to clean the chain and sprockets, wipe down and finish with CL-1.

Lately I've been riding gravel and really gritty chip seal roads more often, so I'm having to do this every week or two. I suppose some folks would clean their bikes and chains after every gravel ride but I'm not that meticulous.

Wheever

For those of you who doubt the efficacy of the OMS cleaning method, I present a year's worth of crud!

Note: I always wipe my chain down after every ride, and lube it with Rock n Roll gold every hundred miles or so.

I can't believe how much quieter and smoother my drivetrain is!

Shimagnolo

When I was a teenager I started out using gasoline, but found it was a lousy solvent because it would loosen the grime, then quickly evaporate, leaving the grime still stuck to the parts, only having moved it a little. I found kerosene far superior because it evaporated much slower.

These days I use Simple Green.

DrRobert

I'm pretty anal about keeping my chain clean so this topic interests me.

I was using brake cleaner till I found out getting that stuff near hubs and bb's is bad news.

Last time I used min spirits and have to say it works much better. Then washed in strong soap/rinse/dry (probably didn't need to) then re oil.

Just ordered a dummy to avoid slopping stuff all over the rear hub.

I've never been very happy with Simple Green I just don' think it cuts grease and oil very well.

70Degrees

To clean, I use Simple Green, diluted just a bit, and take a toothbrush to the chain while still on the bike. I just put the bike on a stand or turn it over, run the pedals and move the chain along the toothbrush. Repeat until the chain is as clean as it's going to get, and then lube.

Clem von Jones

The water-based purple or citrus degreasers work well but then you also have to dry off your chain with a heat gun or else rust will quickly develop between the pins and rollers. I've noticed KMC's webpage warns against the use of these water based degreasers though, apparently it can react with the metal and cause the chain to weaken. Maybe just vigorously shake the chain in a jar of dish detergent and hot water, followed by drying with a heat gun. The inexpensive heat guns at Harbor Freight work great and I also use them prior to the application of wax-based chain lube. A hot chain will suck the wax-based lube right into the space between the roller and pin, and after a few minutes it cools and hardens. You'll need a small metal tray to hold the chain while using a heat gun.

cyccommute 

It's not the degreaser that is the problem...it's the water. It's called "rust" and water facilitates it. More precisely, it's the oxygen in the water and the electric potential between individual crystallites in the metal that causes a change in the electronic configuration of iron by the stripping of electrons from the metal that causes it. If you are going to use something that has water in it or if you put your chain in contact with water, you are going to rust the chain. That's why I avoid using water based degreasers and complicated procedures to get rid of the water. If you avoid those steps, your live is a whole lot simpler.

Mineral spirits, swish it around, take the chain out and let it dry. Simple, easy and little mess.

karinbur

I just replaced my chain with a SRAM 10-speed, which has the SRAM Power-Lock on it. I just assumed I could remove the chain for cleaning and then re-install it (I use paraffin), but then I read this in the SRAM manual: The PowerLock is designed for one-time use
only. The PowerLock can only be removed
with a chain breaker tool and must not be
re-used. Install a new PowerLock each time
a new chain is installed.

So, assuming I'll clean the chain several times at least during its life span, does that REALLY mean I'll need to buy at least a half dozen Power-Locks every time I get a new chain? (Probably a dumb question, but can't help asking :-/)

davidad

works fine if you don't mind wasting material and a new chain every 2k miles.

Homebrew01

Same here. I used to remove and clean, but don't really see the benefit.

cyccommute 

From a corporate, CYA standpoint, yes, you should probably use the link once and get a new one each time. From a more practical standpoint, I've never had one of the new style links fail on a 9 speed chain. Sram used to make a different style link that was prone to failure over multiple uses but I doubt you'll find many of those style on any chain unless you find on old NOS 8 speed on a dusty shelf. I only have one 10 speed bike in my stable and it doesn't have enough mileage on the chain to even think about removal yet.

gsa103

Allow me to summarize the chain cleaning argument. Starting from this undisputed fact, what matters is inside the links, not outside. You want oil inside the links and no dirt/grime that would cause accelerated wear.

Option 1: Remove the chain and thoroughly clean it. This removes everything inside the chain (GOOD), BUT also removes all the lubricant (BAD). So care needs to be taken in re-oiling to ensure that oil gets inside the links. This means a dedicated step to remove solvents and ideally a specific re-oiling procedure.

Option 2: Leave the chain on the bike, clean the outside, and drop oil the links to flush out dirt/grime. The logic here is that if the outside is kept clean, very little should make its way inside. There's no need to specifically dry the chain to remove solvents, so it's a quick procedure.

Needless to say, these are borderline religious arguments. The exact details matter more approach. And since chain life is so variable it's utterly impossible to get a meaningful comparison (unless the ultra-fast chain people want to test it).