diverguy

Got about 120 miles on this bike/chain and ready to clean it with Rock N Roll Gold for the first time. I don't have a bike stand or anything. What is the recommended technique? Turn it upside down, lube the chain, and hand crank the pedals to run the lubed chain through the gears? Leave it upright, lube the chain, lift the bike by the seat and hand crank the pedals? Then afterward you wipe the excess off of the chain, right? I bought a four ounce bottle at the LBS. About how much of that would be the typical amount to use for one cleaning?

Thanks for any wisdom or insight you can impart.

John

San Rensho 

Put the bike against a wall. Wipe the chain-with a rag your left hand, grab the chain at the lower rung and with your right hand, crank the pedals backwards until the chain is clean. Now lube the chain by drizzling oil on the lower rung of the chain as you crank the pedals backwards. Next time you ride the bike, wipe off excess using above technique.

Wipe the chain every time you ride (takes less than 30 seconds)

mechBgon

Skip that last bit. You want your gears as clean as practical so they don't attract dirt-aka-grinding-compound more than necessary. Where you need the lube, is in the parts of the chain that swivel on eachother (inside the rollers, and where the plates swivel against eachother).

We use R&R Gold at work as our default chain lube, so I'll mention my preferred technique:

1) remove the rear wheel, clean cassette if appropriate, and set the rear wheel aside.

2) put a "dummy hub" into the rear triangle in place of the rear wheel, with the chain running over its freehub body.

3) clean chainrings if appropriate (depends what we're doing to the bike)

4) shift the chain to the big ring and backpedal to make sure the chain's happy and not going to jump the upper RD pulley (usually a few clicks in makes it line up happily)

5) apply the lube at the top of the dummy hub's cassette body while backpedalling the chain, then immediately wipe off the excess by backpedalling the bottom run of chain through a rag for 20-30 seconds. If the chain was really nasty, repeat.

6) shift the chain to the small chainring and use a rag to clean the residual lube off the big chainring: inboard, outboard, and flossing the chainring teeth themselves.

7) reinstall rear wheel

rdtompki

If you're prone to take the chain off for cleaning you can put some R&R Gold in a baggie, drop the chain in and swish around. Amazing how much gunk comes off. I would wipe the chain down and give a light lube followed by a wipe after re-installation.

rcummings1

Rock n Roll Website:

Application Instructions

Shake well and apply a stream of lube to the chain at the cassette. Do not drip the lube on like you would oil-this is not oil!

Get the chain really wet, this stuff cleans and lubes all in one. Freewheel the chain backwards for about 5 seconds-no less.

Wipe off all the excess lube (all of it, wipe the chain as clean as it will get). That's it go ride ...

umd

Wow, if I had to do that every time I would quit riding. I lube my chain with R&R gold every few days in the manner according to their directions (posted below). Maybe twice a month I will clean the cassette and the chainrings completely. Also when replacing the chain.

cyccommute 

Use solvents liberally and lubricant sparingly.

There are much better...and far cheaper... ways to clean a chain. A pint of mineral spirits (aka paint thinnner) will rip oils off in seconds. It dries quickly, is cheap and relatively nontoxic. Simply remove the chain (that's why master links were invented), drop it into an old Gatorade bottle, swish around for 30 seconds or so, fish the chain out, let it dry and put it back on the bike. Now lube per the lubricant manufacturer's instructions.

If you use a dry lube, you only have to do the cleaning once.

Yan 

They only tell you to do that so they can sell you a bottle a week.

diverguy

It sounds like mineral spirits, a brush, and a rag will take care of the grime in the cassette and the front rings, wipe down the chain, and then follow the Rock N Roll Gold instructions that were kindly posted above. Sounds easy enough. I'll try it tomorrow. Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

DScott

Yes. I just don't undertand this obsession with having a spotless drivechain. I get from 3-4000 miles on a chain, about 6-7000 miles on a cassette, and am just about ready to replace the chainrings after 15,000 miles. I think it actually helps to avoid over-cleaning that I have a Campy drivetrain, with no easily removed quick-link. Just do the clean-n-lube thing, and move on with life.


Exactly. Takes all of 45 seconds. I do mine about every other ride.



No.

I ride 3-4 times a week, and go through a bottle in 3-4 months. Works for me.