Originally Posted by
drlogik
I would avoid WD-40 and degreasers altogether. In my opinion they aren't needed unless you have an extreme case. WD-40 actually is a pretty good degreaser for "grease". It can displace other oils and lubricants also, and, as previously stated, it is not a lubricant, it is a water displacement chemical.
I run a couple of my bikes with wax and two more with Silca oil. The waxed bikes don't need much attention and I only use towels to clean the oiled bikes. I'll use a heavy cotton string, from a big ball of string, to "floss" the cassette. Everything else gets the towel cleaning.
The only time I use degreaser is the citrus type and that is only to strip a new chain for a wax job. I don't use it on my old bikes either, even over-hauling. I just don't want any degreaser residue anywhere. Is that overkill? Yeah, probably but that method has worked for me for years.
I wouldn't call WD-40 a "degreaser". It is a lubricant with 25% of the liquid involved being oil. The term "degreaser" is kind of a misnomer. It should probably be called a "deoiler" because that is what is being removed but that is never going to catch on. The point of a solvent is to remove the old oil and the grit it carries efficiently. The old oil isn't the problem , however. The grit is.
A good degreaser shouldn't leave any kind of residue when used. An organic solvent like mineral spirits will evaporate cleanly once all the oil is removed. A water based degreaser like Simple Green, the Dawn Power Wash, or the tire cleaner I suggested earlier needs to be rinsed off with water to remove completely. That, however, does introduce water into the equation which really should be removed fairly quickly to prevent oxidation of the chain. If you live in the arid west, that can be done with sunlight and a bit of exposure. Water will evaporate fairly quickly from the 102° meridian west to the Pacific (the extreme eastern Cascades excluded) here in the US. East of that and the humidity is just too high for evaporation of water to be effective which means it needs help. Acetone or denatured alcohol does a nice job.