Originally Posted by repechage
There was also a tech notes issue described by Leonard Zinn of Velonews and elsewhere, prolonged soaking of chains in simple green can cause microcracks in chains, Wippermanns seem to be the most problematic. I do not like chains breaking.
I have tried the stuff, but use gloves and rinse well. On Chains I think the rinsing part is the big problem, the stuff I think required rubbing with a cloth while rinsing to remove all the "film". I no longer use it.
The whole issue from velonews came about because someone (a SRAM rep?) told Zinn that prolonged exposure to simple green eats chains. Then some people chime in saying they concur. The thing is, there's no reason to soak a chain in simple green for a prolonged period of time. One guy tried
storing his chain in simple green for 5 months, another let his soak for 2 weeks. That's just asinine. I don't know if you can do that with mineral spirits, but the whole thing is basically a non-issue. There's no reason to avoid simple green, just don't use it as anything but a cleaner. Soaking for a day if necessary is plenty and doesn't harm anything - unless it does mess up aluminum, though I've never had that happen, but I've never had a reason to soak anything besides greasy bearings or axles.
http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/9114.0.html
http://www.velonews.com/tech/report/...es/9216.0.html