Originally Posted by
DannoXYZ
I used to be anal about cleaning my chain too. I spent top-dollar to top-shelf oils with all the latest high-tech stuff. One of my motivations in working at shoppe was to get stuff at a discount!
After getting busy with school, working and training for racing, I didn't have the time for my 100-mile oil-changes anymore. Tuition took away my oil-allowance and I resorted to motor-oil (Honda recommends motor-oil for their motorcycle chains). With 500-miles between oil-changes, without a full-flush, I still got over 10k-miles out of a chain.
So it's a subjective thing. Do you want to spend $10 for oil and spend 20-hours cleaning it to save $5 on a new chain? Or you can spend $1 for a quart of motor-oil, spend just 2-hours cleaning and buy a new chain 5k-miles sooner. Actually that quart will last 20x longer than the $10 little bottles of oil, so the cost savings alone will buy you new chains for free! Not to mention the worth of your time in the labour market.
Good points! Actually I don't spend money on top shelf stuff because as you said that stuff is expensive with very little pay back if any. I use the Finish Line product but that stuff is considered cost wise middle of the road.
Your points about the cost and time savings is good but you over did it just a tad. While it may take 20 hours of time of the life time of a chain (factoring 15k miles on my chains, and I am assuming you mean over the lifespan of the chain), but I only spend no more then 10 minutes each time to clean and lube a chain with one of those machines. In reality, because I do get lazy, I really go between 100 to 250 miles between cleanings and oilings depending on what weather was exposed to the chain.