cyccommute 

cyccommute 

djb

happy new year fellers

I'm a rag user, and while I get the point you guys are bringing up, being a lazy son of a gun, I can't be bothered doing the solvent thing, but honestly I've always found that using a thinner lube like tri flow, and regular wipes to keep excess down and so less stuck on particles, means very little stuck on stuff getting pushed into the chain. I have no problem taking five or ten seconds after every ride to do a light wipe, have loads of old shirts, tea towels etc in the garage.

Nightdiver

Same for SRAM. Their Powerlinks are reusable but they claim their Powerlocks are one time use only. Of course I've removed my chains a dozen times using the same Powerlocks. Still no explosions or collapse of civilization.

Phil_gretz

I get it. I'm a drip and wipe guy also, and have done this for 45 years of bike riding. I've created my own concoction of runny lubricant that penetrates pretty well and seems to flush out a lot of contaminants from within the rollers and pins. BUT, I'll be the first to admit that I don't get a high amount of mileage from a chain, which is the point of removing and cleaning thoroughly. I'm replacing chains every 1500 miles or so on my commuter and my main road bike, both 11 speed. I measure chain elongation as a part of my routine maintenance...

djb

Phil, since riding more regularly and keeping track more or less of mileage, since the 7 speed days, I've tended to get about 5000kms between chain changes, using the elongation measure technique. 5000km for sure on 9 speed stuff, maybe longer a bit on 7 and 8, but 5000km is a reasonable consistent average.
But I'm a light guy, keep a drivetrain clean as a rule and am not riding in sandy or dirt roads that much.

Only have one bike with ten speed in the family, and it only has maybe 2000kms on it tops.

Txthroop 

Can I jump in with a quick question here? I just removed my chain and used OMS to clean it in a plastic bottle. Changed out the solvent 5-6 times until it remained fairly clear. I was surprised when I replaced the chain that I could still hear lots of grinding between the links when I gave it a twist back and forth. I was expecting perfection from the cleaning process but obviously didn;t get it. Is this normal? Did I miss something or should I set my sights a little lower?

Sy Reene

so much for the enviro-friendliness angle of OMS reusability..
Did you lube the chain after doing this cleaning?

eugew23

What is an ultrasonic cleaner? I'm a bit of a novice.

Txthroop 

I'm still hoping to be able to reuse the mineral spirits after the contaminants settle out.
I manipulated the chain and felt/heard the grit before applying lube - but the lube is coming next, before my morning commute. Will a freshly cleaned chain always have this residual grit or should it be more like new?

Txthroop 

I just went back out to the shed to take a second look at the chain and give it the lube. I'm happy to report that the grit appears to be on the chainring and not in the chain. The sensation of the grit was transmitted through the chain from the (not-as-clean) chainring to where my fingers held the chain, halfway between the chainring in the front and the cogs in the back. So, I'm feeling better about my first cleaning now and looking forward to refining my technique.

Eugew23, I haven never used an ultrasonic cleaner but it appears to be an appliance that holds a liquid bath in which small items are submerged. There must be some sort of energy wave passed through the liquid which "scrubs" the (in this case) chain. It sounds like they do a very good job of cleaning a chain.

leob1

When I do the big bike cleaning in the spring, I'll use the OMS in a jar method, and then blow off the chain with compressed air after I take it out of the jar. You'd be surprised how much more stuff comes off the chain. It will reduce the 'grittyness' of the cleaner, un-lubed chain.

Txthroop 

cyccommute 

What you are experiencing is one of the failings of oil based lubricants. It traps grit and moves it down into the chain. Solvent will remove the lubricant but it won't remove the trapped grit. Ultrasonic baths might dislodge some of the grit but it is just as likely to drive it deeper into the chain. I would expect any oil lubricated chain to have some grittiness left over after cleaning. That was what I observed back when I used oil lubrication.

The problem is that you have lubricated the grit so that it doesn't make a noise anymore. That doesn't mean that it went away. It's still there and will eventually be broken down into smaller pieces which will serve as a nice grinding paste. The small particle grinding paste will wear out the chain and, since you have oil to trap more grit, you'll have an endless supply of grit to replace any that get flushed out. The grit that the oil collects is the reason that chains don't last much longer than about 3000 miles.

Wax lubricants don't gather the grit so you don't have that "crunchy" feeling. However, wax doesn't lubricate metal-to-metal interfaces that well nor does it flow back to fill those gaps. You have more metal-to-metal contact and more wear so that the chain only lasts about 3000 miles. Both lubricants give about the same mileage for different reasons. The advantage of the wax based lubricant is that you don't have to clean the chain nor anything that touches the chain...like your leg, your car's interior, or your Samoyed.

An ultrasonic cleaner uses a transducer to generate a high frequency wave in the cleaning fluid. The wave should be in the 20 to 400 kHz range. The sound wave compresses the fluid and pulls it apart. In the wake of the wave front, the liquid cavitates or creates voids which collapse with a lot of pressure. This is supposed to dislodge materials from surfaces. It kind of works but most cheap ultrasonic cleaners provide more vibration than cavitation. That's probably because the frequency isn't high enough. I would suspect that for really cheap "ultrasonic cleaners", they don't even have a transducer.

AnkleWork

Some people will do almost anything to avoid riding.

djb

That really did make me chuckle out loud.
I rode home today in the aftermath of a snow storm and still used a rag when I got in after washing my bike down, and it was darn mucky and slushy.

MarcusT

Since switching to a wax based lube, I have never cleaned my chain. I coat my chain with the paste-like wax, take a heat gun to it and any grime drips off. Some may not like this, but 5,000 kms later, the chain runs great

superpletch

Monthly-remove rear wheel, install dummy hub, clean with blue plastic park tool chain cleaner with orange solvent, rinse, fill chain cleaner with dish soap solution and clean again, dry thoroughly with low pressure compressed air and lube with rock-n-roll gold chain lube. at this point I clean chainrings and jockey wheels and cassette.

clean weekly with rock-n-roll gold chain lube.

usually wipe down with rag between rides

jadocs

+6 for removing the chain. For those that do you really need to check into the stainless steel Connex chains which includes the Connex quick link. No need to replace the link after repeated use. The link is designed to be removed by hand (no tools) and does not wear. Stainless Connex chains also have the highest longevity.

https://bikerumor.com/2018/01/29/wip...lasts-longest/

DrIsotope

The real world and laboratory tests rarely see eye-to-eye, and the Wipperman chain test is no exception. I tried Connex. It didn't last appreciably longer or shift noticeably better than any other chain. Here in reality, a chain is a chain, pretty much.

But let's take the test at face value, and say that the best (Connex 11SX) and worst (SRAM PC1110) chains tested are what the test purports them to be-- that the 11SX will go 187 hours before elongation, and the 1110 just 53. This means the Connex will last 3.5X as long.

Too bad the Connex is ~$70, and the PC1110 is $15. That's 4.6X as expensive. And I get 3,000-3,500 miles out of every PC1110, just like I get 3,000-3,500 miles out of any other chain. To begin to be economically viable, a Connex would need to last upwards of 10,000 miles.

I did use a Connex link with another (non-Connex) chain for a while-- it's the only quick link I've had break on the bike.

Riveting

First choice is removing the chain and using a wide-mouth plastic bottle and shaking it in OMS. But if the chain must be left on due to time constraints or laziness, then the Park Chain Cleaner with Purple Power.

Wattsup

Clean Schmean. For 15 bucks, you can just ride the bike 15 times and then just throw the chain in the trash. I can deal with a dollar a ride.

DrIsotope

You're not far off. I hot wax my chains, so they only get cleaned once, to remove the factory coating-- and with my current wax mix, a typical chain gets waxed around half a dozen times before it goes in the bin. Absolutely no need to try to stretch the life of the chain, much less clean it. A $15 chain and 75¢ worth of wax blend every 3,000 miles. Can't justify spending more on a chain than I typically do on a cassette.

Wattsup

Why hot wax? Why not use something easy like Squirt? A 15 buck near-disposable chain and Squirt seem to be made for each other.

DrIsotope

Squirt is... okay. But what it builds up on the jockey wheels is inexcusable. And compared to paraffin which cost me around a dollar a pound, Squirt costs a fortune. Even with additives, waxing each bike's drivetrain costs less than $2 a year.