Deep Clean a chain
 

I installed a new chain on my roadie with the grease that they put on it for packaging. Now its gotten real sticky and dirty.

I want to deep clean it and get all that grease off but not strip too much of the internal lube from the pivots.

any suggestions?

Well I think inherently the act of "deep cleaning" will take off all the lube thats on the chain (if its done right)


I always have great success with the old plastic bottle + degreaser trick

If you do a search, there are tons of chain cleaning, tip/tricks
on BF

Some will label me a heretic but here goes:

Get a Park Tool chain cleaner gizmo (CC-1??) Fill it with a mix of dishwashing liquid soap and water. Run the chane through it for 20-30 revs of the cranks. Refill with new soapy water and repeat another 1 or 2 times. Hose off with water.

Now liberally apply ProLink Gold chain lube. (Follow the directions on the bottle)

You won't eliminate the factory lube this way-- you don't want to!! That's good stuff and does a lot for the chain. You'll remove surface contamination. The Park Tool chain cleaner does an excellent job of scrubbing the chain. The new lube-- the ProLink-- will gradually work its way deep into the rollers and eventually replace the factory chain lube.

Just follow the ProLink directions for lubing the chain and you'll be set. I've had great success with this method of cleaning the chain (plus i minimize my use of toxic/noxious cleaning chemicals that are completely unnecessary in many cases). I do this for my road bike that sees a lot of rain and road grime in the winter, my cyclocross bike that endures all kinds of crazy goopy mud that would give a pig pause; and my mountain bike that sees a lot of dusty rides.

Ride on!

+1 for the Park Cyclone Chain Scrubber. I run the chain through it 5 or 6 times with decreasing concentrations of degreaser until i'm using plain water in the chain cleaner.

If i could remove the chain easily though (which i plan on doing in the future when i install a quick release link) is to just let the chain soak in paint thinner while i clean the rest of the bike. Probably do it once a year to stay relatively environmentally friendly. :) (and properly dispose of it of course)

I like the Finishline online chain cleaner. I load mine with mineral spirits or kerosene. Then I lube with "home brew", 75% mineral spirits, 25% Mobil One Synthetic motor oil, one or two drops on each link, and wipe off the excess.

Al

Wow, Mineral Spirits/Mobil One. Is the idea that the mineral spirits evaporate and leave a thick but not dribbly-wet coat of lube on the chain? Or is the MS just to cut the viscosity of the Mobil One?

You should always wipe off the exess packing grease if you didn't do that before. There's no need for it to be on the outside of your chain once you put it on a bike, so you can basically wipe it all off with a rag- it'll still be in the rollers.

I personally don't "clean" my chains much anymore. I just use liberal amounts of prolink because it penetrates more than any cleaning method I've tried. I'll soak a chain in simple green (diluted a bit) for a couple days, swishing it around in a milk container or something, and after rinsing thoroughly and drying, once I lube it up the prolink always manages to wash out even more crud. So I just re-lube, I don't really clean that much any more.

I like to use white spirit in my chain cleaner to clean of the gunk. I deep clean every few months with citrus degreaser. I use finish line teflon dry lube afterwards a couple of dobs on each pin and and a liberal squirt with an aerosol of the same.

Perhaps when I've degresed I haven't washed it thoroughly enough (submerged in a bucket of hot water) but I have found that a week or two after using the citrus I can get some signs of rust leaking out of the pins.

I also recycle the white spirit by running it through a coffee filter in a plastic funnel, call me cheap! Amazing how much gunk you collect in a week of road use.

Couple of days? It only takes like 10 minutes.

Jar + petrol + shake,shake,shake= clean chain.
Although i have been dropping them in the Acetone tank lately here at work.
Lube with preferred lube.
The best lube ever is Maxima chain wax & purple extreme.

Not a new idea. The mineral spirits mostly evaporates and leaves behind a moderately thin high tech oil. These ingredients are normally in my garage anyway, so I'm not buying anything that I don't already have. I use an old Purple Extreme drip bottle as an applicator.

I get 6000 to 7000 miles out of a chain with no stretch.

Al

when using a solvent like kerosene/gasolene to soak the chain
use 2 bottles, one for first soak and shakes
and the second for the second soak/rinse

WD40 and a rag.
Then, wipe the chain with a citrus degreaser wipe to get off the WD40 residue.
Let dry, lube, and wipe LIGHTLY with a citrus degreaser wipe.
The object is to not have excessive lube on the chain which attracts dirt.
Armor All makes citrus degreaser wipes but you may find an off brand at the 99 cent store.
Chain cleaning contraptions and soaking in solvents will get the chain cleaner but it is not necessary to get the chain that clean and it may even be detremental.

If you want to really deep clean a chain, I wonder how useful something like this would be:

http://www.amazon.com/Haier-HU335S-H.../dp/B0000BVGNJ

If you need a bigger size, www.cuffcleaner.com has larger models, although they are primarly intended for police/corrections use.

Obviously you will need to re-lube the chain very well because every single bit of lubricant will be gone.

Well, I'm an idiot, see.

don't mean to hijack, but what about the sette chain cleaner dealie? Its only 15 bucks and I am seriously considering one. I need one. pricepoint's got em. and what about all these citrus based bio-friendly degreasers, are they any good?

Citrus degreaser and Simple Green are good. They don't work nearly as fast as hard solvents but still get the job done just fine (and are safe for t3h environment). :)

Ive been using citrus goo gone and it works pretty well but considering something stronger.

Those who use the stronger stuff, what do you strain your dirty fluid with?
You do strain your solvent and reuse it....right??

My theory -- and it's only that -- is: if you "thoroughly" clean your chain, then you'd better use some sort of aerosol, or other penetrating method of getting lubrication into the non-visible portions of the chain--where the wear actually takes place. Otherwise, you'll have no lube where you need it.

I tend to phrase it as: if you clean it OFF the bike, then you need to lube it OFF the bike. If you clean it ON the bike, then you can lube it ON the bike.

I've seen some data that indicated that a chain cleaned OFF the bike, but lubed ON the bike had dramatically shortened life/increased wear. I'm not sure what else could account for that other than displaced lube in critical places.

Me? WD-40 with the spray straw and a rag, then 50/50 mineral spirits/Mobil 1 ... done after every ride. I don't obsess over chain hygiene, yet I get excellent life out of chains. YMMV.

I do know WD40 is the worst lube you can use for a chain....

I use TriFlow or similar

OH MAN, if there is one thing, I am accused of over doing, it's cleaning my chains, nothing worse than dirty chains.
Tell you what, you slap on a dirty old chain and go for a spin around the block, then try a freshly cleaned and lubed one, its like you had one plug wire fell off the four wheeler and fixed it, it just works so much nicer, shifter works nicer too.

It is best to remove the original grease from the outside of the chain. I do this because a greasy chain exterior will pick up grit and dust and will prematurely wear out the chain rings if left uncleaned.
I always take a mechanics rag and spray WD-40 on the chain hung vertically from my work stand and wipe down until the outside of the chain is "dry" then add a fine mist of silicone oil to the outside and again wipe.
Lots of good ideas from others on how to clean a chain after a full season of riding.
WD-40 is good for 2 things: first a great degreaser and secondly good to remove water from parts after a ride in the rain. Alcohol douse followed by WD.

i soak mine in kerosene.

ed rader

when i was riding lots i needed about 3 chains to get through the season.

ed rader