Regarding my C&V '85 Fuji that you've read about and/or seen photos of, I am wondering about cleaning the chain or how to properly maintain the lifespan of the old chain. I seriously doubt the chain is the original from 1985, but am just curious about taking some time to do "bicycle maintenance" today.

Yesterday after I got back from my 24.5 mile ride, I just happened to look at my chain and saw that it was a little blackish in color. Everything is fine, everything shifts fine, the old '85 Fuji is riding beautifully. But there seems to be some kind of "funk" built up on the chain and around the rear derailleur. How do I clean it up a little? I have tons of rags for when I change the oil in my Chevy Silverado or work on my Honda Shadow motorcycle.

Also, if a day came where I wanted to completely replace the chain, I notice that nobody really has regular bike chains anymore. Everything is now meant for 8, 9, or 10 speed racers. I have the common, "old school" Suntour 6 speed freewheel, and a regular multi-speed chain that was probably used on everything back in the day.

So, getting to the point...
** How to I easily clean off my chain, and with what?
** If I ever needed to replace the "old school" 6 speed chain, who still makes that style?

You can replace your "6-speed" chain with any new "8-speed" chain and it will be fine. Many higher-mileage riders treat chains as disposable: replace it before the rear cogs wear enough to cause skipping. This is more important on your bike given the difficulty of finding replacement freewheels. New ones are available and usable, but they are not same as you bike's original freewheel.

Cleaning and lubing chains is an ongoing debate on every bicycle forum I've been on in the last 25 years. Not much has been settled. IMO, pay attention to the basics:
Wipe the dirt off the chain off after every ride.
Clean the chain thoroughly before lubing.
Don't over-lube.

You can buy 3/32 chains at any department store.
However, after years of just using the cheapest chain I could find, I broke the last Bell branded chain twice in the first 2 days I had it mounted, so I moved over to the HG-73 9s chain as my standard chain for just about everything.

Maybe the HG50 or HG71???? But, the 73 seems to work fine for me.

I'm not sure how long you have owned this Fuji. Since you don't remember ever changing the chain, if I were you, instead of just cleaning the one that is on there, I would just replace it. Some suggested chains would be the SRAM PC8xx (PC830/850/870/890), KMC (I like the X8.93 or X8.99), Shimano HG 40 or HG 50, etc. I used to use the SRAM chains but have switched to the KMC.

The SRAM and KMC chains will come with a master link; you will still need a chain tool to shorten the chain to the correct length for the initial install, but after that you can just break the chain for cleaning using the master link.

For cleaning, I personally soak the chain in mineral spirits in a coffee can, then scrub it with an old toothbrush, wipe it down and let it dry before lubing and reinstalling it. Clean the rear sprockets and chainrings, as well as the derailleur pulleys, while waiting. As mentioned, there will probably be as many ways of doing this as posts in this thread. Chain lube threads can tend to get long

count the links of your chain, buy a sram pc830 off ebay (under $10, shipped), and throw the old chain in the trash.

you will need a chain tool. spend at least $10 on one. don't buy a super cheap one from asia.

if you can't get the new chain's master link to click together easily, throw it away too.

This is kind of an interesting topic for me as well.

The first bike I refurbished, I spent way too much time cleaning and oiling the original chain, only to start breaking links with in a hundred miles or so. So I got a new chain, only to find that the cogs on the freewheel had worn to the point where there were junk with a new chain.

You can oil and clean your chain all you want, but overtime it's going to stretch -- so here's the question for those of you have been doing this for a while.

Is it the stretching of the chain that contributes to cog wear, since the chain and gears no longer mesh properly, is it an unmaintained chain, lots of dirt and what not that grinds teeth down, or a combination of the two?

Regardless, I've started to take the approach of, unless you know the history, cables, tires and chains just get replaced before the bike goes on the road.

Wow two chain threads in one day. $10 KMC Z72, comes with a remove able quick link. I use them on my 6 and 7 speed bikes and just finished my first ride on the new Eddy Merckx with a Suntour Winner 6 speed FW and it shifted fine.

Thanks, everyone. I bought the '85 Fuji off Craigslist (back in June) from a college grad who no longer needed it. The bike is darn near in MINT condition, as it was the college kid's dad's old bike, bought new in '85. I suspect it was a "garage queen" for quite a number of years, until the kid went off to college.

Anyway, as seen in the photo attachment below, I was just outside on the patio deck, working on cleaning off the old Fuji. The Suntour LePree derailleurs are still working fine with no problems. The Suntour "Mighty-6" freewheel (14/16/19/22/26/30) is still looking good but dirty and grimy with a little bit of gunk in the cogs. The chain is all blackened and nasty and has 112 links (I counted each, and then recounted each outer link (56) to double-check myself). You're going to laugh at the photo also, because on the table in the photo is a spray bottle of (believe it or not) trombone slide oil! For you fellow musicians out there, I'm talking the good stuff... The synthetic type, water-proof, slide oil for trombones. What the heck, it's ultra lightweight oil and works incredibly well! The old rag in the photo is other topic altogether, to where you all will say, "Butch, what is the matter with you? Are you nuts?" But one end of the nasty rag has gun cleaner (bore solvent) on it! Wow, did that clean the chain and cogs in the freewheel! I was just extremely careful not to get the rag near the paint on the frame!

Long story short... I will ride around for a little bit, maybe this afternoon or tomorrow or so, and then just replace the nasty old chain with a new one. Most new chains are 116 links, so I'll have to cut it down to 112 with a good quality chain tool.

As someone else mentioned, I'm a big fan of the KMC X8.93 chain for 6,7,8 speeds. I've used it on 7-speed Suntour and Shimano cogs without problem. Have not tried Campy but I'd expect it to work.

Bought it on Amazon for $11.57 and it comes with the KMC Missing Link. For that price, there's just no reason to mess around with stubborn links on an old chain.

KMC X8.93 Chain 7.1mm 6-7-8 speed

Yes, going to a narrower chain does not adversely affect a bike's shifting performance as I just found out when I used 7 speed Sedis/Sachs chain, on a 6 speed Maillard FW on a recent build. If anything, it seems to shift better and more positively than my other bikes....It's going the other way that does not work for sure (standard width chain with a narrow spaced FW.).

Somewhat related question: Does a chain actually stretch? Or do the bearings wear down from road grit, creating slop and thus more space between the links?

My 2 cents. Start with a new chain and then send it to me once a year for a proper cleaning and lubricant.

^ It's that one.

That's what I thought. We need to ban the word "stretch" when it comes to chains.

Dang. And I was working on a chain de-stretcher which I had planned on patenting.
Thanks, guys….saved me a lot of R & D time.

i had to buy a new 5-speed chain for the first time. the '87 12-speed (sis) schwinn letour wouldn't downshift onto the small ring with an 8-speed chain. the chain skated between the rings. the 5-speed chain worked perfectly. it's the only time i've ever run into that particular problem.