hey year 'rounders!
 

so I've been riding in this crummy NE weather and lately the road grim has gotten into things here and there and now I noticed when I walk my bike I don't hear the clicks of the freewheel, instead the pedals move with the wheel. I can still stop and pedal backwards and the chain moves OK and the gears spin backwards OK, but a little reluctantly. when I got home last night I gave the bike a quick splash from a hose - no high pressure - and let it dry overnight - the best it could dry in such humidity and misting. this morning I lubed the chain with my regular "dry" lube. I noticed some links were red from rust. my ride in this morning was fine and the bike works fine, but I'm just wondering about the rust on the chain and the clogging from the road grime. what are you experienced people doing to keep your bikes clean and lubed despite riding through wet road grime?

I've been riding through the same crummy New England weather. I recently started using White Lightning chain lube, the "clean" version. From what I can tell it's basically a solvent, with wax dissolved in it. You squirt it on a clean chain, and the solvent carries the wax in to the rollers, then evaporates, leaving the wax to lube the chain. The thing I like most about it is that since the chain isn't greasy it doesn't collect grime from the road. This means that you can just squirt more on later, without having to clean the chain.

I only started using it about a month ago, and so far so good, but I can't comment on how it affects chain life.

As far as the rust goes, a little surface rust isn't going to hurt anything. However, you do want to clean you chain more thoroughly than with a hose every now and then. You can either get an on the bike chain cleaner, which is a plastic housing with brushes in it. Or, if your chain has a quick link, you can just take it off and soak it in some degreaser.

Chris

Yep, this weather is getting old.

I use dry ice wax lube on my chain; been using it about two years. I'm not exactly thrilled with it, because I have to reapply more frequently than I'd like, but it is tolerably clean which is a big plus. NO matter how frequently I apply the stuff, my chains don't last very long; I guess I get about 6 months out of a chain before I have to replace it. I buy cheap ones; perhaps more expensive ones would last longer.

I just use regular 3 in one oil applied fairly frequently.

Thanks for the info on those "wax" lubes. I'll keep my eye out for them. I neglected to say I do clean my drivetrain, and recently did it quite thoroughly. It was so sweet in fact I considered not riding in this weather cuz I knew how our local sand and other grit gets into everything. But this is going to be my first full 5 day week commuting by bike, if it kills me, or my chain.

what about the freewheel that is now not really free-wheeling

I clean my chain with WD40, and then follow that with a lubrication using tri-flow. In the winter, I do that weekly. In the summer, maybe monthly or longer, depending n conditions.

As far as the freewheel, the rear freewheel needs to be serviced. Depending on the kind of hubs you have, it can be an easy job or a hard job. You can typically find the service manual for your hubs online, and they will tell you how to service the hub. Or you can just take it to your LBS and let them handle it.

it's brand new and only has about 150 miles on it - already brought it in last week for a truing after the 1st 100 miles

I ride year-round in Boston, and I've had good luck using Boesheild (a solvent/wax lube). I'm pretty bad about cleaning the chain, even after riding through rain or snow, and I ran my last chain for about 3000 miles, and I switched it as soon as I started getting a sticky link or two.

I also ride year round in boston, and have found an IGH with fully enclosed chain to be wonderful. Really keeps the road grit out.

I ride a single speed, so there are not many parts to keep up with, but I lube it often, and wipe down the chain when I get home.

It can't hurt to squirt some WD40 in its general direction, but generally it's pretty hard to get it in the right place. As long as it works well enough to shift etc., I wouldn't worry about it.

yeah, I did give it a shot of WD40 and kept it away from the hub area. I hoping once the weather dries up and the grit falls off it will be quiet and freewheeling again

Frankly, I have given up being overly concerned about the drivetrains on my commuter bikes. One of them is always going from a train station bike locker to my office and back - so no good location to do a thorough cleaning. If I actually let the road grime build up a little, it seems to prevent the rust from developing as readily. I do lube them reasonably regularly with prolink. These conditions are part of the reason that my commuters are single speed bikes.