danallen

I have seen a number of guides stating that to clean the factory grease from a new chain, first soak in mineral spirits to dissolve the grease. I understand that. It says to soak in denatured alcohol after that. What is the purpose of the denatured alcohol after the mineral spirits?

Any information you can provide will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

twowheeldesign

I am not an expert, but I recall hearing from my dad (a woodworker) about cleaning with alcohol after stripping paint with mineral spirits. If I recall correctly, the mineral spirits can leave an oily residue (on wood at least), and the alcohol takes care of that. That may apply to bike chains as well?

frogman

New one on me. I usualy use just mineral spirits initially on a new chain. Then wipe it dry and follow up with my chain lube.

Mulberry20

Many lubes need a perfectly clean chain free of old lube or lube-like residue. Alcohol has no residue at all. I use a wax lube called Smoove and it will drip right through the chain unless its clean of residue.

Trakhak

From the late Sheldon Brown's page concerning chain maintenance:New chains come pre-lubricated with a grease-type lubricant which has been installed at the factory. This is an excellent lubricant, and has been made to permeate all of the internal interstices in the chain. The chain and this lubricant need to be warmed during application.

This factory lube is superior to any lube that you can apply after the fact -- well, unless...see below.

Some people make the bad mistake of deliberately removing this superior lubricant. Don't do this!

The factory lubricant all by itself is usually good for several hundred miles of service if the bike is not ridden in wet or dusty conditions. It is best not to apply any sort of lube to a new chain until it is clearly needed, because any wet lube you can apply will dilute the factory lube.

Pop N Wood

To maximize your environmental impact.

Seriously. Almost criminal the way some people throw chemicals around.

masi61

The directions on the Molten Speed Wax YouTube video show the process for prepping a new (or used) chain for wax. They do 2 washes in mineral spirits then one or two “rinses” in denatured alcohol. The solvents can be poured back into the original container and generally the dirt/contaminants settle to the bottom so the solvent is re-usable. When used with a clear glass pickle jar, you get a good idea how much grease and dirt you are removing and how close to a chain that is “stripped”. My experience doing this with a used chain that had been ridden 1,000+ miles with Pedro’s wet lube is that the extra rinses in the denatured alcohol were necessary since additional gritty material continued to be visible as sediment in the bottom of the pickle jar, it is true that the odorless mineral spirits clean the majority of grease/oil/dirt but I agree that it leaves an oily residue.

This method works since a clean/non-oily chain is ideal to accept chain wax better. The wax penetrates and stays put longer. You wind up with a better wax job that is quieter and cleaner.

It really is not wasteful of chemicals since you re-collect the chemicals.

Is the denatured alcohol cleaning 2nd step fully necessary if your intention is to use conventional wet chain lube? You decide, but I would say it is optional since a wet lubed chain will continue to siphon out black graphite looking oil from the chain internals, if you got it immaculately clean the first time, that standard of cleanliness might only manifest for 1 ride only.

Not so with waxing. I clean chain that has been waxed, tends to stay much cleaner and it can be refreshed multiple x’s in a crock pot wit chain wax. De-waxing the chain might only be required occasionally such as after the bike has been ridden in a downpour and gotten very gritty.

Moe Zhoost

The DNA serves no purpose other than to perhaps physically flush any additional grit out. Alcohols are not good solvents for petroleum based lubricants.

cyccommute 

For some reason, people feel that they need a complicated, multi step process to clean chains. Considering what gets thrown at a chain, all this work to make it “clean” is mostly useless. If you were using a water-based degreaser, denatured alcohol after the cleaning would make sense to remove water from rinsing. But for mineral spirits, that’s all that is needed. Shake the chain in a container (I prefer wide mouth 500 mL Gatorade bottles) for about 30 seconds, pull the chain out, and let the solvent evaporate. That is all that is needed.

As I said above, people like to make cleaning a chain complicated. There is no need for the metal of the chain to be stripped completely off in order to use a wax. The wax itself is a solvent which will remove any residual factory wax (yes, it is a wax) when the chain is heated. Stop at the mineral spirits. That is all that is needed. In fact, for waxing, adding the factory wax lubricant to the hard wax will make it more flexible and less likely to just spall off when the chain is moved.

No, it doesn’t. The metal of the chain doesn’t need to be completely free of the factory lubricant. The two materials...wax and factory wax lubricant...are completely compatible and, with heat, soluble in each other.

It’s only wasteful in that it uses 2 solvents when only one is needed.

When oil is used, the “black graphite” looking material isn’t “black graphite” nor is it siphoned out of the chain. The black grunge from oiled chains is a mixture of oil, grit (mostly sand), and metal that is simply pumped through the chain by gravity and motion of the chain.

The “black graphite” isn’t present in waxed chains because of a couple of reasons. First, wax doesn’t flow so there is no way for grit to get down into the chain and then back out like it can with oils. Additionally, while the metal wear products are there...waxed chains don’t last longer then oiled ones..., they don’t come out in a visible manner because they aren’t trapped in the lubricant.

You got the first part right...the alcohol serves no purpose...but missed on the second part. Although danallen is asking about a new chain, on used chains, the mineral spirits is more than enough to remove all of the grit that is deep within the chain. That grit is microscopic and will flow out with the mineral spirits. A second wash with alcohol (or mineral spirits for that matter) serves no purpose.

Bottom line: mineral spirits alone will do the job. No need to complicate the process.

John_V 

I strip the factory lubricant on new chains with mineral spirits and repeat about every 1,000 miles. I relube the chain with Squirt and apply the Squirt after every 80-100 miles of riding. I've been getting an average of 4,000 plus miles of chain life, which is doubled what I got with oiled chains. After using the mineral spirits, I just wipe the chain dry and rinse with water. Then I dry the chain again using air from an air compressor. Never needed to worry about using any type of alcohol.

ofajen

Yeah, I put on a new KMC chain two months ago, and roughly 1400 dusty trail miles later, all I’ve done is brush off the chain after every ride and add Boeshield after every few rides. Probably helps that it’s just SS, as that seems to pick up far less dust than a derailleur extending down into the dust stirred by the front tire.

Otto

Mojo31

Are you suggesting that on a brand new chain, no cleaning is needed or recommended before waxing?

ofajen

I won’t speak for anyone else, but I would suggest that on a brand new chain, no cleaning is needed or recommended before riding.

Otto

jon c. 

I've never cleaned a new chain.

Mojo31

I’m asking about before waxing.

drlogik 

As previous posts have stated, the theory is that the alcohol strips the last remnants of the mineral spirits off the chain and that the next lube will stick better. I guess it depends on which lube you're going to use.

I'm kinda with cyccommute here in that it may not matter if there is residual mineral spirits; however, it's been my experience that when I wax a chain (paraffin, Squirt, etc) that I do follow-up with alcohol. Having done my share of painting over the years, working in bike shops, my cars, etc, not all mineral spirits are the same.

Mineral spirits does have additives. Which ones I don't know, but I waxed a chain many years ago and dried the mineral spirits off as well as I could and sprayed with compressed air also. I warmed the chain and dipped in the molten paraffin. I wiped the chain down and mounted on my bike. After the ride my chain was sloughing gooey wax balls that felt slimy. I had done this many times before but used a different brand of mineral spirits. I stripped the chain again with my old brand of mineral spirits, no alcohol rinse (apples-to-apples comparison) and waxed the chain. It was fine, no slimy wax balls..

Whatever was in that brand of mineral spirits must have had an additive that acted as a degreaser.

Remember, this isn't rocket science, but if we take the time to do it right, I say go all the way and strip-off the mineral spirits with alcohol. I see no negative to doing this and that's the way I do it. Not saying it's right, it's just the way I do it.

kingston 

I also follow the MSW cleaning instructions including the alcohol rinse to remove the OMS residue before waxing. Why not?. The whole process takes about 15 minutes of actual effort and you only have to do it once per chain. Skipping the alcohol rinse might save 5 minutes if you are really taking your time.

ofajen

That’s how I do it as well. KMC chains come with a nice waxy coat. I just run that for a while and then start adding Boeshield when it seems like it needs a bit of lube.

It’s pretty hopeless for my rides: with all the dust on our trails, my chain will always be dusty. I just try to minimize it by using a dry lube every few days and brushing the dust after each ride.

Running SS seems to help a bit, too, as the chain is further from the trail surface than a derailleur. And less stuff to get gritty and slow.

Otto

Pratt

Since chains are consumable, I suspect that there is not much real world difference in efficiency or durability between reasonably attentive regimens. If you totally ignore the chain, it will rust and wear pretty fast, but most moderate cleaning and lubrication schemes should work. I use Diesel to rinse the grit and old lube off and chainsaw bar oil (it is Vermont). Even SS can get gritty. After doing the XNHAT out and back last month, the chain was filthy. It is a SS chain on a Pinion gearbox bike.

DaveSSS 

Mineral spirits should never leave a residue. I've painted a number of cars over 50 years. Wax and greaser remover solvent, applied to clean a surface before sanding is a mixture of mineral spirits and naphtha. Similarly, lacquer thinner is a mixture of acetone and mineral spirits - the more acetone, the faster drying the thinner is. You can buy fast, medium or slow drying thinner.

Naphtha or camp stove fuel is my preferred solvent for degreasing because it's cheaper and evaporates faster. Crown brand fuel is under $9 per gallon at Walmart.

The new SRAM AXS chain only have a light weight oil of them from the factory. None of that thick greasy stuff.

jay4usc

no you must really clean off the factory or old lube if your transitioning to wax base lube. If you properly degreased in the beginning you only need to do this one time. The first time I didn’t clean mine thoroughly and it picked up dirt after using squirt wax. I then cleaned and degreased the chain again but this time I soaked in simple green for 20 mins, soaked in WD40 for 10mins, washed it with dish soap, rinse thoroughly and dried over night before putting wax on. After doing the deep cleaning my chain now stays clean. If you use squirt wax you only small amount (very small drop each roller). Search and watch YouTube videos under Squirt Chain Lube or Paraffin Wax Chain lube. You will be happy you switch to wax base. Good luck

RiceAWay

If you're waxing your chain it has to be absolutely spotless without a hint of grease. I have this super soap I use then wash it off with water. Let the chain dry and then wax it. I add PTFE (Teflon) to the wax. I cook it in a hot pot for about half an hour. You can see the wax bubbling as the air in the rollers is pushed out and the wax and Teflon displaces it. DO NOT TOUCH THE CHAIN with your hands and hang it up to dry. After this I just use Snow Lube and let it dry overnight. That seems to make a chain last a LONG time. Cross chaining wears the chain a lot faster than being more careful.

Sy Reene

Attached is a really long diatribe that hits on a bunch of this. Maybe specific to this conversation, skip to page 44-45
TL/DR.. unless you plan to use some ultrasonic cleaning machine, the recommendation is to ride a brand new factory chain for a couple hours in clean conditions (eg. on your trainer).. and then proceed to the stripping/prep for waxing.

frogman

exactly !!!!!!!!

cyccommute 

I have no hard data on it...I don’t wax chains...but, essentially, yes. The wax on the chain would dissolve in the hard wax and soften it. That would make a hard wax work better on the chain. From what I’ve seen, Speed Wax uses a similar mixture.

Many will ask how I know that it is wax and not grease. When I use mineral spirits to clean a new chain, I’ve noticed that at a certain point, the wax on the chain starts to precipitate after a while. That’s how I know that it is a “wax” and not grease. Grease will never precipitate out of mineral spirits.