NABodie

I usually degrease wash and relube my chain about every 100 miles or so depending on how nasty it gets and how much gunk it picks up. But if I'm riding it on the trainer where it doesn't pick up road dirt and gunk how often should I clean it?

Doctor Morbius

I don't clean my chain on the trainer bike. No need. I may wipe it down from time to time, but no thorough cleaning regimen like I have with the outdoor bikes.

rpenmanparker 

Huh? Clean a chain? After a couple or three rides? My time is worth a whole lot more than that...and, heck, I’m retired. What a complete waste of time and effort. Chains never need to be cleaned. Just relubing is all that is necessary. As for cleaning a trainer bike chain, that is one of the funniest things I have ever heard with regard to bike maintenance.

RShantz

Cleaning the chain every hundred miles is pretty excessive in my mind. I clean mine if really dirty, otherwise I just re-lube as needed.


I never clean my trainer chain but I will add a touch of oil if it's getting loud.

Maelochs

Speaking of wheels ... the frame is almost done, one of the wheels is up and running (as in, inflated and holding air,) and the other ... after hours of frustration I tore the tire off and found the rim tape was bunched up. With any luck the bike will be rideable Christmas day, so after work i will take a ride and tell you if Portnoy's Complaints are a worthwhile investment.

WhyFi

Way excessive.

On the trainer, maybe you clean it at the start of the season, but I wouldn't think about it after that.

jamesdak 

Yeah, since you're asking I'm with the others. On the trainer maybe once a season. Even my outdoor bikes only get cleaned if they get nasty and that's only after a wet ride or during the winter rides. I'd be cleaning a chain every 3 to 4 days if I did it every 100 miles. Too lazy for that.

SethAZ 

I would bet dollars to donuts that if you dropped your trainer chain into some mineral spirits and did a good deep clean, then put a magnet down into the mineral spirits after pulling the chain out, you'd find tons of ferrous debris from chain wear. I can't prove that cleaning this out from time to time will in fact extend chain life, but it makes sense that it would, to some undetermined extent.

Myosmith

I don't clean my chain based on miles but on conditions. If the weather is dry and the roads in good condition, I can ride hundreds of miles with no more than an occasional touch of lube. If it's been sloppy wet, the roads gritty/dirty/unpaved, I will clean the chain in a manner appropriate to the amount of grime. The chain comes off the bike and goes in the mineral spirits as needed, which for me amounts to 2 or 3 times a summer for my road bike or once every few weeks during winter/spring slop for my mutt.

My trainer bike gets the once-over more or less annually, usually in the fall since I use the trainer mainly in the winter. This includes a chain cleaning and there is usually enough gunk that comes out of the chain that it is justified. I suppose the frequency of cleaning would depend on how much you use the trainer, the type of lubricant (I use WD40 Bike Dry), and your personal tolerance for gunk.

Doctor Morbius

I don't doubt it, but I don't log the same kind of miles/time on the bike when using a trainer vs. riding outdoors. According to my spreadsheet, since October 25th I've ridden for 403 minutes on the trainer. That's 6.7 hours, which is only a weeks worth of riding outdoors.

SethAZ 

Yeah you're probably all set. I've kind of settled on only deep cleaning my chain every 500 miles when I swap between my A and B chains. Still, I've been kind of shocked how much metal debris my magnet has pulled up in just 300 miles or so. Whether it actually will help to deep clean it or not I couldn't say. At least you can know what whatever you do dredge up from your chain will be just from wear and not dirt.

rpenmanparker 

You are not thinking this through to the end. What does even a really good chain cost? $40 or so. Suppose you extend its life 20% which is by no means assured. What does the mineral spirits cost you? Whst about the non-reusable Shinao pin or SRAM 11-speed master link?What about the “shop” expenses like paper towels? What about the societal/environmental cost of disposing of the solvent? What about the flammable solvent hazards. And as I said before, what about the value of your time?

Further, how can the ferrous debris cause significant wear on a steel chain? Their hardnesses are the same.

Clean can be it’s own reward, but not because of saving money. A quick wipe down and relube is all that is required. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

rpenmanparker 

Doctor Morbius

I find it therapeutic, like yoga, and will continue deep cleaning my chains with mineral spirits at approx. 300 miles. Not the one on the trainer bike though. It'll get it's deep clean when Winter is over and the bike is back on road duty with a different chain, cassette and wheels.

exmechanic89

Every 100 miles? That is crazy, I'd be cleaning my chain once a week at that rate, sometimes twice a week. I'd say devote that time to riding instead.

Duo

best advice so far.

if i had to choose between maintenance and riding, it is not even Close, no contest.

Let the bicycle Rot, decay and fall apart. Give me bicycle Riding or gets me couch potato cleaning and maintaining.

(and yes i have plenty of tools, and do repairs. please relax )

canklecat

On an indoor trainer? Wax the chain. You'll never need to do anything again.

I've rotated between two identical waxed KMC Z72 chains on my road bike since July, swapping chains once a month (about every 400-500 miles) and dipping the "old" chain back in the crock pot of wax. Low maintenance, almost no gunk so when I need to handle the chain for flat repairs or just bump my leg against the drivetrain there's barely a mark -- pretty much like pencil graphite, just rubs off. The setup prep is different but once that's done it's very low maintenance.

Last month I wanted to add a couple of links to see if it eased shifting and relieved some drivetrain tension. I already had a chain of the length I wanted, previously stored with Tri-Flow. After a month I'm ready to switch back to wax. The conventionally oil lubed chain is a pain. Doesn't ride any better or quieter. I have to wipe it down after or before every ride, and avoid nudging it with my leg. And after a flat tire repair a couple of weeks ago I couldn't wipe off all the gunk with a shop rag I carry in my saddle bag. PITA. Now I need to degrease the chain rings and freewheel too before switching back to the waxed chains.

rpenmanparker 

Waxed chain on a trainer bike is okay in most respects, but flakes of the dirty wax will show up on the floor and even the walls if you don’t take precautions to prevent it. SOs take a dim view of that. So it makes sense in an unfinished environment like a garage or shed but in the dining room not so much. Ask me how I know.

TMonk

I switched to molten parrafin wax for that specific reason - because I was too lazy to clean the chain. But I'm also a neat freak.

As others have mentioned, cleaning the chain/drivetrain is hardly (if at all) necessary, so don't bother if you're doing it because you think you need to. If you just like having things clean and tidy you might want to consider wax. I don't hesitate to grab my chain for any reason on the side of the road and my hands don't get dirty.

Carbonfiberboy 

Never.

jpescatore

Out in the real world, I wipe down my chain after every ride and tend to clean/re-oil about every 200 miles or so. That seems to have been a good balance between chain/cassette wear and time wasting.

Over the winter, on the indoor trainer I don't wipe my chain down at all, as very few rain or sand storms in my basement, and I clean/re-oil once over the winter, maybe twice if I think the chain got noisy - so that works out to about 400 - 600 miles of Zwifting per relube.

As far as I can tell that seems to give me pretty long chain/cassette life, which is how I judge over the years - I doubt I could even tell the difference in added resistance between and chain that needs lubing and one that is perfectly lubed with some miracle oil.

Bob Ross

Everybody in this thread has a dedicated trainer bike?!?!? mind = blown

Doctor Morbius

No. I have a dedicated trainer chain, cassette and rear wheel.

firebird854

I'm 3 months into trainerroad high volume base plans and REALLY need to degrease and lube my chain. Since I'm ERG and basically never change gears I am just a bit too lazy, but it is super noticeable whenever I zwift or something.

Sy Reene

I anticipate that ERG mode is going to halve the expected lifespan of a given cassette (or at least one of its rings), because of this reason, ie. chain sitting on the same gear for the entire workout or time period..