kayakdiver

When it gets noisy it gets cleaned and lubed.

Shimagnolo

$358 for the top end SRAM cassette: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...6&category=357

cyccommute 

Anything above about a 5.5. Silicon dioxide (quartz) makes up about 60% of the minerals on the surface of the earth. Most 'sand' is quartz.

cyccommute 

I use White Lightning which works very well in my dry environment. If I am traveling where it's wetter, I use it more often or use the formulation that's for wet conditions.

Bob Ross

Which reminds me: What do you think "I run a clean store" is an anagram for?

caloso

That's what she said.

Fedor

How do you measure the hardness of sand?

Jed19

Sand was first rock. Once you grasp that, then you can understand how the hardness of sand can be measured.

Bike Gremlin

"White Lightning" ("Clean Ride" now?) looks nice. Price in Europe is around 10 euros for 120 ml bottle.

Has anyone tried Scottoiler for bicycles? It works wonderfuly on my motorcycle (the moto version). Chain is always lubed, but never has to be cleaned. It is based on constantly dripping small amount of water solvable lube that falls off the chain along with all the dirt. So the chain is always clean. It is supposed to make chain last 5 to 7 times longer. My experience is that the chain is always clean and lubed. It wears nice, no stiff links etc. It does last at least 2 times longer. Will see in a few years how it behaves.

Here's the bicycle version:
https://www.scottoiler.com/uk/Cycle.html

Looks like a good idea for a touring bike. I'd put it on my commuter because I never leave it in places where it could be nicked. Just not sure it works as well on a bicycle.

Spookeay Bird

Well, at least the fork's not bent!

Rowan

Please, enlighten us as to how you can do this in a few minutes.

NathanC

When you have a chain this good looking, you keep it clean.

djb

wuddya know, a Sandinista chain!

djb

slaninar, interesting idea that for motorbikes. I rode for years, and was fairly careful of keeping an eye on my chain and lubrification, just as with my bicycle. The concept is alright I guess, I prefer to have a more oily lube for when things are just sitting and in rain. I honestly cant see it being at all practical for bicycles, one more thing on the bike, plus I do prefer keeping tabs on the chain myself (and I find this ends up with one keeping an eye on the derailleurs, cables etc, so good for overall maintenance)

Ive never found chain and sprocket upkeep to be a bother, I dont spend a lot of time on them, never take the chain off, but keeping the chain lubed, and wiping excess and grime off everything with rags, to me anyway, is a quick, easy and effective way of getting good life out of all the parts, and keeping them all clean and quiet. Once in a while I do the dental floss routine on the cassette, even do it with wheel on bike, works ok and doesnt take too long.

Rowan, re time-when it starts to get colder here and I use the thinner types of chain lubes (Triflow, white lightning, whatever) the one thing I like is that its faster for applying, with less excess afterwards (but yes, have to keep on it more often I find than stuff like Phils tenacious etc)

For me, in the end, I dont mind the time spent keeping a bikes drivetrain reasonably clean, I certainly dont spend a lot of time at it, but it is nice to know everything is running efficiently and that shifting will be smooth, and the parts will last.

pallen

Basic hardness can be done with a scratch test. Rub two things together, whichever is harder will scratch the softer. Since we know sandpaper scratches steel, its safe to conclude that sand is harder. To get an actual hardness number, there is a specific procedure where a device puts a dent into a material with a known force. The size of the dent is used to come up with a hardness number. Of course for that, you would need a particle larger than a single grain of sand.

coasting 

how do you clean a chain in an apartment?

previously I always did it in the garden and used the degreasers, garden hose and lube generously. giant puddles everywhere.

Fedor

Someone just made that formula up to look smart. What does pi have to do with anything?

cyccommute 

Yep. But you could measure the hardness of even an individual sand particle. It's not impossible nor would it even require much in the way of technology to do it. An individual grain stuck to your finger and rubbed across a knife blade would do it. Just look for the scratches. Or you could embed it in a hard matrix and rub it across a knife blade. Or you could glue a whole bunch of sand grains together with some kind of silicate binder and rub it across a knife blade. Kind of like this



Sand grains bound together with a silicate binder is usually called 'sandstone'

If the sand is in a liquid matrix, they call it a polishing paste.

Fedor

If I'm ever imprisoned I'm going to glue sand to my fingers and file away the steel bars.

Spookeay Bird

It's called the Mohs hardness scale. Alabama White Marble is a 7. But like any one gives a rats brass.

hyhuu

Speaking of chain, do more expensive chains last longer than cheaper chains or is it about weight and performance?

tanguy frame

more expensive chains decay faster. chain life is inversely proportional to cost. would you like a formula?

By the way, since we have some interest in science in this thread, physicists claim they have found the source of mass in the universe. If we never discovered it, it wouldn't exist and we'd all have lighter bikes!

hyhuu

Formula away. I took some science and engineer classes way back so I'm used to looking at them.

tanguy frame

L = a/C where L = chain life in hours, C = cost in dollars, and a is the conversion factor to make the numbers and the units work out. the value of a can be derived statistically with poor confidence.

hyhuu

You got to do better than that. At least put it in a partial differential equation form with no less than 4 variables, with one of them being input from BF member and another on how expensive the bike is.