What do you use to clean and degrease your bike before adding fresh lube?
Degreaser
- Thread starter pv40
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Are you just referring to the chain? I use a a brush and just scrub off loose bits then relube. When I was switching over to wax, I used mineral spirits to really get a deep clean. For general frame cleaning, a dilute solution of simple green works good for me.
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- #3
I was referring to chain, cassette, all over. By bike has been sitting and I’m getting it up and going. I didn’t have simple green. So my wife gave me dawn power wash. It co my es in a spray bottle. It worked amazing. Foamed up and I scrubbed with a toothbrush and rinsed. Totally clean.
I use Pedro's Oranj Peelz for the drive train on bikes that use gear lube. It's citrus-based, biodegradable, and water-soluble.
I also like Dawn for general cleaning but have started using Silca's Bike Care Box Set (wait/look for a sale).
I also like Dawn for general cleaning but have started using Silca's Bike Care Box Set (wait/look for a sale).
when nothing else works: kerosene, followed by Dawn or your detergent of choice.
Use paint thinner or solvent to clean the chain. Keep an old chain to work the current chain off the bike. Place it in the solvent and work it around to loosen and remove the rust that build within the pins/joints. Heat a mixture of 50% 30w oil and Vaseline to liquid and place the chain into work it around, this re-lubes the pins/joints where spraying will not. Before you do all this, pull on the joints to determine if there is any play, if there is, the chain should be replaced, if you don't check, you'll be replacing chain and sprockets at some point. Several years as a Honda motorcycle mechanic.
You're welcome! Use a paint brush to remove the grime buildup on the chain and continue working it around until no more orange rust liquid comes out. Connect a piece of wire to one end of the chain so you can pull it out of the heated mixture after about 10 minutes and hang it up to cool before installing. It will have a white coating from the Vaseline and is messy to handle so wear some gloves. This process completed every so often will greatly extend the life of the chain and your sprockets. Happy riding!
I just did a kinda rusty chain on a bike that someone was giving away. It had rust, wear-metal, and dry oil, pet hair, but the bicycle looks like it was never used in the fifteen years since it was new. The chain looked horrible, but, was not elongated.
I never use just oil. Rather, I always pull out the chainbreaker tool take it off, and measure for chain stretch with a nail on the wall (1/16-inch stretch is about at max). Then I heat a pan on a camp stove, place the chain on it, and melt paraffin wax (candles) onto the top of the links. If I want to clean the debris from the chain, wear-metal, like on my recent project, then I simply wipe the top surface of just the cooking pan with a paper rag, not necessarily the chain, and melt more candle on the links until it is saturated and puddling up on the pan. It effectively flushes the garbage off. If the chain is brand new, it flushes the oil that they come with off. While the wax is still liquid and hot (115 to 154 deg. F), I can wipe the outter chain links of excessive wax, and clean it with paper towel, and it looks super, and it isn't lots of work. To reasemble the chain, I wrap the inner link with about three turns of teflon tape that has been folded over, as to keep some space so the outter plates don't bind on that link (like when it is going thru the rear derailer), and remove the tape with a jewler's screwdriver when the rivet has been replaced (as to regain freedom of movement. To make the chainbreaker process easier, I temporarily hook the rear derailers cogs forward with a loop of bailing wire wrapped around the chain stay tube of the frame. I guess some people just have a master-link in the chain, but, I never use one. Never push a rivet too far, once out of two plates, it doesn't reassemble. If you want, you can add chain lube at a later time, it is probably a decent combo and convenient, but I never use just chain lube - too dirty and too much chain wear, from what I can tell. The cassette and chainrings stay much cleaner with wax, attracting very little dust, but, I use those steel wire toothbrushes that you can find at harbor freight if the cassette is oily from a typical chain-lube-only routine, or just a nylon brush. Paraffin wax is nice, because it can keep your hands and clothes from getting stained if you happen to come in contact with it.
I never use just oil. Rather, I always pull out the chainbreaker tool take it off, and measure for chain stretch with a nail on the wall (1/16-inch stretch is about at max). Then I heat a pan on a camp stove, place the chain on it, and melt paraffin wax (candles) onto the top of the links. If I want to clean the debris from the chain, wear-metal, like on my recent project, then I simply wipe the top surface of just the cooking pan with a paper rag, not necessarily the chain, and melt more candle on the links until it is saturated and puddling up on the pan. It effectively flushes the garbage off. If the chain is brand new, it flushes the oil that they come with off. While the wax is still liquid and hot (115 to 154 deg. F), I can wipe the outter chain links of excessive wax, and clean it with paper towel, and it looks super, and it isn't lots of work. To reasemble the chain, I wrap the inner link with about three turns of teflon tape that has been folded over, as to keep some space so the outter plates don't bind on that link (like when it is going thru the rear derailer), and remove the tape with a jewler's screwdriver when the rivet has been replaced (as to regain freedom of movement. To make the chainbreaker process easier, I temporarily hook the rear derailers cogs forward with a loop of bailing wire wrapped around the chain stay tube of the frame. I guess some people just have a master-link in the chain, but, I never use one. Never push a rivet too far, once out of two plates, it doesn't reassemble. If you want, you can add chain lube at a later time, it is probably a decent combo and convenient, but I never use just chain lube - too dirty and too much chain wear, from what I can tell. The cassette and chainrings stay much cleaner with wax, attracting very little dust, but, I use those steel wire toothbrushes that you can find at harbor freight if the cassette is oily from a typical chain-lube-only routine, or just a nylon brush. Paraffin wax is nice, because it can keep your hands and clothes from getting stained if you happen to come in contact with it.
Sounds to baroque, but if a system works, it works!
The best bike tool I purchased in the last few years was a cheap AliExpress quicklink remover tool. I have the Park tool link remover also, but the cheapy makes more sense from a size factor, it rides with me so it's there when I'm most likely to need it, and it came with a simple little hook that I hate myself for not inventing. You hook it into chain links on either side of your quick link, leaving no tension on the link for easier removal. And bonus: it holds the chain in place when you reinstall the quick link so that you can reinstall the link above the chainstay and click it into position using the crank arm's laverage. Getyouone!