Originally Posted by
Salamandrine
For the record, I'm not convinced that cleaning a chain will lengthen it significantly. I merely except the possible part truth as a possibility. The whole idea sounds generally dubious. I might believe a few hundredths. If anyone wants to get empirical and measure before and after a chain cleaning, I'd be curious as to the actual figures. I'm not sure this experiment would be possible for me because I don't let my chains get very dirty or worn out. OTOH if someone is fixing up some beat up craigslist find with a nice crusty chain, it'd be easy to check
Have you ever had a cassette get so full of weeds the chain skipped? It happens to me all the time here in Tampa. Clear all the weeds out it works fine. Same concept, when all the cruds cleaned away the chain sits and engages the teeth differently. Again, if your drivetrains borderline, cleaning may send it over the edge.
I happen to have a dirty chain laying around, if I get overly bored tomorrow maybe I'll measure, clean and re-measure. I also have 3 different chain measuring tools.