FBinNY 

Safety and effectiveness are relative terms, and you can add cost to the mix, but there are safer solvents that are just about as effective. Balancing the risks and benefits is something we could debate until the cows come home, but why bother. There's no one right answer. Everyone has to find his own balance appropriate to his needs and situation, and be mindful of properly managing whatever risks are involved. For instance neither gasoline nor many of the "safer" solvents are appropriate to the apartment dweller. Even if used outdoors, there's still a storage issue.

To those who refuse to use gasoline, I don't say your concerns are groundless. To those who use gasoline, I hope you treat it with the respect it warrants. Let's move on and spare this dead horse any more beatings.

bkaapcke

What do you do with gasoline that is full of chain crud? bk

svidrod

Use it to ignite the pile of downed sticks you gather in your yard each spring. But only on your Township's designated burn days.

FBinNY 

Settle out the crud in storage, and pour clean solvent off the top when I'm ready to reuse. Or you can put a cotton ball in a funnel and filter out the crud and add the clean gasoline to the fuel for your lawn mower.

cvcman

humm let me guess, you are the same type of guy who thinks the new light bulbs are better for the enviroment

FBinNY 

If you're referring to me, you're a mile off.

I think that the new mini fluorescent bulbs are an example of jumping from the pan to the fire, analogous to when Congress ordered tha adding of mtbe to motor fuel. To solve one problem, a new and worse one is introduced, in the case of the mini-F bulbs that of adding mercury to the waste stream.

I'm the type of guy that thinks that the new bulbs and similar mandates have nothing to do with being smart, environmental, socially conscious or anything like that. They're simply another benefit of having the "best Congress that money can buy".

But, it is possible and sensible to consider the environment along with other factors when making decisions. Saving and recycling solvent keeps it out of the waste stream, it saves money, which is the main reason I do it.

svidrod

Better for the environment? Maybe. Better for our strained electricity network? Certainly.

digger

Although I do not use gasoline, it is an excellent degreaser. Stinky as all get out.

But what to do with the remaining mixture of chain smutz and gasoline?

Why not dip yer chain in gasoline, swish it around, remove it then immediately light the gasoline soaked chain on fire. This way you get rid of the mixture and burn off the dirt inside your chain.

Of course, this is best done will wearing loose fitting clothing, underneath a birch tree at the height of summer.

Gawd, I love "chain clean and lube" threads.

digibud

I have a large jug with dirty solvent that I take to the land fill for proper disposal every so often. I am not on city water so I never pour it down the drain. Some small amount does go down my drain when I rinse it but that's very minor.
Using water is not an issue where I live. I have a shallow well and a river in my back yard.
I figure riding my bike is a reasonable contribution to enviro friendly behaviour. I am reasonably responsible in that regard but do use petro products regularly as do most people for good or bad.

I_like_cereal

chain cleaners used in the past:
Brakecleen - It is what I had handy.
Some fancy crap from the LBS that came with the scrubber.
Some gas I had left over after I changed my fuel filter.
Mineral spirits.

Of all of them I think the brakecleen worked the best. However it stripped the plating off the chain. So I had to lube and lube and lube.
The Fancy crap worked ok.
Of course gas worked great, just did not like my hands burning and my wife wanted nothing to do with me for a while.
I still use mineral spirits. It works ok and I do a two part clean. Soda bottle and scrubber. I do need a new scrubber though. I and considering two toilet brushes tied together.
In the rainy season here I have to clean the chain at least once a week or everything sloooows waaaaay dowwwwwwn from all the grit.

I do like the bucket cleaning method though.

noglider 

It takes a lot of trouble to clean a chain by the methods above. And there's dirt and the trouble of disposing of the mess. I value my time, so if I can't clean my chain easily, I replace it. It might even be less strenuous on the environment for me to do this.

Chains are cheap. My time isn't.

Six jours

Well put.

The trouble, IMO, is that there are always going to be things that are dangerous, relatively speaking. Back when we were bringing down wooly mammoths with spears, cleaning a bicycle chain with gasoline wouldn't have been very high on the list. But now that we've made our world pretty safe, the gasoline/chain paradigm can seem like a huge threat - especially to people who make a living off of bad results.

I once ran a call where some poor fellow backed over his 18 month old boy's head with the family sedan. That was more than a decade ago, but you can bet your last dollar than still I'm paranoid about my 2 and 4 year old boys when I'm in reverse. Far more paranoid than the actual risk calls for, in fact - at least in comparison to mammoth spearing.

Franky

sorry, sorry compadre. just funning

digger

If you're a human walking this earth and enjoy the basics of modern conveniences then you are already NOT environmentaly friendly.

However, if you ride a bicycle, rather than drive, you are WAY more enviro friendly than one who drives a motor vehicle. Its a matter of degree. I think the earth has a very good ability to clean itself of our waste, to a point. However, humans have started to saturate the earth and it has reached its limit.

I use paint thinner to clean my chains. I feel it is no worse than citrus degreasers which do not work well, thus you need more of it. I keep the used paint thinner in a large 4 litre (that's right around 1 U.S. gallon). Twice a year, my community has a hazardous waste day, and I bring it there to dispose of. Its about 4 litres per year.

Not envrio friendly? Well....yes, paint thinner is a hazardous chemical. But I wear gloves when handling it, I do not smoke will handling it, I use it in a well ventilated area and I do not pour it down the drain nor dump it outside.

Bicycling is not waste free, but a hellava lot better than most activities.

digger

Everyone has a method. Some people (like me) are OCD about their chains and clean them often. Others replace them more frequently.

Which is more envrionmentally friendly? I guess it is possible to throw the chain in the recycle bin(?)

ben4345

Did Bryan talk to you?

digger

Bryan?

Camilo

Uh, no shots and beer? What kind of Thanksgiving family activity is that?

Camilo

Word. I challenge anyone to honestly say that there's a meaningful advantage to all this cleaning nonsense compared to just regularly re-lubing, letting it drip a little, and thoroughly cleaning the outside of the chain. Especially considering time, the cost of cleaning supplies, and the hassle of the mess and/or dealing with filthy solvents.

Lube often, clean the outside.

Chris Chicago

some chains are cheap. mine are., but if I had a campy chain I'd probably be more enthusiastic cleaning it.

mmmdonuts

My kids are young. I have a strict rule of no hard liquor before the age of 16.

cbchess

i don't care how you clean the chain. But I really like Chain-L lube. I got almost a year out of my last application.

FBinNY 

I do care, but only if you use Chain-L. To properly lube a chain it has to be dry inside, so the newly applied product can wick into the chain where it needs to be. The most common chain cleaning error is failure to dry completely, especially if using water based cleaners which can be retained inside the chain by capillary action for a long time. Think about water that seeped under a glass table top for comparison.

If the chain isn't dry added lubricant will sit on the outside and be wiped off before it can do any good. It's like trying to wipe up a spill with an already soggy towel.

I don't care how people clean or lube their chains, though I'm obviously happier if they use my stuff. But I really do care how Chain-L users clean their chains, because poor technique yields poor results which reflect poorly on my product and me.

noglider 

That's a fair point. And I do spend a bit of time cleaning my chains. By not letting it get seriously gunky, I can clean them by applying ATF liberally, wiping, and repeating that cycle a few times. Each application/wipe cycle yields cleaner and cleaner wipes, so I believe it does some good.

I'd love to be able to look at my chain and know that it doesn't need more lubrication. How do I do that? I do have Chain-L and use it occasionally.

FBinNY 

There's no way to look, so if in doubt oil it again (Chain-L lasts too long, and I need people to apply more often than absolutely necessary). Actually, while you can't usually see that it needs to be oiled (unless there's some rust starting at the edges of the plates) you can hear it.

As the oil becomes contaminated and dry the chain starts getting noisier which is a fairly reliable indicator of the need to oil. Certainly any chirping characteristic of a dry chain means you should have oiled it yesterday.

Over the years, I've found another early warning. The shifting becomes a bit more sluggish, so if I find myself thinking of trim adjustments I try to remember when I last oiled the chain, and if I can't remember, I go ahead and do so at the next opportunity. One nice thing about Chain-L (remember this it the maker saying this) is that it wears out very slowly, so you have a few hundred miles between the early signs and having a dry chain.