Urbanmonk

What's the easiest way to clean and lube the drive train without taking the whole thing apart. I hear many differing suggestions. What's your method? After 1500 miles, I need to do it, but need to do it the right way. I want it stripped clean, then lubed like a finely tuned engine. Prrrrrrfect.

RichinPeoria

Vibratory parts cleaner using a low volitility solvent followed by a vapor immersion cleaner using MEK

botto 

Cheshyre

my method (it doesn't work THAT well, but it well enough for me to keep doing it):
lay newspaper under the drivetrain, being sure to cover the ground under the bike and any other parts of the bike to be protected.

spray ecofriendly degreaser of choice onto drivetrain, ensuring that the degreaser cleans the chain so that gunk falls AWAY from the chainring surfaces. also, be sure that the spray isn't too close; don't want to force any crap into the unreachable spaces in the rollers.

get a nylon brush, or even an old toothbrush or rag, and scrub the chain and chainrings and cassette.

fill up a bucket or old two-liter or milk jug with water and CAREFULLY rinse off everything. try to minimize water on bearings, and don't just dump it on. use your fingers over the container opening to control the flow.

get another rag and dry the chain. lube with your favorite lube; mine is finish line dry lube. i know it's kind of crappy, but it's quiet and i like that.

slimvela

wax based lube does the trick for me...keeps itself fairly clean. been using for around 3500mi now with not a worry at all.

but, yeah, vibratory cleaner with easy solvent would definitely do the trick. just don't tell your significant other what you have in the jewelry cleaner and why it's sitting on your workbench.

Bontrager

You should be cleaning it much more often than every 1500 miles.

Get something like this and follow the instructions.



https://www.parktool.com/products/det...5&item=CG%2D2#

fordfasterr

Just buy a new bike ever month. =)

KirkeIsWaiting

+1
white lightening

patentcad

I'm telling you, degreasing that drivetrain is a Velo-Enema.

MIN 

You should probably be replacing chains at ~1500mi intervals.

botto 

brianappleby

I don't know what's funny. 1500 miles is about what I get out of shimano chains according to the various gauges out there. I'm a bit heavier than the average rider (180ish) but that's not out of the realm of possibilites.

MIN 

Chains are funny business, apparently.

patentcad

I would if we could make that expenditure part of the recently passed Rescue Bill. Of course, with all the pork they stuffed in there at the last minute, it may very well be funded. Maybe they'll send me a check this month.

Szczuldo

I really need to find a chain that lasts more than two months, but I wonder when you start getting into diminishing returns with chain purchases. I think I'll try something other than the cheap Shimano 9 speed chain this time.

tjspahr

I'm a little lighter than you are, but the last Shimano chain I replaced was just over .5 on the park guage and it had between 4-5 K miles.

I also clean and lube the drivetrain pretty frequently.

weavers

if its rusted then put in a 24oz bottle of cola. if you want it sterile then use decon, we used that in microbio and A&P, dunno what it does to chains. if you want something skin and eco freindly and cheap then use simple green and a chain cleaner.

also you should be cleaning your whole bike after every ride, moreso if your doing say +20miles each ride. otherwise clean it atleast once a week and relube the chain. it only takes 30-45mins but makes all the differnce in preventive mataince, squeaking, and performace.

NYJayhawk

Mine's clean enough to eat off of right now. Going to go change that in a couple minutes. Here's how:

Take off the back wheel and spray degreaser on the cassette. Then get a rag and fold it and "floss" the between the sprockets of the cassette. Repeated appliation of degreaser, and lots of water to flush away the gunk (and continuing to use a clean part of the rag between the teeth) will leave you with a shiny cassette that won't re-distribute gunk onto your chain.

Now go check the jockey wheels on the rear deraileur. After 1500 miles without cleaning, they probably look like meatballs. Using degreaser, a toothbrush, qtips, or anything you can to get in there, get the gunk off those suckers.

Get a rag and toothbrush and clean up the front chainring.

Put the wheel back on. Then get your park tool chain scrubber thing (from the photo in the previous post). Fill with degreaser/water and run the thing around the chain for a while. Now dump the gunky water out of the park too scrubber, rinse it out, and replace it with fresh water. Repeat the scrubbing process to get the degreaser off the chain.

Dry the whole drivechain off.

Finally, lube with Rock N Roll chain lube (which is also a cleaner). Follow the directions and you're back in business.

hrt4me

thanks for the cleaning tips

The_Cretin

I found that discarding the gauges and actually measuring the chain extended their lifespan considerably (to 6-10,000 mi).

brian416

get a park chain cleaner, brush, cleaning solution and clean that drive train every week or two, You must have some serious drive train wear if you haven't cleaned it in 1500 miles

jccaclimber

I go on 20 mile rides that take just under an hour regularly. Are you really telling me you think I should spend more than half as much time cleaning my bike as I do riding it?

Scorer75

-1 White lightning although extremely popular leaves a waxy substance all over the cassette making it harder to clean.

Falchoon

I use Kerosene to clean the main greasy/oily crap out of the drive train scrubbing with a cheap brush from the supermarket and then use spray-on bathroom/kitchen cleaner to get rid of residual crap. I try not to let it build up, I do this every couple of weeks or so. Then I wash the bike with car wash and dry it off and reapply chain lube - Rock n Roll gold or Prolink (I find the wax stuff doesn't last long enough, you literally need to reapply it every ride!)

ehidle

I clean the chain with Metro (formerly 1-Step) and a rag before every ride. Seems to do the trick. Keeps my DA chains spotless for the 1000 or so miles I get out of them