waters60

It may be in this thread already but how many are using ultrasonic cleaners for chains and cogs?

jaxgtr

I've used them on my chain , but not the cogs, no point in that, they are to simple to clean. However, with the waxing, I just clean them with some hot water and re-wax. easy peasy...

kingston 

Other than the initial lube-strip, cleaning of any kind has been totally unnecessary in my experience using waxed chains.

SoSmellyAir

You guys are probably right that my cleaning regiment is not necessary from now on. I first waxed this chain only after about 300 initial miles with the Shimano factory grease, so did some extra pre-cleaning this time in case my initial cleaning was not thorough enough.

spelger

hang on a sec...i still clean mine. i use mineral spirits, two baths, first gets the majority of the grime off, second is just a follow up. the spirits are quite dirty which means the chain was quite dirty. i would not dispense with this. but that is the extent to my prep. drop in wax and take the other out for the bike. rinse and repeat.

SoSmellyAir

I thought the odorless mineral spirits (or another petroleum distillate solvent, e.g., naphtha) is only needed for the initial degreasing (i.e., prior to the first waxing) to remove factory grease and/or oil based lubricant? You use OMS to clean before each subsequent wax immersion too? Why? If the chain (and the rest of the drive train) had been thoroughly degreased prior to the initial wax immersion, there should be no more grease to degrease, right?

waters60

My interest in the ultrasonic cleaner is its ability to do a very thorough job of cleaning parts. In the old days we would use Coleman fuel in a shallow tray to clean chains so this just seems to be an improvement on that. At $ 90,00 at Harbor Freight it won’t break the bank...

spelger

because it is dirty.

i do use it to remove the original lube because that is very sticky and is a dust magnet but i still wash with mineral spirits. the first bath is quite a dirty grey color from dust, road grime, and i presume residual oil from previous lube style. the second bath is much cleaner but even wiping the chain to dry after the second bath shows residual dark mineral spirits on the paper towel.

chain is running nice by the way. i think this time i'm going to measure how many miles it lasts between waxings. just curious really.

SoSmellyAir

Got it. Trying to order more OMS now.

jaxgtr

I am getting about 300 miles on mine. I have a 2 chain setup going, wax both initially, then swap them out so I will always have a chain ready to roll. Although, I need to do a better job breaking the wax on the clean chain, I put the fresh chain on Friday, went for a 35 mile ride on Saturday and had a link that was a little sticky and it was hitting the rear mech cage brace a little. was more than annoying for about 20 miles and then seem to loosen up toward the end.

DaveReading

Interesting observation.

It's many years since I last used wax on a chain, but I don't recall any need to free up the links before fitting on the bike. A couple of rotations, given that the chain links were exercised in both directions as it passed over the RD jockey wheels, always seemed to do the trick.

What do they make wax out of nowadays?

kingston 

I bought one of those a few years ago, and it has been useless.

eduskator

Never used it / needed it. Hot water should suffice. For deeper cleaning, I soak mine in fuel for a few hours and then in degreaser. It comes out looking like new.

eduskator

One of the guys I am following on YT (OzCycle) suggested to use a round object such as a drawer handle to rub the chain against and around it, to get that extra wax off the chain more easily. It might be worth the try!

jaxgtr

Yea I saw that. I have a fairly long dowel rod, I need to try and rig something up that will be stable and use that.

jaxgtr

Yea this is the first time I had that issue. It was a link next to my quick link. It had a lot of extra wax on the outside, I might not have wiped down the outside enough in that area.

SoSmellyAir

I set the seat post clamp of my bike stand to a horizonal position, then clamp a wooden rake handle (True Temper 48 in. Tapered Rake Replacement Handle-2026800 - The Home Depot) therein, then run both sides of my waxed chain over it to eject the excess wax. I feel like the wooden surface is easier on the chain and its slight roughness scrapes off more wax.