So who is right? On Tuesday's Supercycling Johan showed us how to completely remove the chain and soak it in degreaser to clean the chain. However, on page 60 of the July 2007 Bicycling magazine about "12 Cycling truths" it states "Clean your chain by taking it off your bike and soaking it in degreaser. False. When you submerge a chain in cleaner, you're slowly leaching the lubricant out of its pins, which is exactly where you want it to be. Once it's gone, it's all but impossible to get lube back into those tiny crannies. Instead of soaking, use a stiff brush and bicycle-specific degreaser, such as Park Tool's Cyclone Chain cleaner (R332; Bowman's, parktool.com), and towel-dry the chain before lubing. Before applying degreaser, remove your rear wheel, because degreaser can creep past the free-hub seals and ruin the hub. Unless a chain is filthy, just lube it rather than clean it first - modern lubes help force grit out of drive-train parts as they lubricate, says component-maker SRAM's Michael Zellman. (That's why all that junk is on your rag after you lube an already 'clean' chain.) In fact, you never need to remove a chain from a bike, except to replace it. So the question is, who do I believe?
steynja2007-09-13 04:27:04
