Roders

Soory, been away for the weekend, did I miss the beer??

Get Prepsol, mix 50/50 with water in a spray can and spray on your muddy bike. 15 min later hose off , no pressure, and let the bike dry in the sun, easy like that. this has worked for me for years and I'm lazy when it comes to bike cleaning.

Maaan this is an interersting place, a question was asked,I offered some advice and then got slated for my gramatical correctness. From then on things really went downhill. I've come to the conclusion guys on this forum don't have enough to do!(opened myself up for more abuse?). A point of interest, I still ride regularly with the guy who JB bought his original "yellow saddle" from !!!. I've heard lots of stories about JB Must admit this is entertaining though.

Johan, how many k's a month/year do you ride. I talk from the experiance of plenty k's a month and a good understanding of mechanics and engineering, I own two engineering businesses which gives me access to substantial R&D facilities ie. oil companies lab's, engineers etc.

Buy a new chain, that ones farked, all you are going to do is trash your chain rings and casette

A bit of science behind chain lube. chains and gears run under extreme pressure conditions "EP" so you need an EP lubricant, that is why gear oils come with an EP rating. Once the chain has engaged with the blade or sprocket the only friction is between the pin and roller of the chain, only if you ride big blade front and big cog at the back(crossover) do you start to get friction between chain plates and gears. Therefore lubrication is only needed between between pin and rollers of the chain, lube on the outside of the chain only collects dust and makes grinding paste.(even more critical off road) Because of the pressure generated when pedaling, if you do not use an "EP" lube all you are doing is squeezing the lube out of the chain and it is not long before your chain is noisy and you have grinding paste on the outside of the chain. Cyclists by nature do not want to see a chain drive that appears sluggish, (when you spin the crank backwards it must spin freely) and so use very thin oils, defeating the object. Chain wax should be very good but is not easy to get into the chain where it is needed, that is why an EP grease in a solvent is so good. It gets the lube into the pin & roller and then the solvent evaporates leaving the lube where it must be. No "magic" here just common engineering sense no???

I used to race & ride motorbikes, offroad & superbikes where stresses on drive chains are far greater. 15 to 20000 km's on a chain were easily achievable.Why is it so impossible to do 10 to 15000 km's on a bicycle cassette??

Johan you are wellcome to come and inspect my cassette's if you want! My sponser/bike shop will testify to the amount of cassette's he has supplied me. I've always followed your stories & advice with a degree of admiration but my estimation of you is dropping. I see now if its not your expert opinion its then not viable.

Another tip Auctionlamb's avatar is the best lube for joints (knees, elbows, ankles etc). A cheaper alternative is castle milk stout.

Spanjaard costs about 60bucks for a 400ml tin, will last you a year!!

Used squirt on the Epic, failed miserably,Castrol chain wax is better if you want to go that route. Try Spanjaard before you condemn it

Sorry if my grammer and spelling is not quite up to scratch, Im in the engineering business not english litrature, did not do to well at languages at school, thats why I could not become a lawyer or accountant etc.

I did say cassettes, I have three sets of wheels, one with ultegra and two with 105, all nine speed. I have never had to change any of them when putting a new chain. Johan you should know the secret to casette longevity is renewing the chain before it starts to show any signs off measurable wear.

Intervals, intervals, intervals and more intervals

Forget everything else, I have tried them all, even had an oil company try and develop a specialist lube for me. Go to your local hardware and ask for Spanjaard chain & linkage spray or Spanjaard liquid grease. Spray it on and leave for a minute or two then wipe clean. On a road bike you can do 500km's before re-lubing and your chain stays shiny clean. I do +- 15000km's a year, after 5 years my cassette's are still good and I put a new chain once a year as a matter of coarse. (I also have no vested interest i Spanjaard)

Have done 96 at Giants Castle on the tar & 110 at Pelindaba, offroad, Afterwards you think what was I thinking, but hell the rush at the time is unbelievable! The most I've done on a road bike was 92, I think speed on a mountain bike is much safer, road bikes are a bit twichy

Boy oh Boy, sounds like there's a lot of people here who need some serious anger management. Entertaining if nothing else

I train on country roads in the afternoon\ early evening and one of my biggest bugbears are motorists who overtake oncoming traffic into your face pushing you of the road. Three weeks ago I started wearing a dayglo police type jacket when I train, not one single incident since, even traffic coming from behind seem to give me a wider berth. I now realize just how invisible to motorists we are.