Cleaning your drivetrain

[Warrenlee]

Whats the secret to cleaning your chain and drive train on a mountain bike?

[DR ◣◢]

Dirt Nurse yellow degreaser

Toothbrush for the chain

Use the edge of a rag for in between the cassette cogs.

Rag for the front chainring

Toothbrush for the derailleur

 

Rinse and dry.

[BaGearA]

Clean the bulk of the crap off with light degreaser and A corse brush 

 

then go ham with strong degreaser and A chain cleaner/scrubber

then go in with A fine brush on the cogs and chainring and pulleys ( i like A tooth brush )

 

 

 

this is just one of A million ways to do it , its just the one i like 

 

 

be careful not to go ape sh#t with degreaser and make sure not to spray it on your rotors 

[porqui]

Best bet is paraffin and one up from that if you can get it is jetA (aviation fuel)

 

What's also nice about it is that you can use it over and over as the gunk settles on the bottom and you just decant.

 

The real question is what do you use to lube ??? - but we won't go there !!!

Edited August 9, 2020 by porqui

[Warrenlee]

You right in that there is so many ways. Thats what makes it so confusing. Iv always known Clean Green as a good degreaser, but some say it damages the chain. My father has an mechanical engineering background who now restores old grandfather clocks and swears by plain petrol.

 

Hence why I posted the question. Iv just bought my first full sus bike after being on the hardtail for 3 years and want to take as care of it as possible.

[Quagga]

I run two chains per bike

 

I have a quick link on my chains.

Get home, take chain off and I try to keep the chain always in same direction so the one side always faces the cassette. Makes a gold chain look nicer for longer.

 

Then dump chain in mineral turps.Turps leaves oily residue so you never have it as dry as with petrol.

 

Shake and scrub.

Hang up and wipe with cloth

MEASURE chain to make sure it is below .75. Else replace

 

Now lube it while hanging so lube runs down and in everywhere

 

Let it dry. Sometimes it hangs there for week while I ride chain 2.

 

The I take a cloth and wipe the outside CLEAN.

 

Lube on the outside does one thing and that is at track dust and crap that eats you cassette.

 

Chain is now ready for use.

 

I get 3000+ km on the two chains and I use two sets to 3 on a cassette. My current bike has 5500 and 1st cassette and chainring. And second set of two chains.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Quagga

[Quagga]

To clean a cassette.

Wheel off.

Remove cassette

Split and dump in turps.

Clean

Dry each cog

Copper slip the free body

Put cassette back

Torque the nut to 40nm

Wheel in bike

[ChrisF]

To clean a cassette.

Wheel off.

Remove cassette

Split and dump in turps.

Clean

Dry each cog

Copper slip the free body

Put cassette back

Torque the nut to 40nm

Wheel in bike

 

The initial regime often includes way too much degreaser .... which finds its way into the freebody and the wheel bearings ....  Very easy to think you are taking care of your bike, while actually causing lots of damage ....

 

 

When my bike goes to the LBS for its annual service they remove the chain and clean it away from the bearings that could be affected by the degreaser.

 

 

So, like Quagga, I now also remove the rear wheel.  I made a bracket to hold the wheel, initially this was made to do tubeless fitments and to top up the slime.  I have found this rig works very well when cleaning the sprocket.

 

 

The Shimano sprocket is stripped to its parts, and washed with degreaser, getting it back to pristine condition.

 

 

 

PS - the NICE thing about removing the wheel from the frame is that you now get an opportunity to check the wheel bearings, derailure wheels, etc ....

 

PPS - The Eagle GX cassette, and various others, are a single unit and can not be taken apart for cleaning.  Then you need a "cassette brush" to get inbetween the rings to clean it properly .... Parktool GSC-1 GearClean (many cheaper options available)

 

 

I then use a pulley to hold the chain in place on the bike while washing the chain with the cleaning tool (Parktool CM-5.2)

 

 

Once everything is as clean as possible the chain is lifted off the front chain ring, and I spray degreaser onto a cloth to for a final clean of the front chain ring.

 

 

The chain is now re-lubed with dry-lube.  At this point I often find myself over lubing ... which leads to quick gunking on the new drive train.  So I lube liberally, then wipe down excess lube from the chain.  I let it stand for 30 minutes, then wipe down again, and remove any excess visible on the chain ring and cassette.

 

 

 

Depending on the conditions, ie excessive dusty or muddy, this is only done when the chain is "dirty".  In between I spray degreaser onto a rag and wipe down the chain, and add minimal lube.

 

 

 

Ooooo, and doing it this way, ie taking the wheel out of the frame, drastically reduce the changes of contaminants getting onto the brake rotor.

 

 

I did two bikes like this last weekend.   Strip down and clean of the drive trains, 4x top-up of the slime in the tires.  Replaced two dodgy valve-inners.  Adjusted the pre-load on the bearings on the Titan.  The only thing I did not do was to check the shock pressures, as that was done a few days earlier.  Think it took me just over two hours.  Not bad for a proper minor service that gets done every couple of months, depending on riding conditions and distance covered.

Edited August 10, 2020 by ChrisF

[Jewbacca]

I just clean lightly with a spray of muc off a brush and a small bucket of water. Rinse with a slow running hose.

 

I also only clean it if I ride in the mud or fine dust. So maybe a few times a year at most. The SS usually gets used in adverse weather.

 

I get thousands of KM out of my stuff.

 

Each to their own I guess

[The Ouzo]

I run two chains per bike

 

I have a quick link on my chains.

Get home, take chain off and I try to keep the chain always in same direction so the one side always faces the cassette. Makes a gold chain look nicer for longer.

 

Then dump chain in mineral turps.Turps leaves oily residue so you never have it as dry as with petrol.

 

Shake and scrub.

Hang up and wipe with cloth

MEASURE chain to make sure it is below .75. Else replace

 

Now lube it while hanging so lube runs down and in everywhere

 

Let it dry. Sometimes it hangs there for week while I ride chain 2.

 

The I take a cloth and wipe the outside CLEAN.

 

Lube on the outside does one thing and that is at track dust and crap that eats you cassette.

 

Chain is now ready for use.

 

I get 3000+ km on the two chains and I use two sets to 3 on a cassette. My current bike has 5500 and 1st cassette and chainring. And second set of two chains.

surely you should be getting more than 3000km on a chain ?

Flip there are people doing that mileage in a month, cant imagine having to change chains on a monthly basis.

[Baracuda]

I am watching this forum intently to understand which degreaser is strong enough to clean drive chains without harming aluminum, paint work etc.

 

Recently, I picked up one of these chain brushes on takealot:

 

https://www.takealot.com/motorcycle-and-bicycle-chain-cleaning-brush/PLID52587046?colour_variant=Blue

 

It works really, really well. Dunk it in parrafin or whatever, and hold it on the chain and backpedal. One can also hold it on the wheels of your derailleur and front chain rings. The other end cleans a cassette well. It won't be a substitute for a proper chain cleaning machine or taking your cassette apart, but for a quick clean on the go for R120, it is great.

[BaGearA]

I can't imagine taking my cassette apart every time i wash the bike   there has to be some kind of balance between tinkering and riding 

[Warrenlee]

I admire your dedication to the craft boys but im with BaGearA here, I cant imagine stripping the whole thing on a regular basis (4 kids plus my own business doesn't leave up much free time for faffing). I suppose im looking for the quickest and easiest way. I think I also tend to over lube which could be why my drive train gets gunked up so quickly. 

There are literally hundreds or degreasers on the market. But which one is the best remains a mystery 

[cadenceblur]

try namgear

[thebob]

Red Hot Products makes an excellent cassette cleaner / degreaser. Spray it on, let it soak, give it a brush and rinse. Highly recommended.

 

http://www.redhotproducts.co.za/products/products.html

Edited August 10, 2020 by the_bob

[Chadvdw67]

I got some finish line chain cleaner I use with one of those cleaner "machine" things, I do that before rinsing the bike down with water, and then use a diluted water based degreaser to clean the whole bike with a sponge, and a soft floor brush to clean the cassette, derailleur wheels, chain ring etc