Timeline for How to improve the degreasing process?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 16, 2020 at 10:31 | comment | added | An Ant | Hey, Warren. You forget that since I do not live in the US, I have no such thing as Home Depot or Walmart. Those nice citrus things you describe as being sold for $4 (BTW, 0.5 litre of petrol was just 0.54 USD or 40 INR last week) are no where to be found here at such prices,( more like $ 13-15 for ~1/2 litre, nearly 27 times more expensive ) since the bike industry is not big and car mechanics use petrol. Ergo, weaker for more money. Besides, the evaporation can be good, since the degreaser wont remain on the chain, rather will evaporate away. | |
| Nov 16, 2020 at 10:26 | comment | added | An Ant | As for over-cleaning, thats couldn't be farther from the truth. You should have seen the drivetrain, in all its slick black glory. Oh, the gunk that seen on the annual thorough clean, it was worse than sewage sludge. Of course, I am learning and now regularly wipe down my chain, so as to stop things from being gunked up.Important too, considering the 150-200km per week milage. But no, neither are bike degreasers cheap here, nor am I over cleaning. | |
| Nov 14, 2020 at 21:15 | comment | added | mattnz | Bike degreasers are weaker because they do not get the grease out of 'nasty' places. You chain needs grease (lube), removing grease from hard to get to places means its hard to get it back where its needed. If you want you bike chain to look pretty, as in Steampunk style with lots of surface rust, aggressive degreaser is a good way to go. If you want your chain to perform and last and not rust, then less aggressive degreasers are appropriate. Bicycle specific chain cleaners are designed to give enough degreasing without over doing it, but other options don't have the bicycle shop tax. | |
| Nov 13, 2020 at 18:58 | comment | added | Weiwen Ng | I second the recommendation to wipe down the chain regularly (every ride is fine!) with a rag. This wipes dirt off the exterior of the chain, so there should be less dirt accumulating between the pins and rollers. | |
| Nov 13, 2020 at 17:49 | comment | added | Argenti Apparatus | @Sam I don’t think that deep cleaning a chain is necessary or desirable (unless you are doing the soak in parafin wax thing) I’ve found good quality dry lube and wiping the chain down regularly increases chain life. I was using a Park Tool chain cleaning tool previously. | |
| Nov 13, 2020 at 17:43 | comment | added | Sam7919 | I have so far been using the lazy solution: spray a foamy degreaser (the new-ish product line from WD40, likely the one the OP references), with the aspiration of graduating to using seriously deep cleaning (the brushes and rollers from that famed brand, in which the chain is dipped into a degreaser). Can you clarify whether your "too much solvent/degreaser" comment applies to the latter? Because I cycle mostly on paved trails, my chain gets greasy dust rather than tiny pieces of asphalt. Might this be one of those questions whose answer depends on the kind of dirt one accumulates? | |
| Nov 13, 2020 at 17:21 | history | answered | Argenti Apparatus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |