Degreasing chain

amigo
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby amigo » Sun May 29, 2016 2:03 am

ItsDank wrote:Nothing beats a good spray of WD40 followed by some soapy water to get rid of the dirt. Wait till dry and re-apply a dry lube.
After water it will get rusty, so you need to dry it with hair dryer or on a cooker, or wash with ethanol.
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antigee
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby antigee » Sun May 29, 2016 8:51 pm

think it depends a bit on what sort of surfaces you ride - used to live in Sheffield UK and riding MTB in the Dark Peak with its Gritstone dust (clue in name: used for grinding wheels) produced a wet paste that wrecked chains and everything else - here I find the dust thrown up on gravel roads is pretty bad - old habits die hard and I regularly check chain wear and can tell if been riding a lot of gravel or a lot of sealed road - I usually remove the chain (even if come with pins I put in a magic link) and put in a tray of petrol - simply because usually have around for garden mower - feeling lazy and think overlubed I just soak a rag from the petrol can and run the chain thru it in situ and lightly relube - some folks say lemon juice works the same and is a bit more environmentally friendly

hedgehog
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby hedgehog » Sun May 29, 2016 9:44 pm

i would go with duck!
but me,my self have always just lubricated,
no wiping off.so i always where black jeans.
never taken a chain off then put the same chain on.
the rear derailleur yes gets dirty.
like the sludge in an engine,don't up set it.
but at the same time i perfectly understand the clean aspect,
of the rear end bicycle.
so if i lubricate then wipe excess i could wear blue jeans,
and i would look cleaner.
just my opinion

amigo
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby amigo » Sun May 29, 2016 10:03 pm

hedgehog wrote:i would go with duck!
but me,my self have always just lubricated,
no wiping off.so i always where black jeans.
never taken a chain off then put the same chain on.
the rear derailleur yes gets dirty.
like the sludge in an engine,don't up set it.
but at the same time i perfectly understand the clean aspect,
of the rear end bicycle.
so if i lubricate then wipe excess i could wear blue jeans,
and i would look cleaner.
just my opinion
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby hedgehog » Sun May 29, 2016 10:32 pm

i'v just got back to riding after 5 years of not riding.
my riding back then was at least if not more 50 km a day,
all year rounder,poring rain included.
now honest truth struggling to do 30 km a week.
my cycling was interrupted by an accident not cycling related.

by memory the drive chain.
i think 3 rear cogs 2 chains and no front chain rings change.

eeksll
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby eeksll » Mon May 30, 2016 8:58 pm

due to another thread (http://bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic ... 34&t=89998) i have decided to degrease a chain and try to start "afresh" and see if I can get some more durability on my chains.

After a full overnight (12 hours) in a kero bath I still needed to use a brush to clean the exterior and the inside plates still had dirt caked on it.

Is there something else I need to do? I doubt any crap came out from inside the rollers, judging by the exterior.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Mulger bill » Mon May 30, 2016 11:41 pm

Did you agitate the carp out of it?
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eeksll
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby eeksll » Mon May 30, 2016 11:53 pm

Mulger bill wrote:Did you agitate the carp out of it?
I shook it a bit, but certainly not like in a bottle shake. The cap on my container wasn't that good.

If i do it again, I'll get another container and give it a solid shake.

amigo
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby amigo » Tue May 31, 2016 12:02 am

Organic solvent like kerosene cannot dissolve all mud from the chain, but it make it softer and easier to wash it out by soup solution. And each treatment you need to shake it a lot. I usually change detergent solution several time and shake it vigorously.
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Nate
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Nate » Tue May 31, 2016 12:20 pm

i'd use 2 stroke - or petrol with any old oil in there.
could be a little more aggressive - but yes - agitate those carp.
Then use one of those on bicycle chain cleaners with regular degreaser too.

after the 2 steps my chains were sweet.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby eeksll » Tue May 31, 2016 8:29 pm

Nate wrote:i'd use 2 stroke - or petrol with any old oil in there.
at first reading of this I thought you meant previously used petrol. But now I don't know.

Whats the purpose of putting oil in the petrol? from memory 2 stroke is normal petrol with oil added?

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby hedgehog » Tue May 31, 2016 10:13 pm

as fare as two stroke oil maybe,
but petrol no!in my opinion.

pure two stroke oil is gentle on rubber
and plastic.

but petrol on chain i personally not doing that again.

my first chain clean,petrol.
i would rather have a dirty but lubricated chain,
rather than a destroyed chain that's cleaned by petrol

two stroke fuel =petrol plus two stroke oil,
ratios vary ,but in my opinion not good for bicycle chain.

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Tim
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Tim » Tue May 31, 2016 10:32 pm

hedgehog wrote:rather than a destroyed chain that's cleaned by petrol
How do you figure that petrol destroys chains?
It hasn't eaten a hole in my car fuel tank yet.
I've been using it on chains for years. They're lasting 8000km's at the moment.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby hedgehog » Tue May 31, 2016 10:46 pm

i know petrol is good at cleaning,
but its not going on any of my bicycle
chains again's to clean them.

knock your self's out and use petrol,
have the cleanest chain,

but i'm not going to use petrol on my bicycle chain.

on my chainsaw chain yes petrol ok.

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Nate
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Nate » Wed Jun 01, 2016 2:28 pm

eeksll wrote:Whats the purpose of putting oil in the petrol? from memory 2 stroke is normal petrol with oil added?
a bit of safety really.
It takes the edge off it & makes it less flammable & likely to go boof!

I dont use 2stroke specifically - any oil i can get my hands on (auto transmission fluid last time) really.
It will also leave behind a very thin film of oil - great when you're using an oil based lube, and good to stop rust forming before you apply lube.

Clean with 2 stroke - if you need a super clean/dry chain then clean with a bike mounted cleaner.
or just re-lube after the clean with another oil.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby mitzikatzi » Wed Jun 01, 2016 3:51 pm

Waste of time doing it.
As above Auto transmission fluid works well

I would not use petrol. Diesel is a really good de-greaser and a lot harder to ignite then petrol.

both leave a slightly oily chain

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stylo
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby stylo » Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:13 pm

I sprayed this sparingly onto the chain and wiped it repeatedly with clean rags.

Does anyone else use this degreaser ? Good/bad/indifferent?

Image

Re-lubed with some finish line dry lube and wiped any excess off (not much excess to tell you the truth. Looking very clean again.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby PiratePete » Wed Jul 06, 2016 8:25 pm

I use a chain scrubber when my chain starts to get noisy, I use a citrus degreaser so that the scrubber (being plastic) doesn't suffer from the petroleum degreasers, and not to mention that the scent of orange is nicer on the hands than petrol/kero/etc. In between I lube with RnR Gold and wipe off ALL excess lube so that the external parts look dry. I wipe the chain down after every ride (min 40km) and re-lube regularly usually for me twice weekly. First after 2 x 40km rides, second after whatever Saturday's ride brings (70-200+km).

This works quite well for me with my current bike done around 9100km and the chain is still got a while to go before reaching the .75 wear mark. The key is listening to a clean and well lubed chain, then recognizing when the sound has changed. This can be as little as 150km if riding in wet and dirty conditions, or up to around 800-900km in dry conditions on sealed roads, and anywhere in between if mixing gravel etc into the equation.
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Thoglette
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Thoglette » Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:59 am

PiratePete wrote:The key is listening to a clean and well lubed chain, then recognizing when the sound has changed. This can be as little as 150km if riding in wet and dirty conditions, or up to around 800-900km in dry conditions on sealed roads...
+ several. While PP and I use different lube regimes one's ears are the key to decent chain life.
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby PiratePete » Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:37 pm

Thoglette wrote:While PP and I use different lube regimes one's ears are the key to decent chain life.
Sure is, once you've established what noises are 'normal' then you can prevent a multitude of issues by listening to it. It's called being in tune with the machine. :)
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby adktz » Thu Jul 28, 2016 1:41 pm

I throw kerosene everywhere and scrub the chain with a few toothbrushes taped together. Wipe down grime with a rag and re-apply lube to each chain link. Wait a couple minutes for it to soak in and wipe away excess. Ain't got no time to take the chain off.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Duck! » Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:36 pm

As I've said plenty of times before, here and in other threads, if you're sensible with the quantity of chain lube and spend 30 seconds or so to wipe the gunge off before it accumulates, there is no need at all to remove the chain until it's time for replacement.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

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Howzat
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Howzat » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:14 am

Probably worth bearing in mind that petrol is carcinogenic; you want to be limiting your exposure to it as much as possible.

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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby PiratePete » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:30 am

adktz wrote:I throw kerosene everywhere and scrub the chain with a few toothbrushes taped together. Wipe down grime with a rag and re-apply lube to each chain link. Wait a couple minutes for it to soak in and wipe away excess. Ain't got no time to take the chain off.
Get yourself a chain scrubber, less mess, cheaper than toothbrushes and does a great job without removing the chain. Though you may need to change from kero to a non-petroleum based degreaser as the kero might eat the plastic housing, petrol does. Since going this way with a citrus degreaser I haven't looked back.
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Nate
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Re: Degreasing chain

Postby Nate » Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:07 pm

Interesting experience on the weekend.

chain was relatively dirty, hadnt been wiping it :\
wiped down pretty quickly, but thought i might do a degrease.

Using the Dumonde pro-x, it took 1 cycle to clean completely to a shiny chain. Normally with oils it takes 3-4 cycles of degreaser.
Sooo much easier, quicker & cleaner!

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