Advise needed on cleaning chain\front & back derailleurs

jondom

Allo allo,

I've had my first racer for about 3 months now and i'm thinking its time for its first big clean job.
Whats a standard way of cleaning these? Do I need to take off the chain or can I clean the whole thing with it on?
I heard I could use white spirits or petrol to get most of the crap off.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks

blorg

White spirits and petrol need to be captured, you can't just pour them down the sink. This is a lot of hassle. Citrus degreaser is just as effective albeit more expensive and can go down the sink.

You don't have to remove the chain; you can use a chain cleaner on the bike, they are quite effective.



For the bike in general I would suggest Fenwicks FS-1 diluted.

Morgan

Petrol is best. Liberally douse the drivetrain and the rest of the bike. Light it with a match or cigarette lighter and watch the dirt literally melt away!

Here's an alternative method:
http://worldwidecyclesblog.com/2007/06/11/tip-of-the-week-bike-washing/

Lumen

Low pressure hose down, degreaser + toothbrush, rinse off, lube.

edit: been meaning to get a powerlink to enable chain removal (for the degreaser-in-bottle approach) but have read that they can be occasionally unreliable on the bike.

TheBandit

I do it the lazy mans way. Cover it in degreaser, leave it for a while, power hose it sparkly clean and then leave in the sun to dry. When it's dry apply some lube

Captain Havoc

It's much better to clean it every week than once every three months. You'll get rid of s***e before it's caked to your bike, you'll become quick at cleaning it anyway (i'm about 10-15mins now), you'll learn about your bike and the parts from seeing them all the time and finally you'll find faults while they're still in their infancy.

blorg

If powerhosing you need to be careful not to get water into places like hubs and BB- I believe.

You can pretty much lube the chain straight after cleaning and rinsing it, the chain oil will drive out any remaining water. It's not strictly necessary to wait for it to dry, and if you leave it even overnight the chain will rust.

TheBandit

Thanks for that, i'll throw the lube on after the hose down so

lukester

Or use a dispersant, such as WD40, to get rid of excess water before applying a lube.

Murph100

This just appeared on Bike Radar :

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/tour-tech-keeping-the-bikes-clean-22501


None of yer fancy expensive Muc Off or other rip off sh!te. A bit of kerosene ( so I'm reliably informed ) and some washing up liquid, about 10C per wash and erm.... a new BB every Tour !

Captain Havoc

Murph100 wrote: »

This just appeared on Bike Radar :

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/tour-tech-keeping-the-bikes-clean-22501


None of yer fancy expensive Muc Off or other rip off sh!te. A bit of kerosene ( so I'm reliably informed ) and some washing up liquid, about 10C per wash and erm.... a new BB every Tour !

Did anyone else notice the Sram Red hoods with the Dura-Ace crank?

niceonetom

jerseyeire wrote: »

Did anyone else notice the Sram Red hoods with the Dura-Ace crank?

If you mean this pic ^ I'm 99.9% sure that's a trek from the astana team who ride sram throughout. Garmin are dura-ace all the way AFAIK.

Sponsors init.

Captain Havoc

niceonetom wrote: »

If you mean this pic ^ I'm 99.9% sure that's a trek from the astana team who ride sram throughout. Garmin are dura-ace all the way AFAIK.Sponsors init.

I was just testing your observation You scored full marks, well done have a gold star.

warrfla

Murph100 wrote: »

This just appeared on Bike Radar :

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/tour-tech-keeping-the-bikes-clean-22501


None of yer fancy expensive Muc Off or other rip off sh!te. A bit of kerosene ( so I'm reliably informed ) and some washing up liquid, about 10C per wash and erm.... a new BB every Tour !

Looks like the Garmin Mechanics have kept the 'Garmin Moustache' Theme going

Murph100

Yup, its Contadors Trek.

irishmotorist

blorg wrote: »

You can pretty much lube the chain straight after cleaning and rinsing it, the chain oil will drive out any remaining water.

I've never rinsed the chain after using a degreaser - is this something that I should be doing the whole time? Would I do this by filling the chain cleaner box with water and just bringing the chain back through it a few times?

blorg

Murph100 wrote: »

Yup, its Contadors Trek.

SRAM actually did custom white graphics for him (note the lack of red on the thumb shifter)... Lance got yellow ones... Just cosmetic but apparently 40-60 hours of labour were involved per group to do this!

blorg

irishmotorist wrote: »

I've never rinsed the chain after using a degreaser - is this something that I should be doing the whole time? Would I do this by filling the chain cleaner box with water and just bringing the chain back through it a few times?

That is what I do, fill the chain cleaner full of water. To be honest it probably isn't that essential, the oil probably disperses any degreaser, but certainly a lot of soapy looking stuff comes out with the water and it only takes a few seconds.

DirkVoodoo

irishmotorist wrote: »

I've never rinsed the chain after using a degreaser - is this something that I should be doing the whole time? Would I do this by filling the chain cleaner box with water and just bringing the chain back through it a few times?

If you don't rinse off the degreaser, then when you apply the fresh lube, it will begin to be broken down by the remaining degreaser. Yes, filling it with water would work. Using the garden hose on "spray" also works. Spray it with a water dispersant after, wipe it down and pedal the bike a few times in the largest gear to get rid of any remaining water (actually, do those in the reverse order to what I typed).

I use citrus degreaser from Pedros all the time now. I used to use gunk but I became wary about what repeated exposure of the clearcoat on a carbon frame to such harsh chemicals would have in the long run.

irishmotorist

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

If you don't rinse off the degreaser, then when you apply the fresh lube, it will begin to be broken down by the remaining degreaser.

Yep - makes lots of sense when you say it. Thanks.

Kildafornia

Sorry to re-open an older thread, but I thought there might be enough cleaning threads open already.

Anybody use autoglym engine cleaner as a degreaser? It's water based and bio-degradable, but I suppose that doesn't mean it isn't harsh on carbon fibre frames.

Another question: a lot of people agree that you don't need to degrease a new chain for a few hundred miles as the factory lube is excellent, but what if your first cycle was in rain and there is a bit of gunk on the chain etc?

I'm itching to degrease and get my fenwicks wet lube on the chain but I'm not sure the autoglym is too harsh on my carbon frame.

jeffwode

I really like that little tip about holding the degreaser container in the bottle cage and applying it with a brush. Simple little thing but will make a difference to me next time I clean my bike.

doozerie

Kildafornia wrote: »

Another question: a lot of people agree that you don't need to degrease a new chain for a few hundred miles as the factory lube is excellent, but what if your first cycle was in rain and there is a bit of gunk on the chain etc?

Personally I don't think that is a good idea. Last time I actually checked for specific info on what a chain comes lubed with (a few years back now) all I found was a reference to it being some form of anti-rust coating. A lot of things will act as lubricants to some degree or other and anti-rust muck will obviously work too but personally I prefer to remove it before using the chain and start out with my own choice of lube.

Things may have changed, of course, and perhaps some manufacturers have always applied a "true" lube before shipping their chains, but the quality of "lube" I've encountered on Shimano, SRAM, and Campag chains out of the bag has never been what I would consider good (though that is obviously a very subjective measure).