MYB chains – no problem. Muc Off, leave to soak, spin pedals backwards and scrub with a big brush. Hey presto – shiny chain.

The chain on my road bike though (maybe only 300 miles since new and lubed with Purple Extreme) has got a thin black coating of gunge on it, that is completely unaffected by the mucoff – hell it doesn't even come off on my fingers. I know from past experience that White Spirit will eventually shift it, but it takes a lot of scrubbing and gets everywhere in the process.

Is there a degreaser out there that "Just Works"(tm) (and ideally isn't too uneco friendly). (Oh, and I don't have easy access to petrol as my car is a diesel…)

Gunk.

Screw the environment, I want a clean chain.

parafin

Hi Jon,
I reckon i made the same mistake as you with my road bike a couple of months ago…
New chains from Shimano are pre greased, with some sort of supergoo/lube according to my lbs.
If you then apply another grease it just acts as an attraction to crap and you end up with a slimy dirty mess which ultimately wrecks your drive chain.
Your best bet is to use paraffin and sacrifice a towel/rag/toothbrush or something and start from scratch with your aftermarket lube.
Best wishes & keep thrustin'

I don't have easy access to petrol as my car is a diesel…

to be fair, i'm not sure that makes much difference – people with petrol cars probably don't pick the car up and pour a bit out onto the chain!

yeh, paraffin/gunk etc, or the finish line "bio"citrus stuff is quite good. That black shit is nasty though – I did a mate's bike the other day & the front mech had siezed solid with it 😯 . Suppose the answer is to do it a bit more often then currenlty.

Whatever you use, keep in a jar & reuse (I have 2 jars & every now & then decant clear liquid into the empty one & chuck the sediment)
[edit – I take the chain off & put it in the jar. Give it a wizz round & then rinse with water – works for the finish line stuff, bit weird with paraffin etc maybe]

I got a big bottle of the finish line stuff & it's lasted years of lightish riding

I take my road chain off and leave to soak in white spirit
while I clean the rest of the bike …. works a treat :-]

ice cream tub with paraffin in – put in chain – shake around for a bit – leave for 24 hours – remove and allow to drip dry onto a rag – job done

It's a KMC 10 speed chain – it does have a "quick link" style connector, but I recall the previous SRAM one was not supposed to be disconnected – not sure if the same is true of the KMCs? Be handy if it wasn't. Although I've still got to get said gunge off the cassette and rings too…

Gunk is probably good though!

to paraphrase

'head out to orbit and nuke it from there, its the only way to be sure….'

or use petrol / diesel / gunk if you are lacking a nuke powered space cruiser…

Try virosol, it's an awesome product, and highly recommended by a lot of car cleaners for removing road tar etc.
You DO have to be careful though, as it's a pretty strong degreaser (you can water it down 😉 )

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-Litre-Virosol-Cleaner-Degreaser-a-miracle-product_W0QQitemZ260451363828QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_HomeGarden_CLV_Cleaning_CA?hash=item3ca41c6bf4&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

the KMC 10spd chains are designed to be disconnected, been using one for about a year with no probs

if you are bereft of specialist cleaners simply rub Fairy Liquid into the chain, put chain in pot, pour boiling water over it, swirl around, repeat as nec.

clean chainrings and cassette with rag and GT85

kmc's can be taken apart/rejoined – SRAM's can't and new shimano's
can – there's standards for you !!! I clean my cassette with white
spirit too – just take the wheel out first :-]

+1 paraffin

I have a half-full 50 litre tub from when I replaced the heating oil tank. It will last a lifetime (really) and cost basically nothing.

Good to know the KMCs can be disconnected – that does make life easy.

Done the fairy/hot water thing in the past (used to sit it on the stove bubbling away for 1/2 hour or so) but it's not as effective as proper degreaser.

Thank y'all!

That Virosol is good stuff – does a good job on car alloy wheels.

If you speak to the people that make it:

http://www.cloverchem.co.uk/uk/products/hard_virosol_uk.htm

They'll tell you your local stockist and you can avoid P&P.