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  • Have i used the wrong lube? ooh eeerrr missus
  • womble72
    Free Member

    Fitted a new KMC chain to my singlespeed and applied some Finish Line? wet lube to it, wiped off the excess and left it for a couple of days. I took the bike out last night for a couple of hours and got it covered in horse trail silt/poop and whatever else was on my route. Had plenty of fun with the bike but noticed the chain had collected just about everything i rode through and it sounded like it was grinding itself and my chainring/cog to a metal powder. I’ve rode this route before on my old bike (Geared) and never had any chain problems but I was using a spray lube (name i cant remember). So is this a common problem with singlepseed setups or is it just a case of using the wrong type of lube?

    Whats best to clean my chain, a fancy chain cleaning device or remove it and scrub with degreaser?

    T.I.A

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    new chains are stupidly sticky before you put any lube on.

    Sheldon says don’t clean new chains but I always degrease the outside with a rag with chain cleaner on it.

    womble72
    Free Member

    new chains are stupidly sticky before you put any lube on.

    Sheldon says don’t clean new chains but I always degrease the outside with a rag with chain cleaner on it.

    Ah you see, i did wonder about this because the chain was super sticky when I put it on. I was going to leave it alone but thought it might have been some factory grease that was only on it for manufacturing purposes.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    I’ve been under the illusion that the ‘sticky’ stuff was not a lubricant and it’s primary purpose is to prevent new chains oxidising (rusting).

    I’ve always thoroughly ‘de-greased’ the new chain by immersion into a de-greaser and swilling about. After fitting, have applied liberal amounts of dry or wet lube as the prevailing season dictates and wiped off excess. Finish Line Wet for most of the year.

    Never experienced problems as you’ve described with the chain behaving as a grit magnet.

    I’ve also used a chain cleaner thang and found good results with a few refills of the ‘sump’

    scaled
    Free Member

    +1 for degrease and lubing a new chain

    womble72
    Free Member

    I’ve been under the illusion that the ‘sticky’ stuff was not a lubricant and it’s primary purpose is to prevent new chains oxidising (rusting).

    I’ve always thoroughly ‘de-greased’ the new chain by immersion into a de-greaser and swilling about. After fitting, have applied liberal amounts of dry or wet lube as the prevailing season dictates and wiped off excess. Finish Line Wet for most of the year.

    Never experienced problems as you’ve described with the chain behaving as a grit magnet.

    I’ve also used a chain cleaner thang and found good results with a few refills of the ‘sump’

    Thanks for that. So it could very well be the ‘sticky stuff’ on the chain that has caused this and not the FL Wet Lube. I shall give the chain a thorough degreasing and reapply the lube.

    emac65
    Free Member

    Never put much thought into it as chain crunching is just part of bike riding…
    Got out for ride,bike gets filthy,gears get crunchy,come home blast with hose pipe,GT85 to get the water out,leave for a bit,relube & it’s good to go for next time.Usually get a good 12 mths or several thousand mile out of chains using this method.

    Have never degreased a chain though,seems a bit of a silly thing to do imo….

    Dickyboy
    Full Member

    Wouldn’t advise immersion in degreaser – last thing you want to do to a new chain is get rid of the grease inside the links. Wipe off the excess with a rag possibly damp with solvent at most.

    avdave2
    Full Member

    On my hub geared bike I just use whatever is lying around and only give it an occasional wipe with a rag. The bike is used all year round as an off road commuter and the current chain is 3 years old so I wouldn’t worry too much on a singlespeed.

    thepurist
    Full Member

    I’ve always found that the FL Wet lube turns my chain into a black mess pretty quickly. For me RnR Extreme works fine & keeps the chain cleaner.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Degreasing a chain is a good idea because the lube holds onto the dirt and grit – if you degrease then the grit can be washed out more easily. The two best ways imo are with a jetwasher or by removing and shaking in a jar with degreaser.

    If you want to know if it’s worked, twist the chain in your fingers. It’s quite hard to get it clean enough so it doens’t crunch and grind. Why bother cleaning it? Makes your chain last longer.

    womble72
    Free Member

    Would ‘gunk’ engine cleaner be ok for cleaning the chain? I have a tin in the shed and would save me a trip to Evans

    Rio
    Full Member

    Gunk works well, just make sure you remove it all before re-lubing. Interesting piece here on retaining the factory lube –

    “The grease that comes on a Shimano chain is applied at the factory to the individual pieces before the chain is assembled. The grease does a better job of reducing friction than aftermarket chain lubes and it lasts longer.”

    I would guess the same applies to KMC/SRAM.

    Dickyboy
    Full Member

    I would never put a bike chain in any degreaser unless I could put it in a tin of that old chain wax straight after, degreaser will wash out the grease around the pins in the chain & only promote chain wear in my opinion but feel free to do otherwise.

    muckytee
    Free Member

    Degreasing a chain is a good idea because the lube holds onto the dirt and grit – if you degrease then the grit can be washed out more easily. The two best ways imo are with a jetwasher or by removing and shaking in a jar with degreaser.

    I agree with this.

    I had the exact same problem as you when I changed my bike over to a singlespeed – used finish line wet lube, sounded and felt horrid.

    I degreased the chain (white spirit worked for me) and applied finish line wax lube (gold top stuff), I now just reapply after every intensive ride, still forms a black gunk but, isn’t as sticky and no more horrid feel.

    edit: The stock lube that comes with chains is good for about a month then it starts to wear thin, and also has an amazing ability to pick up every bit of crap of the trail. The way lubricant flows through the links; it coats all the parts pretty effectively.

    PaulD
    Free Member

    Rio,

    KMC make Shimano’s chains.

    SRAM are the old Sedis company chains….not KMC…and they have had manufacturing issues a couple of years ago.

    I agree with Sheldon…leave the lube in the links and just remove the external with a dry rag, at least for the first few rides.

    Discovered Squirt last summer and am impressed.
    Self cleaning.

    Also use a dry lube spray (proprietary SK23 from Bike Factory in Whalley Bridge) for drier rides (so not much use recently).

    PaulD

    womble72
    Free Member

    A quick update. I removed the chain last night and it was actually stuck to the rear sprocket. It took quite a tug to get it to come off. Their seems to be a lot of debris and dirt trapped in between the links. I know it sounds like I’m being a bit over sensitive to my iccle dirty chain but as a comparison the chain on my Spesh Epic is years old, been through worse and although it looks past it’s best, it never picked up this much crapola. Is it because the constant shifting of gears helps to remove the dirt where as on a singlespeed the chain is fixed and doesnt move around?

    neninja
    Free Member

    I subscribe to the theory that it’s worth removing the chain and degreasing in white spirit every so often. It then gets blasted with a hose to remove the muck and put in a container of Prolink Progold which is very thin lubricant so gets deep into the rollers etc. Take it out, wipe with a cloth and refit to the bike. The solvent in the Progold evaporates leaving a lovely clean and well lubed chain. It tends to stay clean in all but the worst muck this way.

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