I’m at work and my new chain has just turned up (covered in gunk). I need it for tonight’s ride but here I am with no degreaser. I’ll have no time to do anything before I ride tonight.

Do I:

A) Clean it in the sink with washing up liquid.

B) Just stick it on the bike and stop being such a Jessie?

Cheers

B

What kind of gunk?

You’d degrease a new chain?

B

by gunk if you mean grease, its meant to be on the chain!

It’s not chain lube, it’s thick packing grease.

Depends on the chain probably… Tried B with a new KMC X9SL and it was a total failure, first 5 miles was fine then it decided it had enough crap stuck to the incredibly sticky grease, and proceeded to explosively chainsuck about every quarter of a mile. Came home, straightened out all the bent links, cleaned it, lubed it with actual chain lube, and it was fine. The grease on it was more like anti-rust packaging grease.

Yeah, I reckon it’s there more as anti rust type grease rather than lube but I’ve never had a problem. that said, I’d never be fitting a new chain just before a really long ride but if I did, I’d add some proper lube too.

It’s a KMC X9.93.

I think I’ll just add some chain lube and be done this it.

no time to ride past a petrol station and give it a spray with WD40? should thin out the packing grease

Sheldon says

Factory Lube
New chains come pre-lubricated with a grease-type lubricant which has been installed at the factory. This is an excellent lubricant, and has been made to permeate all of the internal interstices in the chain.
This factory lube is superior to any lube that you can apply after the fact.

Some people make the bad mistake of deliberately removing this superior lubricant. Don’t do this!

The factory lubricant all by itself is usually good for several hundred miles of service if the bike is not ridden in wet or dusty conditions. It is best not to apply any sort of lube to a new chain until it is clearly needed, because any wet lube you can apply will dilute the factory lube.

joolsburger – Member

“Sheldon says

Some people make the bad mistake of deliberately removing this superior lubricant. Don’t do this!”

I think Sheldon either never came across one glooped up like mine, or just never rode in the wet. It wasn’t a question of “Is this better or worse than standard lube”, it was “This doesn’t work at all and is mangling the chain”

Northwind +1

Yes but he had a beard and is to be trusted on matters mechanical.

The factory lubricant all by itself is usually good for several hundred miles of service if the bike is not ridden in wet or dusty conditions.

Sheldon wasn’t talking about mountain bikes. The stuff on most modern chains, cosmoline, is also not the same stuff that Sheldon wrote about. It’s old info that people keep coming out with just because the eminent Sheldon Brown once said it.

The excess factory lubricant on the chain can be removed by dampening a cloth in white spirit and running the chain through it. Whether or not it all gets removed depends entirely upon which aftermarket lubrication one uses.

Aye – but if it’s wet you don’t need any chain lube at all.
(rust is another issue).

And the original OP wanted to use washing up liquid which has a high salt content and will rust his new chain before he’s even had a chance to use it.

Get whatever you can on a rag and rub the chain round – even normal wet lube might work if it mixes with the grease. Don’t really soak it as you will wash out the lub from inside that wont be a problem. Just remove any masses of excess from the outside.

I know exactly what you mean as my kmc chain came caked in the same stuff and I took one look and thought it was going to come back with half the woods stuck to it 1st time out.

Find that the gunk that comes on new SRAM chains causes me loads of chainsuck issues. Always need to give it a good soaking in degreaser and fresh lube before using it.