[Closed] Chain Cleaning Best product without spending a fortune

Petrol

I use Fenwicks bike cleaner neat, put chain and cleaner into a food container with a watertight lid. Shake, leave, shake some more. * Rinse thoroughly by filling the container with water, shaking draining and repeating until water is clear, dry, relube.

* At this point I sit down and clean each link with a toothbrush to make sure it's properly clean but this is because, apparently, I am 'obsessed' with cycling.

Fenwicks makes the chain bright and shiny too.

White spirit.

Old jam jar, hot water, dash of washing up liquid, dash of white spirit. Remove chain put it in the jar and shake it about. Re-fit and re-lube chain.

Jizer.

Disc brake cleaner/ Carb cleaner/ White spirit/ Petrol. Any work well, I like disc brake cleaner or carb cleaner in a large aerosol, spray and its clean!

Iain

White Spirit here. Petrol tends to dry my skin (and give me cancer).

Yeah... I'd avoid petrol too. It's not good stuff to be messing around with TBH, unless you like to be engulfed by cancer and sudden balls of exploding flame.

Shake in a container of diesel - cleans and lubricates in one go without the fire risk of petrol (though I have used a mix of petrol and oil when pushed).

Does all this cleaning actually prolong the life of your chain? Or is it just obsessive compulsive bike detailing?

I spray mine with WD40 followed by a wipe with an oily rag, allow to dry then lube.

I'm not sure really. I'd imagine getting it perfectly clean and then putting a good quality lubricant would have an effect on longevity, but I guess it depends how often you do it. To be honest I just like playing in the workshop!

Just use the putoline wax - chains don't get very dirty and the molten wax acts as a cleaner as well

Umteenth vote for white spirit in a jam jar. Use another jar next time to decant off the clean and scrape out the filth on the bottom with a rag.

I'm glad someone else said white spirit! I use white spirit and a paint brush for all oily bits.

neat orange squash, a toothbrush and a cloth worked wonders on my chain last night.

Lidl's chain cleaner. It may destroy rain forests and wipe out ecosystems, but it don't half get the muck off your chain

Sram PC971 are only about £15.

Give it the occasional wipe with GT85 and throw it away when its gubbed. It probabky cheaper than buying cleaner!

First time ever i have fitted a new chain without removing the gunk that came on it by sioaking in degreaser. Just wipe the outside with a rag soaked in gt85 occasionally. Using Pedros EXTRA dry lube which seems to build up inside the chain and doesn't attarct shit. Even on regular wet peak rides its still clean and smooth running

White spirit is BAAAD for environment. This is my little trick that works.

Old plastic milk bottle.
remove chain then drop chain in
Add muck off or similar fen wicks to completely cover chain
Have a coffee
Add very HOT water just a bit(about half a cup)
Put lid on bottle
Hold lid and shake vigorously
Top bottle up more and shake again
Rinse thoroughly

Dropping your chain in a container of solvent takes all of the lubricant out of the rollers, which is exactly where you should have it. You then have to re-lube far more than would otherwise be necessary.

It's perfectly sufficient to wipe the chain repeatedly with a clean rag, lubricate, then wipe off the excess.

take chain off.
put in empty milk container, 1 litre works ok.
add parrafin, about 1 inch ok.
put lid on.
shake.
shake more.
decant parrafin into pot noodle pot.(or other snack style pot)
take chain out.
wipe and let dry a bit.
put chain back on bike and lube.
let parrafin settle and oil/grease will separate out.
steadily pour parrafin back into milk container, ready for next clean.

boiling water if you have to

I do agree about the oil inside the rollers needing to stay there, so a big marmite pot full on Gunk just every now and again.

when you properly degrease your chain and see the amount of grit that comes out of it ,imo,you realise that it is worth doing.once clean i then submerse it in oil in a small container ie.washed out chinese takeaway container. once it has been submersed for a few hours i then dry it off with rag as much as possible so its not too wet when it goes back on the bike. this should replace some of the oil back into the rollers.
you can also keep the oil in the container and reuse it next time.

Gunk car engine degreaser - keep meaning to get some diesel

I would never soak a chain in a solvent. The grease on the inside is there for a reason and you'll strip it out as soon as you put it in a solvent. So says Sheldon and who am I to argue.

I use rock and roll lube which keeps chains pretty clean. If I really want a shiny chain then I leave it on the bike and wipe it with a rag with some white spirit on or baby wipes (less hazardous). Both remove the external crap leaving a nice shiney looking chain.

There is the alternative Sheldon Method which I'm suprised no ones linked to yet.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html

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I would never soak a chain in a solvent. The grease on the inside is there for a reason and you'll strip it out as soon as you put it in a solvent. So says Sheldon and who am I to argue.

White spirit for me and an old plastic sweet jar.....chain in, white spirit in and a good shake........you can re-use it for ages too, just decant the dirty spirit into an old 5 litre container, let it settle and then decant into the sweet jar when needed 😀

White spirit or barbecue fluid, which is deodorised kerosine/paraffin. The advantage of that is that it tastes better if you use it for fire breathing.

Relube with finish line wet.
If bike is very dirty, chain gets hosed with water rest of bike, wiped dry, GT 85, wiped, lubed with finish line wet. Job done.

Swafega degreaser diluted with water in jam jar, seems to work as well as fenwicks but is less than 1/3 of the price.

Another vote for Jizer, bought a tin in 1987 when I first started biking Still got half a can left