If I remove my chain from the bike and place in a jam jar to clean and lube:
1. What should I degrease the chain with?
2. Is there anything I can put in another jam jar to lube it?
Ta
M
White spirit.
My method is :-
1) Get old 2 pint plaggy milk carton (washed and dried)
2) Throw chain in
3) Add some white spirit (a couple of inches is fine)
4) Put the lid on and shake it like an idiot
5) Remove lid and fish the chain out with an old spoke or similar
6) Dry off and lube
7) Admire your shiney chain
Simples !
You can usually use the white spirit 2 or 3 times before it needs disposing of.
Don't put your split link in or else you'll have to empty the bottle to find it 🙂
Cheers gents, was thinking about a bath for the new chain in some oil to get into the pivots, a good idea or not??
As with Spesh for the method except I use paraffin. Then discard for clean paraffin, then soap and hot water. Then remove from container; dry and lube.
I use muc off as i have shed loads of it. I also scrub mine with an old toothbrush as I rinse it under the outside tap. But Im a bit obsessive about cleaing.
I then spray WD40 on my chain after to dispel any moisture and then lube it.
Oil will get into chain links by itself, a bath will add too much oil I would think.
I use a powerlink so chain off in about 5 secs, soak it in a half full jar of Hyperclean for about 10 mins while cleaning the rest of my bike.
I then rinse in soapy water then running water and allow to dry. Slap it back on and oil the links individually. Too much oil just picks up too much dirt.
Clean the powerlink seperately as suggested above.
Hands on time about 3 mins.
I met a guy touring who swore by never cleaning his chain and just adding more and more oil so it was one nastly black gloopy bit of string and he reckons it more than doubled the life of his chain. I like shiny metal and non oily calves too much to do it but it's worth chucking in...
Paraffin here. Then let the muck settle and pour off the clean paraffin to reuse (then, because I hate throwing anything useful away, the dirty paraffin goes in a seperate jar to settle further, so the total waste is tiny). 3 jars, and a 4 litre pot of paraffin costs about a fiver and will last... Hmm. No idea how long it will last, years though.
I used white spirit in a chinese meal container. I've been using squirt for about 3 months now, no more degreasing just throw on more lube. Chain is very clean so it seems to be working well.