I use a combination of fairy liquid, Gunk and yellow muc off degreaser and a brush. The Muc Off is least effective, the gunk the best.

I was considering getting a chain cleaning machine, but are they actually any good? The proper stuff to put in it isn’t that cheap, but I like the idea of a quick easy clean chain.

Should I bother or stick to what I’m doing now? I’m pretty good at doing it every ride or 2 depending on how bad it gets so I never need to take off months of filth. And my cassettes last a long time.

I don’t bother any more. The chains seem to last longer, I think the cleaning especially with a cleaning device removes the grease from deep in the rollers so it rusts and stretches faster. I change the chain at 0.5 on my checker and get 2 chains per cassette before it starts jumping around. I have found this method a good compromise between cost vs cleaning time which I really hate doing.

Rock n roll extreme, no need to clean black gunk.

The #deepfatfryingilluminati will be along in a minute.

My method,
Put chain in old bike bottle and quarter fill with white spirit,
give it a good shake every now and again and leave over night,
Squirt the used white spirit into glass jar and keep it for next time (the dirt sinks to the bottom after a few days),
Rinse with soapy water then clean water (bike bottle/shake),
dry and oil.

I find Chain cleaners a faf and mucoff Expensive.

I gave up using a chain cheesing machine years ago. Just a faff and doesn’t appear to help. Wax based lube, or actual putoline wax if you don’t mind the black waxy stickiness.

Chain cleaner and a bit of Juice Lubes Dirt Juice boss does the job nicely here.

Used to use one religiously with Deb jizer in it but since moving to Smoove lube, I just rinse with warm water or use a baby wipe or two. Not felt the need to deep clean a chain for quite sometime now.

elbow grease for me and old tooth brush.

Chain cleaning machines dissolve all the built up oil and get all the grit from the outside of the chain deep inside the rollers. So you end up with a chain full of solvent and grit.

The best thing IMO* is to use some tenacious lube (like Shimano wet) then just spray Muc-Off or whatever on it and stick a hose in there on jet (or jetwasher) in there. It blasts the grit out but doesn’t strip ALL of the oil out, which I think helps when it comes to re-lube. The water in there is displaced when you re-lube or it just dries out.

* if you aren’t using Putoline which is awesome, never clean a chain again.

My method is similar to oreetmons.

I just use any old plastic bottle, put a couple of inch of some kind of degreaser (brake cleaner for example) and give it a good shake. If the chain is foul keep repeating with clean fluid until your happy. Refit chain and lube each roller individually. I use a fairly waxy Fenwick’s lube, the drivetrain doesn’t seem to need cleaned that often.

deep fat frier method

not that i use it, I cycle 3 chains on the bike using the solvent in a bottle and shake cleaning method.

Solvent in the bottle is actually pretty bad stuff. Same effect with two spoonfulls of cheap, bio washing powder and boiling water.

Shaking well twice in old waterbottle, then shaking again with clear water and have chain squeaky clean, if it is too bad for elbow grease.

Washing powder is not great but better for environment that sending solvent down the drain…

Cheers!
I.

Chain cleaning machines … get all the grit from the outside of the chain deep inside the rollers. So you end up with a chain full of solvent and grit.

How do they force grit further into the chain innards…and stop the solvent from evaporating?

Chain cleaning machines dissolve all the built up oil and get all the grit from the outside of the chain deep inside the rollers. So you end up with a chain full of solvent and grit.

I’ve never heard such nonsense

I use a splash of petrol in an old jam jar. Shake it up and leave for a few hours. Then rinse chain and dry.

Then leave jar of petrol, and the silt settles to the bottom. A fairly fresh petrol ontop, goes into another jar. And keep switching

Cant believe putolines only been mentioned once and in a footnote!

If youre going to the effort of cleaning it, whether on the bike or off it, you may as well just do it with putoline.

Chain into fryer, shake, drink tea, shake again, remove, wipe off excess and allow to cool, refit to bike. Leave whatevers transfered to the chainring/cassette where it is as its lovely and slippery and wont wash off, but muck wont stick to it.

I always used to slosh on white spirit but recently started using a “proper” chain cleaner (still applied with a paint brush). But I think the bid difference is dropping the rear wheel out and attaching a chain keeper or dummy cassette. That makes life so much easier.

I occasionally use a chain cleaning device with paraffin, seems to work well.

Hmm, i guess it depends what it is you’re trying to remove. IE how filthy is your chain and how much clag has built up on it. I’m pretty set in my ways and I’ve been using wax emulsion lubes for a while, Squirt & Pedros; so can’t comment on anything else. I use a Parktools chain scrubber with some degreaser then a few rinses with fresh water. The cassette if it’s picked up any deposits gets a quick going over. The chain gets rotated and blown through with compressed air until dry then re-lubed. This all sounds a bit protracted but only takes a couple of minutes. I can’t say this makes any of the transmission last longer but it does seem to improve the shifting.

As for using an Ultrasonic cleaning bath! Complete overkill & waste of time for what essentially are consumable parts. I’ve got one of these, possibly identical to the one in the vid. Good for brake calipers, carburetors etc but I can’t see the need to put my chain in there as the park scrubber does the job without removing the chain..

Wipe the excess crud off with a rag with a bit of WD40/GT85 on. Then a bit of finish line red. It seems to last longer with less stretch than it did when I used a Park chain cleaner. The links in my opinion like having a bit of oil impregnated dirt as a lubrication aid. Keeps the bushings tight.

I use a chain cleaning machine. It’s not quite as good as doing it by hand, but as it’s so easy I do it a lot more often. I buy cleaner from Planet X that isn’t too expensive.
After it’s clean I use Boeshield T-9 which goes on as liquid but dries like a wax.It dries over night and the excess is wiped in the morning.

This works best for me as anything more arduous would be put off. This is so simple I don’t mind doing it.

Putoline

A chain’s a consumable part. Given it wears, I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping it immaculate. You’ll need to bin it for a new one soon enough. Wipe dry after every wash, reapply your favourite lube. Wipe dry again as near to your next ride as possible.

tjagain, you forgot the first and second rule of Putoline club.

Washing powder is not great but better for environment that sending solvent down the drain…

you don’t pour it down the drain, you leave it to rest and for the sludge to sink to the bottom decant and reuse it. when you have enough oily sludge you dispose at the local tip.

Fenwick’s foaming chain cleaner an sponge. Way better than the cleaning devices I’ve used.

A chain’s a consumable part. Given it wears, I wouldn’t worry too much about keeping it immaculate. You’ll need to bin it for a new one soon enough. Wipe dry after every wash, reapply your favourite lube.

That is my method and only necessary through winter anyway. I put on a new chain in March and hardly have to touch it until November where it then gets a hard time for 3 months before it is replaced.

I’ve never heard such nonsense

That is literally what happened when I used to use one. Run it through the machine, then take it out and twist it – I heard loads of grit in it. If you don’t get that then yay, your local mud/whatever might be different, maybe you’re blessed, but that is exactly what happened for me.

How do they force grit further into the chain innards…and stop the solvent from evaporating?

By suspending the grit and dirt in the solvent and getting it back into the places it might’ve worked its way out of. The solvent won’t evaporate unless you use something volatile which may not be ideal. Paraffin for example won’t. If you’re going to use brake cleaner you may as well buy it in a spray can and let it wash the crap out onto the ground.

I put a lot of thought and experimentation into a bike cleaning routine that is as quick and easy as possible, cos I hate bike cleaning. Using Shimano wet lube and Halfords bike cleaner as I said is by far the fastest way I found of achieving a chain that doesn’t grind when you twist it. It’s a 5 minute job along with the rest of the bike and requires no extra solvents or mess.

Putoline is a better solution still though.

Run it through the machine, then take it out and twist it – I heard loads of grit in it.

You rinse the chain off after taking out of the cleaner.

While we’re on the subject of replacing chains I’ll need a new one soon.
I have a ‘KMC X11 Speed Chain’ – will I notice the difference if I replace it with, for example, a ‘KMC DLC Super Light 11 Speed Chain’ – which costs 89quid rather than 28?

You rinse the chain off after taking out of the cleaner.

In what? More solvent? Isn’t this the same as doing it twice? The chain cleaner holds a small amount of solvent/cleaner so you have to repeat that until the dirt is sufficiently diluted. I tried it a few times and it was much more faff and less successful than the method outlined above, so I gave up.

A chain’s a consumable part.

Yes, but the idea is to keep it lasting as long as possible before needing a change.

In what?

Water

Water

That will force water molecules deep into the chain to the point of hydraulic lock, opening up the clearances and rendering it useless within hours 🙂

I admit that I like the sound of the molgrips method – it does seem to require minimal effort.

To me putoline is a magic solution. clean well lubed chains that last a long time.

molgrips’ universe…where washing something in solvent doesn’t take dirt out, but forces dirt back in.

Your life must be hard.

Rule #1: Stop using so much chain lube.

Rule #2: Apply the right stuff sparingly.

Rule #3: A clean chain is only of interest if you are selling or renting the bike. A wee bit of tenacious lube doesn’t do any harm.

Rule #4. See rule #1

Screw fix ‘no nonsense’ degreaser – 5l for £8.99. Dilute with water in a small tub, soak chain, job done.

molgrips’ universe…where washing something in solvent doesn’t take dirt out, but forces dirt back in.

Mate it’s not a difficult concept. As you ride, mud gets spattered on the chain and grit gets in. But if you ride back home on the road, the grit works its way out of the rollers and hangs around the outside of the chain (try the twist test at various points on the ride). So if you wash the whole thing in solvent, the dirt gets recirculated all over the place, and goes back into the rollers inside the chain.

How do I know this? Because I bought a chain cleaner many years ago, in my search for the ideal cleaning regime, and I discovered that after running it through the cleaner the twist test showed it to be gritty as hell. So it either needs another run through the machine (maybe two) or it needs rinsing; which requires either a) removing it or b) blasting with a hosepipe. All this is extra work that is not necessary, because you can simply use cleaner and a hose pipe whilst it’s on the bike. Shaking in a jar has the same problem – which I do if I want to really strip the chain, but that’s not necessary for normal maintenance IMO.

The reason for using cleaner rather than de-greaser is that it’s not strong enough to completely strip the chain, there’s a thin layer still on which helps stop it rusting as it dries. Then you can add some more light wet lube and you’re good to go. Sure, you could de-grease it with the jar or the cleaner to get it stripped, but I don’t see the value in this as long as the grit and any caked crud is gone – as per scotroutes rule 3.

molgrips’ universe…where washing something in solvent doesn’t take dirt out, but forces dirt back in.

Why wouldn’t washing the chain in a solution of grit get grit inside it? This isn’t fairy liquid with greasy plates – soap works cos it the molecules have a hydrophillic and hydrophobic end, so they surround fat droplets and keep them suspended in the water and they don’t end up on your plates. De-greasers don’t work like this, they just dilute the lube oil a lot and the grit is still there.

I’m not sitting here dreaming up bollocks – I’ve experimented over 25 years and those are my conclusions – if you aren’t using Putoline. If you are, hose and forget.

(I’ve been experimenting 33 years)

Well I guess we can disagree on some of that, our brains seem to work differently.