Giving the bike a good service ready for the winter slop.

Been using various dry lubes over the summer and the chain, cassette and jockeys are caked in the waxy residue.

I’ve had the jockeys and chain soaking in white spirit overnight but it’s not washed off the wax or even really softened it.

Tried Gunk, same result, or lack of results.

Anyone found what will soften/dissolve this stuff without just resorting to a wire brush?

Cheers

I use Gt85 on a rag to clean the excess Putoline off – nothing else seems to work

Not had chance to try WD40 yet. Will give that a go- not got any gt85.

Thanks for the suggestion.

If it’s parts you can remove and safely submerge then very hot soapy water works a treat, i.e. chainrings, cassette and chain. Just rinse abs dry them afterwards to remove any soap residue.

We only use Smoove or Squirt.  I was very dubious as it’s seriously expensive but Smoove’s “prep” strips any residue quickly and easily in a cheap chain scrubber.

It’s specifically for wax lubes (not sure why they call it prep as i reckon it would be next to useless at getting conventional lubes and grease off before you first apply wax)

Thanks Paceman and simons.

I’ve been using silkolene dry and muck off ceramic. Not sure which has left the residue but suspect the silkolene dry.

Will whip the cassette off in a bit and soak it overnight.

Given how quickly these lubes dissapear on wet rides I’d be tempted to put on your winter lube and go ride it.

Lol, I was just about to say the same thing!

Go for a wet ride. Lube? What lube? Ain’t seen no lube around these parts!

Ha ha! Probably should have done that really 😀

It does need a bit of a deep clean tbh.

the cassette is now in soak until the morning.

A couple of good muddy rides usually strips most dry lube build up for me, and a quick scrape of the jockey wheels with a screwdriver for the particularly stubborn bits once every few months. I use rock ‘n roll blue dry lube all year round. Splash it on, wipe off the excess, go ride, hose the bike down. Repeat ad infinitude. Minimum faff, maximum riding.

just very hot water on it’s own should work, surely? dump it it boiling water, wax melts and floats to the top. skim it off with a bit of kitchen roll.

Dishwasher.

Not had chance to try WD40 yet. Will give that a go- not got any gt85.

Call yourself a mountainbiker?

Anyone found what will soften/dissolve this stuff

WD40 + electric toothbrush

Well the results are in.

Hot water, freshly boiled kettle, with good old fairy liquid, seemed to do an admirable job of softening and loosening it.

Finished off with a scrubbing brush, once the water had cooled sufficiently, shifted it nicely.

Gunk – Nah.

White Spirit – Nah.

WD40 – Nah.

🙂

I’ve been using silkolene dry and muck off ceramic. Not sure which has left the residue but suspect the silkolene dry.

Wouldn’t be so quick to say that. After my experience with Muc Off C3 Wet, none of their lube products are coming anywhere near a bike of mine again.  I’ve never had such a drivetrain mess.

Tbh, for me, if it’s a non daily rider then I’m happy to run wax all year.  The overnight settling between application and ride got tedious on my daily rider.

You might be right Vincieup.

I think I’m gonna stick with ordinary light oil from now on. It’s not too gritty mud where I am now so don’t end up with grinding paste.

Easier to clean off and re-apply.

user of squirt on the ol’ mason year round.

overnight soak in white spirit, small amount of agitation with an old tooth brush

then rinse off under hot soapy water = sparkly drive train 🙂

+1 for washing over lube. MucOff ceramic is responsible for one of my chains being replaced at 200 miles. Total shite grinding paste before it goes near mud. It dries like concrete on the chain and causes more harm than good. GT85 before riding and after washing keeps chains like new (but without the greasiness) and I have chains with thousands of miles on that setup. FWIW GT85 and WD45 are completely different things. One is Water Dispersant (aka not a lube) and one is Gear Teflon (lubricant). These are not interchangeable even though they both smell like heaven

Best way to get rid of accumulated wax is a hairdryer. Then you’re left with just a film.

Paraffin. Cheap and does the job on both my motorbike o-ring chain and bicycle chains.

More good suggestions, thanks.

I’m edging away from Muc Off for sure. I got this one as a spot prize at an event so gave it a go.

I used to just use TF1 Teflon spray lube on the road bikes for that clean non-oily drivetrain.

Might give that a go on the mtb.

ta11pau1 – used to use paraffin for everything back in the day. Not had any for years, but a good shout, will get some in as a general degreaser.

As for a hairdryer Epicyclo – not sure that we even have one. I’m follicly challenged, and my wife is a wild Welsh woman with such a mane that she has neither a hairbrush nor a hair drier 🙂

Tried a heat gun and a rag?

Another bad tale of Muc Off Ceramic wet here.  It basically coated my chainset in this black hard coating that I had to scrape off with a screw driver by hand.  No cleaning or solvent products touched it, not even muc offs own cleaners (though to be fair they did send me a bottle of stuff to try free of charge).

I had a saucepan of black plasticky sludge by the time I had finished.  Not using it again.

Both a Finishline wet lube and some pro-road ceramic crap used by me this last year on the bike I take down the TPT. The result was a filthy drivetrain which seemed to excrete black gunk.

IIRC carbon tetra chloride dissolves wax

Not sure I’d want to mess around with toxic organic solvents.

Used Muc Off lube once, will never make that mistake again! Absolute nightmare to remove. Have used Squirt for a good few years and love it, but going to try Smoove, as it’s apparently similar, but stays on longer in the wet.

MucOff lube is just shite isn’t it! 500k out of an XT cassette, I was checking the chain “oh wait, it’s all competely knackered”.

Been using Smoove for a few months now, cleaning drive train does appear to be ‘other people problems’ now. It’s expensive, but you don’t need much so I reckon will balance out.

Squirt all year round, tired a few like Joe’s and Finishline but Squirt if applied correctly has always worked for me.

I’ll be looking out for some Smoove or Squirt now then, cheers for the suggestions.

I found Squirt was great in the summer but didn’t last for one ride in the winter. What it did do was made me realise how clean wax lubes are so I started looking for something a bit more long lasting and I ended up with Putoline.

Petrol