do I need to clean a new chain ?

coasti

just bought my first new chain, and it is very sticky. Do I need to clean this off with a degreaser before fitting and lubing or is it good to go ?

MountainPete

No! That is good grease.

stumpyjon

I'm not sure it is good grease. Last time I fitted a new chain (January) I didn't clean it first and it acted like a muck magnet. In future I'm going to clean them before use and lube properly with my normal lube. (Can't see that it'll do any harm to clean it as long as it's lubed properly).

nicklouse

If it ia a sram chain it is a very good grease. and i would expect other chain makers to provide chains with a good coating. but an additional lube would not be a bad thing.

coasti

Thanks very much for the responses. It's a sram so I'll go without a clean.

Cheers

Milkie

Clean it..

Our machinery here at work comes with this grease on it.. It has to be cleaned and greased before using it... Otherwise everything sticks to it, and wears the chain and gears quicker.

Stop being lazy and whack some proper chain oil on it!

nicklouse

Milkie wrote:

Clean it..

Our machinery here at work comes with this grease on it.. It has to be cleaned and greased before using it... Otherwise everything sticks to it, and wears the chain and gears quicker.

Stop being lazy and whack some proper chain oil on it!

Mmm so your machinery at work is a sram chain?

to the GLEITMO lube that protects against dirt and friction, these chains set the standard for durability and reliability.

http://www.sram.com/en/srammountain/cha ... /index.php

:roll:

Milkie

Mmm so your machinery at work is a sram chain?

No, but then I didn't say that. Assumptions, mother of all f......

No it isn't, but I do buy chains for the machinery here at work, and most recently my KMC chain... I didnt bother cleaning it..

Went out for a 10 mile ride, came back and the chain was covered in tiny bits of gravel. I havent had a problem like this since cleaning it properly and lubing it with the correct lube.

chains/machinery we buy including KMC, except SRAM, the grease is a protective grease and not very good for lubrication.

It is a very stick grease, to protect it from oxidising/rusting, not for lubrication for moving parts.

coasti

this is what is confusing me - sram says the coasting is good to go, but I thought it was best to lube just the rollers and not the whole chain. This new sram is completely coated in a sticky substance, and I live at the coast so I don't want it sucking up sand ???

Jamey

Sheldon Brown says:

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.

And his colleague Jobst Brandt says:

A myth that is difficult to dispell is the story that grease on a new chain, fresh out of the package, is not a lubricant but rather a preservative that must be removed. This piece of bicycling myth and lore thrives despite its illogic.

Milkie

But its soooo sticky !!!!!

Would be good for a few hundred miles, if it was on a nice clean road.

Jamey

Dirt on the outside of the chain makes no difference at all and the only way it gets carried from the outside to the inside is by oiling.

So your chain might be ugly but it's functioning incredibly well.

stumpyjon

I'm with Milkie, my new chain was a SRAM 991 hollow pin, so top of the range. I can imagine that in good dry conditions the factory lube is best left on (Sheldon Brown infers this in Nick's quote) but in the conditions most of us ride in I'm not so sure.

I throughly cleaned my new chain after the first ride, it wasn't just dirty and grit coated on the outside, it felt really gritty when flexed so there must have been grit in the rollers as well.

I'm no expert, just talking from the limited experience I've had.

Jamey

stumpyjon wrote:

I'm no expert, just talking from the limited experience I've had.

Well that's it, isn't it... Sheldon and Jobst both are experts, so perhaps their opinions are worth a bit more than us lot?

gtr mart

oops. I just fitted a new sram chain and made the mistake of cleaning it before putting ot on.

I did this based on experiance of buying tools and bits for cars (admittantly not chains or lubed parts) that have a coating to protect the metal parts from rusting when they sit in stock (something i suspect many bike chains do for a long time). That rust proof coating and the sticky substance on the chain felt very similar.

Interesting thread and perhaps will avoid degreasing my next new chain (which could now be sooner than I may have anticipated...)

supersonic

With new chains I wipe the stuff the outside of the plates, but leave it in the internal bits where it is very useful. I dont want sand and small stones sticking to the plates of my chain where is gets in the rear mech and fecks it up.

woodywmb

I've tried both methods - leaving it on and removing it. I now always degrease a new chain to remove the grease coating. It gathers all manner of gunk which chews up the chain. Try it, There's no substitute for personal experience.

tjm

I'm with the guys saying clean it.
Frankly I don't think it matters how good a lube it is - it is very sticky so you very quickly end up with a layer of grit and sand all over the chain, sprockets, chainrings etc.
Personally I would rather half the life of the chain than risk all that rubbish grinding away my expensive cassette and chainrings.......

I think it depends a lot on the conditions but there is a lot of sand round here.

Milkie

Sheldon and Jobst both are experts, so perhaps their opinions are worth a bit more than us lot?

Aren't they roadies? I've heard of Sheldon, but not Jobst. (Roadies dont go off-roading where you flick up loads of crap on to the drivechain)

I can see the sticky stuff being good... If we were to ride inside, where there are no stones/grit things that can get stuck to the chain, and start wearing it down.

Therefore a good lubricant that isnt soo sticky would perform better in dirty conditions as the crap doesn't stick to it?

It all seems logical to me.

:?

supersonic

Jobst is more of a roadie, but a highly regarded engineer. Can read more of his stuff here:

http://yarchive.net/bike/

Has a bit of an ego though!

stumpyjon

Whoa, there's a big difference between chain manufacturers. I've just opened the Shimano chain packet tonight to finish my new build and the lube is very liguid on it, completely different from the sticky lube on the SRAM chain.

Cheshley

Not strictly related to the protective oil found on new chains, but as I have just ordered a new SRAM chain I would like to throw this idea and see what people have to say on the matter......

Has anyone tried using something like ZX1 friction reducer on bike parts? I use ZX1 in my car engine and noticed on their website that they do a smaller bottle with a micro applicator. I was wondering if applying a drop of this to each chain link, gear mech pivots and such like would make any difference....?

Any thoughts?

Blundell

Defo wash the chain so the thick gunky lube is off it. All form sof fith stick to ya lovely new chain and increase the wear on the rest of your drivetrain. After my first XTR chain I started washing new chains in warm soapy water before they go on to my bike, I think It makes a good deal of difference straight from the offset. Famous last words all my chains seem to be riding pretty damn fine at the mo.
Cheesey, try it out.. whats the worst that could happen? You have to wash it off? (after you have savage chain suck!)