Good drivetrain and chain cleaning products

Liam 2010

I've been looking at a vaiety of products all claiming to give the best results possible and have looked at a number of techniques to clean the chain.

I have heard that chain cleaing kits are quite good and a lot less hassle than the other methods. Has anyone had any experience with chain cleaning units, and if so, how did you get on with on it?

What do you guys on here recommend for clean drive train, and how often should you clean your chain?

Thanks in advance,

Liam

paulbox

Personally I prefer to rotate two chains, it increases the life of the chains and casette and means that you can give everything else (jockey wheels etc.) a good clean while the chain isn't in place.

My procedure is something like this:

1. Remove dirty chain and soak in white spirit, give it a good swish around etc. with a toothbrush or similar until it is pretty much spotless.
2. Dry chain with a rag and then hang somewhere for a couple of days to ensure that all white spirit has dried/evaporated.
3. Soak chain in Castrol GTX (or similar) for about a week.
4. Hang chain to drain for another week.
5. Give chain a quick wipe over with a clean rag before fitting on to bike and restarting the process with the other chain.

I change my chains over about once a month so any of the steps above can basically take as long as I want depending on when I get a few minutes. It sounds like a faff, but is made really quick and easy by using SRAM power links.

The problem I find with the chain bath things is that they might clean the faces of the chain but you still have loads of crap in the jockey wheels etc. This will simply transfer back to the chain on your next ride.

If I have some extra time when removing the dirty chain I will often remove the jockey wheels and put them through the same process. Obviously I have to do it a bit quicker for them as I don't have a spare set to stick on the bike...

Liam 2010

Thanks for the tips Paul. I'll see how it goes.

I think I'm going to get some muc off...I've heard good reviews about this stuff.

Liam