Winter grit doing my head in

Danny-T

Every ride at the moment, as soon as I get some wet stuff in the drivetrain everything goes to pot.

On my last ride I'd completely degreased and re-lubed the chain, rear mech and cable routing. At the start of the ride it felt like new, really responsive, ran silently and found every gear perfectly. To be fair it stayed like this for most of the ride but after about 15 miles it started jumping and wouldn't drop into the lowest gear without some help.

When I got back I cleaned the bike and gave the chain a rinse and re-lube but it was still really grinding. So I've taken it off and left it in some degreaser again and will probably revist the cable routing too.

It wasn't a really wet and muddy ride but it is quite gritty round here. I also feel like I shouldn't be completely degreasing the chain every ride as it's not allowing the lube to build up over time but it's the only way I can seemingly get the grinding to stop.

I've been using finish line wet lube but am open to any other tips and suggestions that will reduce the workload between rides as it's a real deterrent to going out when I spend almost as long cleaning as riding!

Ideally I'm looking for products that do a really good job of repelling the grit and grime plus any other tips?

bike-a-swan

Tell me about it- gone through a set of rim brake pads on the roadie in less than two weeks of commuting. This is why I've built a cheap, rigid ss for the winter- it sounds a lot less like money wearing out when you go for a ride, and a lot less looking after!

ilovedirt

You should really be degreasing and cleaning your drivetrain after every ride in the winter.

D-Cyph3r

ilovedirt wrote:

You should really be degreasing and cleaning your drivetrain after every ride in the winter.

#

But who really can be bothered?

TuckerUK

The only help is to have multiple chains.

When you feel lazy just remove chain and leave in paraffin or cheap industrial citrus degreaser (or bike stuff if you can afford to throw money away), wash down gears and mechs, fit pre-lubed spare chain (lubed with car gearbox oil (or bike stuff if you can afford to throw money away), left to soak in, hung to drip dry, wiped dryish).

Simples.

ride_whenever

Build a winter hack bike with a hub gear.

Doesn't matter if the chain gets covered in crud as it costs very little to replace the rings and chain every two years.

Danny-T

Multiple chains sounds like a good plan, like the idea of using gearbox oil and industrial cleaner if it's the same as using "throw money away" stuff.

I've got another bike I could use but if I used that whenever the going gets muddy I'd get significantly less value out of my main rig.

getonyourbike

I use muc off wet lube and my shifting never seems to suffer. Also, if you just hose the chain it comes up pretty much perfect again/
. I quick relube and you're ready to go again.

02gf74

yep ... roll on summmer ... can;t wait for the trails to dry out .

.blitz

Danny-T wrote:

Ideally I'm looking for products that do a really good job of repelling the grit and grime plus any other tips?

You could take my own slightly unorthodox approach and use dry lube all year round.

My take is that a clean, dry chain is what it's all about so why cover it in oil? The answer is that the oil prevents the ingress of dirt into the rollers and sideplates but is not needed as a lubricant in itself.

A decent dry lube/wax needs applying very regularly this time of year but the flip side is that the drivetrain stays clean and everything works just great. It won't be as quiet as wet lube but I think it's a small price to pay.