Cleaning chain / Cassette...

Mr OCD

Ok it's time to give the chain / cassette a good clean up as its a mess after Gisburn last week... the rear derailer is also gunked up badly.

So how do you clean these parts properly?

I've just been using WD40 and some rags between rides plus a little lube to maintain it all but I want to give it a proper clean down so can start using dry lube now the weather has improved.

It doesn't help that I can't work out how to remove the chain on the bike!

cooldad

Chain tool if it doesn't have a masterlink.

JoeKersh

car engine cleaner to get the crap off

gtd.

White Spirit, Kerosene, Turps Substitute, Diesel will all clean the crud off I've even used waste petrol. not a good idea but it was the only stuff I had at work.

delta5

Chain: remove chain; make a wire hook from an old coathanger and hang the two open end links on it; dunk chain into bottle of white spirit, petrol, or whatever; shake it around a bit, leave to soak for a while; dunk some more (you should see lots of the black crud coming out). Do this a few more times. Take it out, drain, dry. If you are Mr OCD, Repeat with clean bottle and new solvent! When no more crud appears, drain, wipe down, hang up to dry. Check wear. If ok put back on bike and lube.
For dry lube you might want to degrease the chain after cleaning to help the dry lube stick.

Jockeys: one of the most futile jobs I know. There's only one way - strip down, clean the parts, regrease, reassemble. Easy after you've done it a few times. There should be small allen bolts through each jockey wheel. Make note of the order of parts as you disassemble - some derailleurs like older SRAM X7 have different upper and lower bushings / bearings and mixing them up or getting them the wrong way round can cause problemsh.

Cassette: if possible remove the cassette to clean it. Otherwise take wheel off; spray muc-off or whatever the on cassette (if you use solvent or degreaser beware of getting any in the wheel bearings and freehub as it will degrade the grease), leave to soak a while, scrub off with cassette brush / hot water. Dry it off (use a wooden stirrer from Starbucks with a clean muslin cloth wrapped over the end to get between the cogs - stick it in & rotate the cassette), maybe spray some WD40 to remove moisture (I don't usually bother).
Before putting wheel back on bike, clean rotor with IPA.

As soon as you have put it all back together it will start raining.
Go for ride. After a few miles, observe your drivetrain . . .

Holyzeus

I've used many different bike specific cleaners, i'm now a convert to White spirit.
Awesome, gets it real clean and quick

supafly1982

brake cleaner , ive also got citrus degreaser, good stuff, i use this in my chain cleaner, brings them up like new

Pirahna

I dip the heating oil tank and use that.

skaffen

I used to use citrus degreaser but saw white spirit mentioned so gave that a go after the chain had already been cleaned in degreaser. The white spirit went black after a quick shake in the bottle, so it definitely got a lot more out than the citrus stuff. Most of the gunk settles at the bottom of the bottle after a while so it's easy to remove that and make the bottle last a while.

Deputy Dawg

If you can't remove the chain then there are various chain baths on the market or a toothbrush & parafin/degreaser will also work.

No matter what the marketing blurb says about the baths, I've found they never managed to get the internals as clean as a quick shake in a bottle of degreaser did.

d3matt

Pirahna wrote:

I dip the heating oil tank and use that.

I do that too! I keep a big sweet tin full of kerosene (heating oil) and leave than chain in that for an hour or so. It works well, and being a thin oil, I assume it does the chain some good. It's certainly much cheaper than proper cleaner. My last lot of oil cost 57p per litre (with the tax).

BlueAdvocate

Another one to add to the list is paraffin. Used it with car parts for years.

nwmlarge

i find wd40 does a good job of degreasing.
i also use meguairs gentle de-greaser which is a car product but also does a good job of cleaning components.
fuel oil is not an ideal thing to keep stored for me.