Quick bike clean and caring for chain / sprockets /mechs?

KnightOfTheLongTights

Bear with me, as I am a maintenance fool, and have a posh new bike I'd like to take care of.

I like to clean my bike after each long ride (once a week), on which it tends to get quite dirty (country lanes etc). But it seems unnecessary to degrease chain, cassette, mech etc that frequently.

But with washing the other bits of the bike you inevitably get the chain, mech etc wet. What do you do to protect them? The chain you can dry off a bit but I'm just cringing thinking of the amount of moisture sitting around the sprockets, mechs and within the chain.

I've given it all a quick spray with GT85 - is that all you can do? Am I being too clucky over it?

With my old bike I used to also degrease and relube every time, but it felt like I was overdoing it and the whole drivetrain just seemed to get quickly covered in black gunk, maybe cos I was ovelubing. It was almost like the more I cleaned the drivetrain, the dirtier it would get.

Thanks for your patience.

sungod

just run the chain through an old (non-fluffy/catchy) cloth, bit of old linen is fine

it'll dry it a bit and take off the surface crud

give the chain some oil every few weeks, more often if it's raining a lot

for the frame etc., wipe it with a different cloth, if the bike's covered in salty water from the winter roads, or is muddy, hose it down before wiping

no need for cleaners etc. unless it's got heavy oil on it that just won't shift with water+wiping

fitting a removable link on the chain makes it easy to remove/replace for ease of cleaning

get the maintenance instructions for the various bits, usually you can get them in pdf from the shimano/sram/etc. website, they'll tell you how to maintain/adjust things

sounds a bit like you are over-lubing, wipe off the excess before riding

imho there's no need to put gt85 on anything on a bike, it'll just displace heavier lubricants

KnightOfTheLongTights

thanks. So if you hose the bike down (as I often have to do) you just leave the cassette and mechs to dry naturally?

Flexisurfer

The mechs are normally made of alloy and the cassettes steel, so just wipe the water off the mechs and spray your GT85 on the cassette to stop it getting rust spots.

rake

quick bike cleaning-chain-sprockets :?:
im sorry but this debate will go longer than cleaning your bike ten times with a tooth pick.

sturmey

Keep that chain clean and oiled at all times,especially important in winter. Chains last ages if they are not permanently covered in dirt(which most are).The dirt acts as a highly efficient grinding paste wearing out your chain plus the rest of your transmission in double quick time, needing early replacement.Only let this happen if you enjoy spending money needlessly.

Twostage

Baby wipes are good for cleaning most bits. You can do each side of the frame and forks with one wipe. The wipes look dirty but keep on cleaning. You can also pass one side round the seat stay twist it until its like a rope and then floss the cassette. Does the chain also.
Some people have two chains, one on the bike and the other being cleaned so you can just whack a clean one on and clean at your leisure. If you're only going out once a week that probably isn't a problem for you.

sungod

KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:

thanks. So if you hose the bike down (as I often have to do) you just leave the cassette and mechs to dry naturally?

yep

and i do this both on my commute bike and my eyewateringly expensive shiny bike, both get ridden in all weathers except lethally icy, i just use syn lube on the drivetrain, it's fairly sticky so even in the wet tends to stay in place

as mentioned above, having more than one chain is good, then you can have a clean/lubed one ready to fit when the one of the bike needs a good clean

i actually use three chains in rotation, by the time they are all knackered the cassette will be ready for replacement as well, but until then i'll have smooth/consistent shifting

the merits, or otherwise, of the various off-bike chain cleaning methods, is a topic of great dispute and much gnashing of teeth, just use the search function and you'll find many hours of reading on the subject

KnightOfTheLongTights

OK, thanks for the tips.