Okay!
I need help here!
I'm getting conflicting advice on this subject.
Who uses what to clean their chain and what do you use as chain lube?
Some have told me they use kerosene, (potentially carcinogenic), some WD 40 to clean (heard that this wasn't a very good idea because it displaces the grease in the chain's O- or X-rings.)
All advice taken into consideration as long as it doesn't end up costing me the earth!!!!
I found wd40 great to get rid of old gritty grease petrol is also god but little more dangerous had a smoker walk up to me one time in middle of job. then good liberal spray with chain lube but best thing I fitted to BBird was Scott Oiller worth its weight in gold pays for itsself if you keep bike for few years
Alternatively buy a BM then you dont have to worry any more. Last one may cost you the earth
Hi TD, Micks right, Scott oilers are brilliant,you'll soon recover the initial cost in not having to buy chains/sprockets so often and you will never have to clean the chain again. I use anti fling chainsaw oil in mine much cheaper than Scot oil-get it in farm shops like Mole Valley.
Dianne I have a brand new ketten chain cleaning kit that you can have if you want....if you don't know what one is then have a look on www.kettenmax.com...iuf you do decide you want it then if you're going to MB I will bring it with me else
No worries Allen.
That's really kind of you, thank you very much indeed.
Unfortunately, I won't be there this time because I will be with my Mum.
The best thing to do would be to pass it onto Witchiest. That's if you don't mind? 'Cos I'll be seeing her soon.
Thank you again.
Di.
low-fling chain oil..& chain wax,both are easy to apply and take a couple of minutes.WD 40,petrol etc will clean off old oil n grease but i wouldnt use them, if the chain is that bad(corroded etc)it needs to be replaced i recon?
if its a 'beautiful' one(hee hee)then a scott-oiler is the way to go,will prolong the life of your chain n sprokets X3, i prefer to spray mine myself.....but thats just cos i'm tight!
Never, never use petrol on an O-ring chain!! Petrol attacks rubbery plastics. Hence the reason that oily cam belts on cars tend to snap more readily than clean ones.
Also, do not use WD40. Most people make the mistake of thinking that this is a lubricant. It isn't. It is a penetrant. This means that it is brilliant for getting in between corroded cogs and sticking mechanisms and cleaning them. This will mean that they move better, but only for a certain length of time if you don't then lube or grease them. This also means that WD40 is the perfect stuff to use if you want something to work its way past your O-rings and dissolve all the grease within!!
The best thing for your chain by far, is to clean it with paraffin which is just as good a degreaser as petrol, but does not attack rubbery plastics (indeed Ride magazine tested a load of chain degreasers a couple of years ago and the best by far was paraffin - it was also the cheapest by a long way as well).
The best thing to then lube it with, as most of us know, is gear oil. However, this flings off and gets everywhere, so to overcome this we need a lube.
Chain lube however has a problem and that is that being sticky, it picks up dust and small pieces of grit which then turn your lovely lube into a grinding paste.
More recently has therefore seen the development of the "dry" lube, of which are the chain waxes and the solvent based true dry lube.
Chain waxes are probably better when it comes to pure lubrication, but still pick up some dust etc.
I therefore use a dry lube (Wurth High Performance Dry Chain Lube) and personally think it's brilliant.
Saying that, chain lube is one of those subjects where every man and his sister has an opinion lol.
Like Geoff says, never ever use petrol on a chain. Paraffin is the only stuff recommended by the chain manufacturers.
When it comes to lube, Chain Wax is a no-no, I've seen some horrors of chains that have only been lubed with it. It doesn't penetrate the rollers and sits there gathering dirt and turning into grinding paste.
Dry-lubes are pretty much the same, they just don't get right into a chain and aren't as effective as a good proper lube. The best stuff I have ever used, and I found it by accident, is chainsaw oil. I've been using it for bout 10 years and get approx 25 - 30K miles from my bike chains, mostly on superbikes that get used hard. I do have Scottoilers filled with it on all my bikes. You get a little fling, bu so what, just encourages you to clean the bike. If a chain isn't flinging a little chain oil, it's holding on to dirt and grit or it's running unlubed. Chainsaw oil costs about a tenner for 5 litres from tree surgery suppliers or garden centres.
Hi again Matt i used to be a tree surgeon-thats how i discovered chainsaw oil works well, which i mentioned earlier on in this thread-nobody listens,rotten bu--ers!
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