Very busy in the office over the past week (actually past 3 weeks including travel), with no chance to get out and ride since last weekend. Quick scan of the weather yesterday showed monsoons coming, with yesterday morning my only window to ride. So I took a 35-mile fender ride in light on-and-off rain on the municipal greenways. In some places it was hard to discern the macadam trail for the recent live oak fall (flowers/pollen and last year's leaves) mixed with fresh cut grass. As far as the clay wash, there were about a half-dozen spots that were treacherously slick - the spookiest was near one end of a 1600' boardwalk over a marsh. It was a great ride, and I only saw 3 other bikes the entire way (none of them had fenders - the guy on the road bike with skinny tires was characteristically smug - recognized him, even spoken with him before). Every place it could, the bike picked up chert, the soft oak flowers mixed with a bit of clay. The rear wheel was absolutely filthy - the rim and tan sidewalls were black. When I got home, took a hose to the bike, which cleaned most everything except the rear wheel and tire. The bike ended up on the bike stand for detail cleaning. I took 406 Protectant to the tire sidewalls, and the wax residue in my rag was enough to clean the rim(s). What I discovered, the black was a mix of clay with the Ice Wax from my chain. The Ice Wax from my chain had completely sloughed off in the wet ride. After hosing the bike down, the entire drivetrain was clean - the chain was bright, shiny and looked brand new - you could rub your fingers on it without picking up any residue whatsoever.
I've been using Ice Wax on the Wippermann stainless chain for most of a year - this is the type of lube the mfg recommends. But this is the simplest drivetrain cleaning I've ever experienced. Hose it down, let it dry, and start over with a new application. I can live with this. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
