For cleaning, I mostly hose off the drivetrain after a dusty ride, bounce the bike a few times and dry in the sun, and then wipe down the chain. Sometimes I over lube and wipe.
When it's time to do a rare major cleaning, the chain goes in an old wide mouth nalgene with Dawn dish soap and boiling water. I wrap an old bath towel around it and shake the hell out of it. The towel is absolutely mandatory for opening the nalgene since it usually spurts like a hot radiator. It takes a couple wash and rinse cycles. Hang to dry before installing and lubing. Nalgene was (and still is) a lab equipment company before it became an outdoor brand; their hard bottles handle boiling water without issues. There's a theory that this kind of cleaning removes lube from deep inside the chain and that relubing the chain can't penetrate to replace it. I figure if hot water and detergent got in there, then super slippery chain lube probably can too. I over lube and wipe. The notion that chains need to be really really clean is silly to me given how much work that would take. I run 3 x 6/7/8 speeds, so chains are cheap, and steel is recyclable. I also really like steel chainrings. Old Sugino VP cranks from MTBeaters often have great steel 110/74 BCD rings. What a sensible place to add weight to your bike. Carl -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/9c608ddd-7288-4529-a3c9-34796c7768d5%40googlegroups.com.
