Of all the parts of your bike that need cleaning, your chain is perhaps the most
important one. A clean chain is a long-lasting chain, and that also has a
positive effect on the lifespan of your whole drivetrain. So it is a definite
money-saving tip. There is a specific technique to effective chain cleaning,
though, and we're going to go into real detail in this video. So, time to roll up
your sleeves. The first point to mention is that to get anywhere here,
you're going to need a specific product to degrease your chain.
I'm sure you'll all be all too familiar with that feeling of trying to get oil off
your hands. Soap and hard water don't do the job. Maybe washing-up liquid might go
a little bit better, but, essentially, you're stuck with it. Well,
exactly the same is true for cleaning your chain. Go near it with cold water and a
sponge, and you will not get anywhere, so what you need is a specific degreaser.
Now, various chemicals that you have lying around at home might do the job, to some
extent. So, something like white spirit, or paraffin, or diesel will all get your
chain clean, but they're pretty nasty, really. They're certainly not
environmentally friendly, and I think we can do better than that.
Now, if I'm not doing a super quick clean, then I'll always bring out the proper
degreaser. Now, I always use a biological one. It might not be important to you,
but it is to me. All degreaser can be pretty nasty stuff, so it is definitely a
good idea to use gloves and then be careful that you don't get any in your
eyes. Ready for anything, I see. Then it's just a case of decanting a small
amount into a suitable container. A sawn-off water bottle is quite a good use
for old ones. And then I simply paint it on with a brush. So, just I paint it on
liberally, and then give the chain a backpedal, then we just leave it sit for a
couple minutes. Now, this next bit is a cool little hack. So, you see,
if we clean the chain now just with a sponge and hot water, it's going to look
nice and clean. But if we then look closely, we'll see that there's quite a
lot of gunk still between the plates of the chain, and it's this gunk that's
actually going to be wearing away at our drivetrain. So, enter our hack.
This is a nail brush. Now, some of you might not know what one is,
and I'll forgive you for that. This is another nail brush, because we're going to
need two. Now, they're both available from pharmacies or big supermarkets,
something like that. Essentially, what we do is we sandwich the chain between our
two nail brushes, and then we backpedal, and the little bristles will clean the
chain inside and out. Now, you might need to do a bit of modification of your nail
brushes, maybe trim the inside bristles down slightly so it does fit nicely around
the chain. So, that is our hack. There is a specific tool for the job as well.
This is called a chain bath or a chain cleaner, and essentially,
it is a more convenient and, arguably, significantly more effective way of
cleaning your chain. It's designed specifically for the purpose.
You simply sandwich your chain in there. Fill the top reservoir with degreaser,
and then backpedal your chain through, and it gets clean.
You will always need to finish off with a sponge and hot, soapy water
just to make sure you get all the degreaser off. That is absolutely vital,
in fact, because if you don't, any residue will mean that your chain oil won't stay
on properly. So this guards against it. The next step is to dry it with a rag and
then re-lube your chain. Now, it's probably a good idea to use some kind of
aerosol lube first. That way your chain is completely dry, and it'll stop it getting
rusty if you have to store your bike outside. Now, it has to be said. There
aren't really any occasions where you would just clean your chain.
The rest of the drivetrain does need a good clean as well, and seeing as you've
got your cleaning stuff out, you might as well. So you can paint your degreaser onto
a cassette and onto the jockey wheels as well. Now, I know a lot of you do worry
about getting degreaser into sealed bearings, thinking that perhaps that will
then decrease the lifespan of your bearings. And to a certain extent,
that might be true, but it's certainly not essential to dismantle your drivetrain
every time you're going to clean it. Personally, I don't really have the time
to do that, and I would rather just re-grease my bearings as and when they
need it. But it's entirely up to you. Now, clearly, a gleaming drivetrain is going to
do wonders for your morale, but let's face it, you really need to clean the rest of
the bike as well for full effect. So, if you want to see how to clean a bike in 30
minutes, completely and utterly thoroughly, then if you click just up
there, you'll get straight through to that one. Or if you want to know how to select
the right lubricant for your chain and the conditions that you ride in,
then you click just down there, and you get straight through to it.
Otherwise, subscribe to GCN. You can do that by clicking on that.
Well, that big box there that says, "Subscribe".