- Riding a bike in the the rain is
part and parcel of cycling.
Many people out there, however,
they don't necessarily enjoy it,
but the way I look at it,
is that your skin's water proof,
so what have you got to lose?
However, your bike parts can take
an absolute battering from the elements.
In particular, that drive-train.
So today, let's take a look
at how to get it spotlessly clean
so that it works perfectly for you on your next ride.
(upbeat hip hip)
Tools required for this job,
working on a Shimano Dura-Ace transmission,
are as follows: first up, you're gonna need a chain tool,
that's to split, and obviously rejoin the chain
once it's nice and clean.
Gonna need a joining pin too,
or if you've got a different type of chain,
possibly a missing link to reconnect it,
a cassette and lockring tool
to remove the cassette from your free hub,
it's important to do that to get it nice and clean,
five millimetre Allen key,
that's to remove the cranks,
Three millimetre Allen key
to remove the derailleur pulleys.
Now this special tool here,
this is a crank installation tool from Shimano,
that's to remove that pre-load cap which sets
the crank into position.
A Torx T30, to take the chain rings off of the chain set,
couple of brushes here with stiff bristles
so you can really scrub away
and get as much dirt out as possible.
A plastic container, essential basically for this job
so you can put some de-greaser in there
and allow everything to sit.
The de-greaser, I buy five litres of that
for just under 10 pounds,
so that's about 10 dollars or 10 euros,
incredibly cheap and does a brilliant job.
Some workshop towel to clean up any mess.
And finally, some gloves to protect your hands.
Depending on the de-greaser you use,
some is actually quite harsh on your hands
and really you want to protect them because,
let's face it, they're gonna get
pretty oily during this job.
(upbeat hip hop)
Now make sure you find yourself a location
such as a garage, a shed, a workshop, or even outdoors
depending on the time of the year.
Reason being, if everything goes wrong
and you end up spilling a load of de-greaser,
you're not gonna get in trouble from anyone else.
Now, whilst you could use one of these,
so this is a chain cleaner which ultimately,
the chain runs through, you fill it with de-greaser,
and you turn the cranks, and the chain gets nice and clean,
the cassette, the chain rings, and the jockey wheels
don't actually get that clean through using it,
so this is why we're gonna do
a full de-greasing clean of all those
components individually.
Now first up, we're going to remove
the rear wheel from the bike, and why?
Well, it's going to remove any tension in the chain there,
because the cassette's not going to be holding it in place.
Now, if you've got a joining link, you're laughing,
because you can use a set of master link pliers
to remove that link.
However, we've got a joining pin,
so we're going to use a chain tool
to pop that out so we can take the chain off.
Right, so now that you've taken off your chain,
you're gonna wanna place it in your container,
try and keep it as flat as possible in there,
and then once it's in
grab your de-greaser
and carefully pour it in.
Try not to spill any.
Try and put enough in so that it actually covers the chain.
So, what I'm gonna do now, is actually
leave the chain in the bath of de-greaser there
so it can do some of the hard work for us,
and next up, I'm gonna remove
the cassette from the free hub.
(upbeat hip hop)
So now for the potentially messy bit.
So with a stiff brush, basically
you're going to want to scrub away at that chain
for as long as you desire, to be perfectly honest.
You're not gonna damage it by doing so.
Obviously if you do leave the chain in there forever,
the de-greaser could possibly contaminate the chain,
but, for the short amount of time we're gonna be doing it
it's gonna be all right.
Make sure that you work it into the rollers
and around the pins as much as possible,
just to loosen off all of that dirt, grime,
existing oil, everything.
Run the chain through your fingers too,
and make sure that there's no stiff or graunchy feel
in there at all from any bits of grit
that get in between those rollers and pins.
Then what I can do with this de-greaser
is actually wash it off with a tap,
because it's water based,
so that can remove all of the de-greaser from it,
and then it's simply a case of drying it off,
so you could do that with a towel or an old rag,
something like that.
Alternatively, an air compressor if you've got one,
that's super simple and does a fantastic job,
or a hair-dryer, or even the radiator.
So it's now time to clean up that cassette.
Personally now, I would put either just one sprocket
or one cluster of sprockets in the de-greaser at a time,
that way it's easier to work,
there's nothing else to get muddled up with.
Now, depending on how filthy your chain was,
you may be able to re-use the de-greaser,
if not, make sure you dispose of that carefully.
Now the process for cleaning the cassette,
very much like the chain,
don't be afraid to give it some good old elbow grease
and really work hard on the brush
to try and loosen as much dirt and grime as possible.
A little tip here, is a tooth brush,
that way you can get into all the nooks and crannies
of a cassette, so in between the teeth,
and also inside of all these parts here.
As well as the inside of the cassette.
So next we're gonna remove
the jockey wheels from the bike.
So take them out, give them a good clean up
with some shop towel or an old rag.
If you've got sealed bearings on them,
you could possibly revitalise them if they're feeling rough,
so put them between your fingers,
give them a spin around,
if there's any rough feeling at all
you can pop off the seals and re-grease them,
but in the end, you are gonna to buy some new ones,
so I'd recommend just doing that anyway.
Other pulley wheels, they actually have bushes in there,
which are really simple to just remove
and then drop a few bits of lubricant on there
and reassemble and you're good to go.
So also, it's worth cleaning
the inside of the derailleur cage here,
cause you can see it does get
quite a bit of grime built up there.
So next up let's clean the chain rings
and they're not always that easy to clean
when they're on the bike because sometimes
you can have an odd shaped tube,
or an oversized bottom bracket
and you can't get in there as well as you'd like to,
and also, well, we wanna clean the cranks too,
and also that bottom bracket spindle,
and we can't do that without removing the chain set,
so let's do that next.
(upbeat hip hop)
So whilst we're here,
have a quick check of the bearings too.
These are absolutely fine, which is good,
it means one less job to have to do today.
Next up is the chain rings.
So depending on how they're fixed to the crank
in this case, it's with a T30 Torx key.
Just simply remove the bolts,
put the chain rings into the de-greaser,
and then scrub away just like all the other components.
However, just bear in mind that
you may well have two Allen keys,
make sure that they are the correct size,
because you don't want to slip and round of any bolts
when removing them.
So the next step is to actually
clean up that cranks themselves.
So what I suggest basically, is to get an old rag
or some workshop towel, dip it in some de-greaser,
and then simply rub it over the crank
to remove any old grease or grime or dirt that's on there.
As well as the actual spindle here of the chain set.
(upbeat hip hop)
Now it's just a case of
reassembling everything on to your bike.
A few final pointers though.
Grease up those chain ring bolts,
if you don't then they do risk being basically
cold seized in there and that's not ideal
because you may well end up having to drill them out.
Use some grease too on the spindle here
of the chain set if you've got something like this.
It'll also prevent water actually getting inside
of the bottom bracket.
Also, put a few bits just around here
on the serrations too.
Now pulley wheel bolts, that some think which,
some people think you should grease,
others think you should use Lock-tite for,
most manufacturers these days actually use Lock-tite
so I would advise that too,
a medium strength one.
Finally, the chain.
Now, don't go dousing it in loads of oil
or anything like that
because you're just gonna attract in
all that dirt again.
So pay good attention and get really close in
on those rollers and pins and just apply it there.
Now let me know in the comments down below
what video you would like to see next in Maintenance Monday.
And who knows?
Maybe I will do it for you.
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