(upbeat music)
- Having a nice clean chain is not
just good for efficiency but it also prolong the lifespan
of our chain and the drivetrain for that matter
which in turn is obviously going to save ourselves
a little bit of money.
So, today I'm going to be running us through
a couple of quick methods to get your chain
looking and performing like new.
Okay, so your first things first,
to actually clean this chain, we need to break down
the dirt and grime on that chain.
So we're going to need something
that's going to be able to do that.
Now, soapy hot water will do that to some degree
but I'll be honest, it barely scratches the surface
because oil and grease is relatively water resistant
so we're going to need something a little bit more powerful.
Now, you may find something like White Spirit knocking
around your home.
Does it pretty well but it's pretty nasty stuff
and I'd rather not use this too much
both for my sake and the environment's sake.
So instead I would full recommend getting yourself
a proper degreaser like this one which, conveniently,
is environmentally friendly.
Now, if you are using a degreaser,
you may like to wear some gloves
although it's not essential for all degresers.
And also I would fully recommend doing any
of this cleaning and using of these degreasers outdoors
so you're not inhaling any nasty fumes.
Or if you have a liquid based degreaser,
you can pour this into a little pot as I am
and then use a brush to essentially paint the grease
onto the chain.
Give the chain a little backpedal whilst you apply it
and then leave it for a couple of minutes to work its magic.
Okay, so you can actually see the chain
is starting to look a little bit cleaner
but if we actually just run a rag along it
and spin it backwards now, you could almost be mistaken
to thinking the chain is good to go
but actually if we look now between the links here,
you can still see it there packed with dirt and grime.
Okay, I am a little bit of a perfectionist
but it is this little bit of dirt and grime between
the chain that we really want to make sure
that we get rid of to improve the efficiency of the chain
and to prolong that lifespan of the drivetrain.
So, for this, we actually need another brush
to get in between those links and to drive
that dirt and grime out.
Or you could use a little toothbrush contraption
that I've rolled out on the channel before,
so this is just two old toothbrushes
that I've taped together with a little bit
of electrical tape, brush to brush,
and then we can simply just place that around the chain
and then just go backwards.
Alternatively, if my toothbrushes
haven't impressed you enough then you
could get a dedicated tool for the job
that are actually really quite good.
Now you could get yourself a chain bath
like this one from Park Tool.
These are really effective, get the chain super clean,
super quickly, all whilst containing the mess nice
and conveniently with inside the chambers.
All you need to with these is take the top off
the chain bath then slot the chain within the run
and then pop the top back on, clip it all up,
and then fill the chamber with degreaser.
And then all you need to do is spin the pedals backwards
to run the chain through the brushes within the chamber.
So again, your chain looks very clean here
but we're not quite finished there
because the brushes and degreaser have done a great job
of breaking that dirt and grime down,
but some of that is still going to be sat
on that chain or within the link.
So it's really important now that we get that out.
So I'd suggest emptying that chain bath out,
cleaning it out just a bit and then filling it back up
with some soapy water and repeating that process
through again.
Well that is looking pretty clean if you ask me.
All there is to do now is use a dry clean rag
to dry that chain down and then we want to relubricate it.
Now, I'm actually using a dry lubricant today
and if you are using something similar to this,
so a liquid based lubricant,
just make sure that you drip it onto each chain link
and then rather than just instantly wiping off
the excess lubricant, actually leave it to settle
for a couple of minutes so it really seeps
into each link and then use your rag
to wipe off that excess lubricant.
Okay, I may actually backtrack ever so slightly here
and add one extra phase in.
Before we do that final wash, dry, and relubrication
because as we do have all these tools out,
we may as well clean the rest of the drivetrain
whilst we're at it.
And it's also just good practice
because with this nice clean chain,
it's only just going to pick up that dirt off the rest
of the drivetrain once we start pedaling.
So we want to make sure the cassette and jocules
are nice and clean so just apply some degreaser to them
and let it do its work.
Then using some brushes like we had before,
start working on those areas.
And again just spinning those pedals back to help.
Then wash down with soapy water
and follow those steps from before
on drying and lubing the chain.
Well, obviously getting your chain looking like new
is going to improve the performance of your bike
and also the lifespan of the components on your bike.
But do not neglect the rest of your bike.
That is also going to need a clean from time to time
as is mine right now.
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If you'd like to see our five minute bike wash video,
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