How to Clean a Bike Chain Complete Pro Guideline

21 Mar How to Clean a Bike Chain Complete Pro Guideline

Today we are discussed how to cleaning and lubing a dirty and hardworking chain such a dirty chain will not shift as perfectly as it could and should and it will be wearing down itself and the sprockets much quicker that could easily be three times five times even ten times quicker.

In this article let’s see why and how to clean your chain and how to keep it that way.

Basic of Bike chain

Your bicycle chain is a moving mechanical part like the bearings however unlike bearings a chain has many more moving parts at a nominal 90 revs per minute there will be 30,000 linked movements and taking a closer look you see each link is made up of many parts.

These parts articulate against each other and so require lubrication all up there are 200,000 individual moving surfaces per minute that need to be lubricated.

Even though a chain is not covered the lubricated parts are not visible because they are enclosed inside the chain links.

The only lubrication you may see is on the edges of the link plates as shown here in red. Any excess lubricant on the outside of a chain will only attract foreign matter like dirt.

Even a freshly cleaned and lubricated chain will attract foreign matter if just a thin film of lubricant is left on the outside of a chain.

These all things are almost the same in BMX bikes for adults.

Use Clothes

For cleaning the chain, you can use old t-shirts old socks but the best material for that is something like an old towel because it has a better surface as you can see these little things.

will go in between the chain links and will do a better and quicker job as an example this is cloth from Kercher on this side and these are smaller on this.

Use Degreaser

you don’t have to use any chemicals for cleaning the chain but some type of degreaser will make your job a bit easier and more thorough so you can use the bio degreaser for example.

But don’t need to use any sprays because these are even though this is biodegradable the sprays are not eco-friendly.

First, you need to start with a small trick first need to apply the pressure from above and from below squeezing the chain and then we apply pressure from the sides left and right.

Then use a little of degreaser the external links are clean from the outside but the internal one the inner is still dirty.

In order to clean the inside of the chain, we have basically three options some kind of brushes the

Original drivetrain brushes I’m going to show you how they work or just the toothbrush or two connected with each other or a shoelace.

I’m going to start with the shoelace from the connecting pin of the quick link. After getting back to the pin or the quick link now I’m going around it here from the bottom.

Lubrication

It’s vital to have a properly lubricated bike chain for many reasons first of all it will protect your whole Drive trans life so it will save your dollars in the long run.

Secondly, it will enable more efficient gear changing thirdly it minimizes friction so but about saving power which is what it’s about these days, and lastly, it safeguards to chain against any corrosion.

The key to bicycle chain lubrication is to cleaning the chain properly enables the lubricant to stick to the metal that the chain is metal for this reason mixing lubricants is not recommended.

There are incompatibility issues identify the base of the lubricant is its synthetic vegetable oil or mineral oil-based switching between these bases causes problems for instance it will decrease the beneficial properties of the lubricant that you’re adding.

Here’s a brief demonstration of why mixing lubricants don’t work but having a perfectly clean service to start with and using just one type of lubricant is best.

Now you decide to go for your bike ride so, you’re riding along and it’s spinning nicely and it starts to rain did moisture of course not just water here’s a glass of nice clean dirt put someone and you decided to keep riding because it’s an 80 kilometers bike ride.

So, you’re riding or riding along now how’re your bearings gonna be are they going to be nice and smooth, or they going to be full of high wear and high friction.

Conclusion

So here we shared details of bike chain cleaning, however, it’s not so hard task if you do this proper way.

We are trying our best to solve the problem and give a proper solution. If you want to learn more information check OutdoorXsports for better bike maintenance tips and tricks.