On 2004-07-18, Rural QLD CC penned:
Greetings, Just curious to know what I should use to clean my chain
with. Now that I've got a fair amount of time on the bike in the
rough stuff, the chain is starting to get 'gummed up'. I've always
used kerosene and a stiff brush to clean the chains on my motorbikes
(being super careful not to get it on any bearing areas etc) and it's
always worked a treat. Is there any reason why I shouldn't use kero
to clean my mountain bike chain too? What about cleaning the
derailleurs and rear chain rings/derailleur sprockets?

The wrench for a local pro MTB team suggested a small amount of whatever
dishwashing soap is available mixed into a large bucket of water.

Kerosene seems like overkill to me, but what do I know? Do you get a
lot of tar on your mountain bike?

Which leads me to my next question......after cleaning, what's the
best way to go about lubing the stuff I've cleaned? I've got teflon
based lube for the chain, so that's not a problem. But what about the
derailleurs and sprockets?

I'm thinking that whatever you use to lube the chain will work its way
into the derailleurs and whatnot ..?

The reason I ask is that my GF's rear derailleur is gummed up pretty
bad. We went for a ride on the weekend and swapped bikes for a while
so she could ride my VT3. When I tried to go back up the gears on the
rear derailleur, the assy was binding and not changing cleanly (or
sometimes not at all). The spring was having a hard time pushing the
assy sideways enough for the change because of the binding (it feels
'stiff' when I try to move it around by hand). It's all indexed
properly etc.....it's just very grubby! So, it's time for a service.
I'm quite prepared to do this myself (I certainly have the tools and
mechanical ability to do so), but I'd like to know where and what sort
of lube to use after I've cleaned it all.

In the future, it's probably a good idea to clean and lube the chain
*before* it gets all grubby. Not my personal favorite thing to do in
life, but I'm pretty sure it's the type of thing you can't do too much.

I'd also like to know what sort of lube to use on my cables. I've got
a cable lubing thingo that I used to use on my motorbikes (rubber
clamp thing that seals over the cable and guide and allows lube to be
forced down the cable guide via an aerosol tube), but I'm not sure
what sort of lube to use. Does it matter? My rear brake cable is
starting to feel stiff, so that's why I'm asking.

no idea.

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain