Actual data for the chain cleaning debate

Richard wrote:

el Inglés wrote in message ...

Originally posted by Tbgibb

Conclusions: It isn't worth it to soak a chain out in solvent. I've
stopped doing so, but I will be very careful to measure often. The
presence of my wife Susan (an unbiased observer) in this was essential,
I (she) caught myself (me) seeing more wear in the "unwashed" chain than
in the "washed" one early in the trial.


I'm sort of coming into the middle of all this but replacing three
chains on my recumbent is pricy.

I make measurements at work. Measuring small differences reliably is
harder than most folks think.

I agree, but I think you're missing the main point here. There are two
suggested maintenance methods, one of which takes about 30 seconds per
month and the other takes up to 30 minutes per month. If the difference in
the results of these methods is so small that extremely careful
measurements need to be made to see them then I don't really care which one
is just a little bit better (except as an academic exercise) - I'll choose
the first method and save myself that extra effort.

Now if someone can come up with a reasonably simple cleaning method and do
their own experiment which shows that it lets you run a chain for say 15000
miles before there's "stretch" of 1/16" vs. only getting 4000 miles without
the cleaning then I'd be willing to start doing my own experiments to
verify this and see if it's worthwhile. But at this point it seems to me
the burden of proof is on those claiming that cleaning is useful for other
than aesthetic reasons.

Here's a suggestion based on 30 years
years as a chemist.

Experiment #1. Get a new chain. Ride on it till your first cleaning
interval. Break it in half; clean one half with solvent, the other
half with whatever. Rejoin the halves and lube the chain as a whole.
Ride till your next cleaning interval and repeat. Continue for a
year. Now, wipe off the external dirt. All we are interested in at
this point is the chain that the bicycle actually sees. Separate the
two parts and measure the wear of each half *at least* five times,
checking a different part of the chain for each measurement. Average
the measurements and report the chain wear for the solvent cleaned and
otherwise cleaned sections.

Experiment #2. Clean a chain with kerosene. Air dry as usual.
Spread on a baking pan and put in an oven set on "warm". After 30
minutes or so open the oven door and sniff the kerosene fumes. "nuff
said?" When the oven door pops open, releasing a small ball of flame
and a boom your chain is dry and ready to lubricate.

Let us know how your experiments turn out.

Richard