What's the best chain cleaner & degreaser?

I use Simple Green Degreaser about $9 per gallon. A gallon will last a long
time too. I have one of those little chain cleaners and I run the chain
through the degreaser (usually slightly diluted). After that you run the chain
through water. Dry and then Lube. It does a very good job also.

I agree. Simple Green. Great general cleaner too, for the whole bike.





"Pbwalther" wrote in message
...
I use Simple Green Degreaser about $9 per gallon. A gallon will last a
long
time too. I have one of those little chain cleaners and I run the chain
through the degreaser (usually slightly diluted). After that you run the
chain
through water. Dry and then Lube. It does a very good job also.

Rick Onanian wrote:

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 21:16:16 +0200, "SMMB" wrote:

"Jonesy" a écrit dans le message de :

Googling (or some other archive search) serves to EDUCATE. It

I would have let it drop, but...

The necessary implication of your argument is that for all questions, there
are already answers, and so there is no need to ask anything, here. And I'm
not sure that opinions are "data".

You may have noticed the OP did, indeed, research before asking, even with
your favorite search engine. Sounds exceptionally prepared to me. Hope he
got a right answer. And my use has varied by the countries I have lived in
and what products are available, so I did not reply directly.

While it is courteous to search FAQs and past discussions for
answers to what are probably common questions, it's often
unoffensive to just post your question sans-research. People in
these newsfroups don't mind going out of their way to answer such
questions, mostly.

Interesting we're having a discussion of NG "courtesy" with some 6-8
posted groups. I've trimmed down to three here, and I've read a
"courtesy" number should be no more than three.

However, I believe that Jonesy hoped to avoid this specific long,
drawn-out thread that repeats itself every couple months. It's
unnecessary to go over the same arguments and opinions so often.

No one is being forced to be the dispenser of all knowledge within
a NG. If someone finds a thread offensive/annoying/OT/whatever,
just mark it as dead and move on. This is the 21st century now and
very few readers really have to be concerned with bandwith. At
least for NGs with no binaries.

Further, it's obvious to me that it was a troll. If you wrote a
Trolling Howto, here's how it would go:
1. Choose a topic that historically has generated lots of
strongly-held opinions.
2. Cross-post a request for opinions on it to the following groups:
alt.mountain-bike,rec.bicycles.marketplace,rec.bicycles.misc,re c.bicycles.racing,rec.bicycles.rides,rec.bicycles. soc,rec.bicycles.tech
3. Wait.

Is there any reason, other than trolling, to cross-post it? Is there
any reason, other than trolling, to post to rec.bicycles.marketplace
or rec.bicycles.soc or rec.bicycles.rides _at_all_?

Maybe, maybe not. Couldn't the person simply want a broad range of
responses from relevant, or at least seemingly relevant (i.e. "bike")
NGs?

Note the day on which it was posted, too.

So, why are you so offended that a troll was given the suggestion to
go and read the many thousands of messages just like the ones he
asked for?

*Presumed* troll. I'm not convinced of guilt here.

I imagine when you get together with your friends for a ride, and they ask
you how your week went, you query them why they didn't look at your blog.

How my week went changes from week to week. Further, asking one
person vocally is far different from asking thousands on the
internet, when you've already got the information at your
fingertips.

Where? A FAQ? Where might that be? Does the group even have
one (not all do)?

Charming. Chide away - you may just be able to alienate those who just
simply want to ask a question, not reading or having read the FAQ, the
encyclopedias, the journals, et c.

I wouldn't mind if people were alienated who cross-post to so many
groups to ask such loaded questions.

They were "bike" groups and the question was relevant to "bikes". Did
you know that the rec.bicycles.rides NG isn't really interested in
ride reports? That was a claim made by one poster there when someone
sent in a rather interesting description of a ride they took. They're
apparently more interested in *route* info. Now it seems I must also
look up the appropriate group to post my question rather than a
*seemingly* appropriate group.

I think too much is made of this. You know, you really almost don't
need NG questions at all given there's probably an answer to what you
want to know somewhere via Google.

Google, and especially a FAQ can be a great way to get detailed,
*constructed* (as opposed to some furious typing off the top of someone's
head) information on a question. You also get the info right away rather
than waiting and hoping someone is going to respond, and the thread
isn't going to drift off onto something you don't care about.

But it's really hardly worth the effort to bother lecturing (not that
you're lecturing) someone on "proper" NG procedure in asking a question
IMHO. Answer the question or don't. Ignore the thread or don't.


SMH

I use paraffin, so for me it's plain water. I soak the chain, then put
it into the pan (with the parrafin) and let it heat up to 250 degrees.
The water will clean the dirt out from the inside as it boils out from
between the links.

- -

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

As for those who use oil, I found the best way to clean the cogs is to
get an old T-shirt and tear a strip from it. slip the strip between the
cogs and run it back and forth, like the old corner shoe-shine boys used
to do to polish your shoes.

Unless your cogs are really gunked up, you don't even need degreaser
this way.

- -

"May you have the wind at your back.
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 19:39:37 -0500 (EST),
(Chris Zacho "The Wheelman") wrote:
As for those who use oil, I found the best way to clean the cogs is to
get an old T-shirt and tear a strip from it. slip the strip between the
cogs and run it back and forth, like the old corner shoe-shine boys used
to do to polish your shoes.

More fun, once you get some practice: Slip the strip between the
cogs (it helps if you fold the strip and put the fold inside), and
backpedal with one hand while holding one end of the strip with the
other. With practice, it doesn't get caught in the teeth, it works
really fast, and is kinda fun.
--
Rick Onanian

"Shaun Rimmer" brightened my day with his
incisive wit when in
he conjectured that:


"Werehatrack" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 10:47:29 +0100, "Daniel Kelly \(AKA Jack\)"
may have said:

Hi,

Please may I ask your advice? What's the best device for cleaning
mountain
bike chains? I'd like it to be cheap and to work without me having
to
take
the chain off.

This has been discussed endlessly. May I suggest that a few hours
spent Googling the prior threads should either leave you completely
confused or extremely well-informed, or somewhere between those two?
(The result will be little different from Yet Another chain cleaning
thread, in that regard.)

Indeed.

However, I would like to say, cleaning a chain actually does it harm!
It gets oil away from the load surfaces, and crap in! You should just
keep re-oiling it, lasts 2 to 5 times longer that way. Excess crud
removes itself via the critical mass method, same way and MTB cleans
itself.


What a load of rubbish. I cycle in a northern european city which has
grit, salt and other comtaminants everywhere. Regular cleaning of my
chain extends its lifespan, makes for quiter riding and improves
shifting.

So long as you lubricate the chain immediately after cleaning there is no
harm done at all.