Acceptable chain wear?

[cyclop]

As far as a degreaser is concerned,I use white spirit then decant in an old jamjar.This can be used again after settling.I would then wash in boiling,soapy water and let dry.I,ve also used a blowlamp to hasten drying.Someone is going to say this is a bad idea ,any takers?

[Brucey]

If you get the chain very hot you will

a) lose the factory coatings (quite a lot of chains claim such coatings but I don't think they last that long where they really need to...)
b) start to temper the steel if you get over ~250C for any length of time.

In fairness I think not all chains have coatings and once the chain has been used for a while they are probably breached anyway. And to temper a chain you would need more than 250C if anything untoward is to happen in just a few minutes.

cheers

[fastpedaller]

Reminds me of my pal last year telling me he'd mislaid a spare chain he'd bought - he searched everywhere for it to no avail . The next week he found it! It seems he'd gathered it up with lots of cardboard which he'd put in the brassier (sp?) in the garden and cooked it for an hour. There it appeared amongst the embers.

[Graham]

As far as a degreaser is concerned,I use white spirit then decant in an old jamjar.This can be used again after settling.I would then wash in boiling,soapy water and let dry.I,ve also used a blowlamp to hasten drying.Someone is going to say this is a bad idea ,any takers?

Would that second stage with the boiling, soapy water be related to using a dry lube afterwards ??
Otherwise why put nasty, corrosive water in all the inner bits of the chain ??

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Has anyone ever cleaned steel, then washed it and watched it rust before your eyes
I wouldn't ever put water near steel unless it was exposed to my eyes.
How do you know the residue of the degreaser and old grease is gone
Then add some water for some fun.
Better just adding oil to the chain on bike.

[Brucey]

pure water doesn't rust steel at any great speed. What causes rusting is all the other stuff in water, by and large. Of the usual suspects, road salt is by far the worst offender.

I used to clean my chain/bike every day when doing my mucky commute. I used a hot jetwash on it (which very quickly strips both dirt and old lube), then sprayed with GT85. Usually a little more black crud would come out of the chain if the pedals were turned backwards about ten times once the GT85 was on. If it looked bad enough (and it usually did) I'd give the chain another blast with the jetwash, and then more GT85. I'd then stand the bike indoors overnight. Often there were one or two slightly rusty-looking rollers on the chain by morning, but nothing worse than that. Any sensible combination of water displacer and real drying (wiping, compressed air etc) would leave the chain perfectly dry and rust -free by morning, but often I'd just shake the bulk of the water off and then live with a couple of tiny rust spots.

This treatment more or less doubled, maybe tripled the (otherwise short) life of the MTB transmission I was using.

I think it is worth noting that most water isn't either perfectly pure or clean; if you simply dry a chain by evaporation you will leave something behind. By contrast a water displacer pushes typical rinsing water out of the chain, and the water largely carries the impurities away with it. However if the water is badly contaminated (eg with soap), its surface tension will be a lot lower and water displacers won't work anything like as well.

Note also that if you are worried about salty residues causing chain corrosion, it is pretty much mandatory to wash your chain using (preferably hot) water at some point in the process; solvents that strip out oils and greases won't necessarily remove salty residues in the same way.

I have experimented with chain lubes that include really strong chemical corrosion inhibitors. In my experiments I've left treated chains exposed outdoors (in the rain) for nine months and there has been no sign of corrosion. I've also subjected treated chains to a period of use before exposing them, and there has been very little corrosion evident, even though the lube film on the chain has been breached/worn through in many places. However the same treatment (which might last six months of summer road use) only lasts a few weeks in regular winter use before the lube needs topping up or re-doing. That goes to show how brutal road salt is when compared with mere rain water, I guess.

cheers

[Keezx]

Hi,
Has anyone ever cleaned steel, then washed it and watched it rust before your eyes
I wouldn't ever put water near steel unless it was exposed to my eyes.
How do you know the residue of the degreaser and old grease is gone
Then add some water for some fun.
Better just adding oil to the chain on bike.

Adding oil on the chain on the bike without cleaning the inside is useless.
By coincidence i've started expirimenting this winter with parafin lubing (candlewax , cost 5€ /kg.)
An old cooking pan with water& soap, let the chain "cook"10 minutes.
Rince with warm water in a strainer (vegatable can with holes) and let dry 5 min.
Parafin in a veg. can and melt "au bain marie"
Chain submerged in the parafin, out and ready.
Chain runs absolutely quiet 4 to 500 km, (in wet rides too) no sticking of dirt.
Shifting is at start a little bit less smooth.
Might do this in the coming season too.

[TonyR]

Would that second stage with the boiling, soapy water be related to using a dry lube afterwards ??
Otherwise why put nasty, corrosive water in all the inner bits of the chain ??

Worth being aware also that detergents have quite a bit of salt in them so you could be washing it in salty water.

[Mick F]

When you've washed it thoroughly, make sure you rinse it thoroughly afterwards, then dry thoroughly.
If your chain isn't clean enough to eat with, you ain't got it clean enough.

[mjr]

TF2 is mostly solvent with a little light oil in it; the reason chains don't look too sticky when they are lubed with that stuff is that the excess is coming off the chain (taking the some of the dirt with it if you are lucky) all the time.

Is it? It doesn't smell solventy and http://weldtite.co.uk/products/detail/cycle-oil-125ml doesn't mention solvents. I'm getting good results from regular lubrication and wiping off and a lazy cleaning regime. Not quite what I had on the old 2x5 but everything is thinner nowadays.

[Brucey]

ah.... I suspect that we are thinking of different TF2s; they use the same name on several different products. I was thinking 'aerosol' and you are thinking 'small plastic oil bottle' ? If so I agree, no solvent in yours. Possibly the aerosol stuff is a small quantity of the same stuff you get a bottle mixed in with a load of solvent.

In any event if you use a lube that drips off during application, or gets flung off the chain in use, it can take dirt with it. This is OK if there isn't too much new dirt being flung at the chain, because any such lube will usually be a bit sticky on the outside.

cheers

[lescargo]

Measuring chain wear?
If, as many now do using the very quick and convenient joining links, you remove your chain
to clean it you can, even in my case without glasses, accurately measure the extent
of chain wear.
A masonry nail is best for this-strong and with relatively small head-knocked into- easiest
the garage door jamb or if needed the wall.
Hang working chain on then new chain alongside and you have an accurate measure, whatever
your "throwaway" factor is, of the total wear of chain.
Would be interesting to compare accuracy of the results from above with conclusions of wear-gauge.
Any member needing an "OBO" nail I can put one in the post in your s.a.e..
Incidentally, when, years ago we removed chains to clean them by washing,brushing and shaking in a
"bacca" tin of paraffin we were, because we turned the chain over getting more life out of the chain.
When refitting the chain this was turned for access to press the rivet back in.

[BigG]

+1 for lescargo. Hang the chain on a nail and measure its full length (or 100 links if you prefer). When it has extended by half a link from its original as marked on the door post, change it. No measurements needed and accuracy unimportant. You only need to be about right.

[Des49]

I tried a couple of Wippermann Connex chains on my Rohloff equiped MTB last year.

One lasted an hour's ride plus a muddy race, the other lasted a few rides, some dry some wet. I certainly will not be using them again. I measured the wear using a Rohlof chain gauge and a Park gauge. The 0.75mm side literally just fell in with plenty of room to spare.

I also found SRAM chains didn't seem to last as I thought they should the last few years, have now gone to KMC chains and finding they are lasting better and seem to shift better too.