[acidpope]

A pretty detailed video on the actual manual labor process behind cleaning your bikes chain.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=80CESYb6bbM

And remember, solvents like gasoline and WD-40 are harmful to your chain.

[Ben]

I just cleaned my chain for the first time a couple weeks ago. I actually took off my rear wheel and soaked parts of the chain in a kerosene bath, scrubbed with a toothbrush, and then rotated and repeated. Since it was my first time it took about 3 hours total, but it was definitely worth it. The method in this video is a lot faster, but in my opinion not as thorough.

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[rayo]

Pics of the process would be great. lol

[Ben]

Haha yes yes ray I’m actually going to post an article soon with pics of exactly how I cleaned my chain (with the help of ray!).

Ben
~Best Beginner Motorcycles Admin

[rayo]

The chain in the video wasn’t nearly as dirty as yours, Ben. Yours needed a very thorough soaking. lol

[megaspaz]

Mine needs a cleaning… Apparently, I was told that the chain isn’t supposed be blackish at all, but more of a silverish color… I always thought chains were black…

—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[rayo]

Most chains have either siver or gold side plates and shouldn’t be black. There are some chains with black side plates for the bling factor. I’ve found the some chain lubes do a great job of attracting grit, turning the chain black, and even depositing said grit on the rear sprocket. I use a biodegradable de-greaser (Motul, but I’ve heard that Simple Green works as well) to thoroughly clean the chain when I wash the bike (which isn’t often). After all the water is forced out of the chain (maybe after a short ride), I lube the chain with Bel Ray Super Clean chain lube. It does not stay tacky and attract grit. YMMV.

[ShannonG]

I use this stuff called BoeShield (I use it on all my bicycles too). It was developed by the Boeing corporation. It’s this super slick spray film that has the capability to remove itself from a chain every time you reapply. If you don’t let a chain get too dirty, every time you wash your bike (which is pretty much every hour, on the hour for me) you just spray, then wipe. It cleans and lubes at the same time and doesn’t pick up road gunk.
I hate that waxy crap my bike came from the shop with. It’s like glue for road sludge.

[Budd]

just use WD-40 to clean and lube. you will be cleaning less often than you lube. Do a search on yamahafz1oa.com. They have a thread going back 5 years on the subject. A lot of their older members have used nothing but WD-40 for years with no detriment. My owners manual just recomends lubing with machine oil.

“I am the best I am at what I do, and what I do ain’t nice.”-Wolverine

[Author]

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