Here's the obligatory self portrait. I took several, but this is as good as it gets, sorry. The pained look is from the all the squeaks my bike made tonight.
Egad! What a mess. This began Thursday when I rode in the aftermath of light snow - salt and sand on the roads again. I rode the bike hard and put it away wet - a no-no. I should have rinsed it at least with warm water. Note the rust on the chain. It squeaked like a mess of mice tonight on my ride. In between squeaks I noticed a rumbling from the bottom bracket. I think I have dirt in the bottom bracket bearing races. I'll tackle that tomorrow, but better clean the chain tonight.
I used to use gasoline to clean my chain, but have been using Simple Green for the past couple years. It says on the container it's non-toxic, plus it doesn't stink, and I don't have to worry about flames.
I gently wiped with a paper towel then draped over the back of a chair.
Well, it's not perfect, but it's as clean as I can get it. I'll use dry chain lube tomorrow when I put it back on the bike.
I use Simple Green on the cogs also, making sure to get as much grit and grease from between the attached cogs as I can. Then I rinse with warm water and let dry before I reinstall.
Shiny again, and ready to roll!
Here's the obligatory self portrait. I took several, but this is as good as it gets, sorry. The pained look is from the all the squeaks my bike made tonight.
Egad! What a mess. This began Thursday when I rode in the aftermath of light snow - salt and sand on the roads again. I rode the bike hard and put it away wet - a no-no. I should have rinsed it at least with warm water. Note the rust on the chain. It squeaked like a mess of mice tonight on my ride. In between squeaks I noticed a rumbling from the bottom bracket. I think I have dirt in the bottom bracket bearing races. I'll tackle that tomorrow, but better clean the chain tonight.
I used to use gasoline to clean my chain, but have been using Simple Green for the past couple years. It says on the container it's non-toxic, plus it doesn't stink, and I don't have to worry about flames.
I gently wiped with a paper towel then draped over the back of a chair.
Well, it's not perfect, but it's as clean as I can get it. I'll use dry chain lube tomorrow when I put it back on the bike.
I use Simple Green on the cogs also, making sure to get as much grit and grease from between the attached cogs as I can. Then I rinse with warm water and let dry before I reinstall.
Shiny again, and ready to roll!
3 comments:
Wow, that chain and cassette looked nasty! I need to buy one of those brushes and do some cleaning of my own.
Yea, it works really well with Simple Green directly from the bottle.
Thanks for this (and the bottom bracket pics too). I'm getting ready to do similar work. In my case, though, it'll be on an older bike, more like your Trek- cup & ball BB.
I've been using WD-40 for cleanup... maybe I'll try Simple Green.
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