I leave whatever the factory applies to the chain and only sometimes think to wipe off the outer links of a new chain with WD-40 so it collects less dirt/etc. My maintenance game isn’t strong these days (applies to more than bikes).
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I don’t remember my Sachs/SRAM chains smelling like cosmoline. The last 1030 I installed definitely didn’t. I think it was just that thick lithium grease that Izumi and KMC use.
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Whatever Sram uses has started to really irritate my skin. One of many good reasons to wear gloves, of course. The Shimano packing lube is definitely much lower viscosity.
No idea what either actually is, but the Sram stuff is much harder to strip off.
Sounds like what I’ve read about cosmoline during my adventures in putting some sort of rust inhibitor on my truck’s frame
It’s exactly what ZFS say to use, 3 baths of mineral spirits (first overnight) or until it comes out clear, then a couple baths of acetone to knock off the spirits. It actually took a while for me to get my head around what part of what store this stuff is to be found: it’s the painting section of the hardware store.
Definitely do it outside because this stuff is stinky as fuck. Don’t spill, ffs don’t pour it down a drain, keep used toxic goo in a big 4L bottle. If you can keep it tidy that’s 80 percent of making it easy on yourself. Like doing spills, stressing yourself out cleaning it up while making your entire house stink makes it much harder.
Once you have mastered this ultimately not very hard stuff, low effort ultra clean chains are yours
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you reckon this stuff could be ditched with oil at state mandated oil acceptance spots in the US?
Yes, exactly, and make sure your containers are labeled. This is hazardous waste so you will need to make sure that the facility accepts haz waste.
Empty containers should be allowed to evaporate dry and generally can be put in regular trash.
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Oh, it’s certainly not cosmoline. I’d recognize that smell. Likely some other kind of viscous corrosion inhibitor. There are a ton of them on the market. Navguard, CorrosionX, Zip-Chem D-5026, etc.
Probably it’s some cheaper version of that.
For me I mostly use Chemical Guys Orange degreaser. Couple passes through that and a few rinses and I’m good. IIRC I use a few containers for each successive pass. Container 1 is a shake, then a rinse, then into container 2 in the ultrasonics and finally a rinse pass in the ultrasonic.
I’ve found that Squirt is a pretty solid stopgap between regular lube and Full Waxing. Keeps my drivetrain nice and quiet, lasts a while in the dry/dust of SoCal.
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My special chain lube technique is as follows:
- Remove chain from package
- Install on bike
- Ride for thousands of miles in all conditions
- Squirt some R&R gold on there every once in a while
I’ve always had flawless results by following these steps exactly.
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LoL what the fuck are you talking about?
Is this some no-storage-under-the-bed bullshit?
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Tempted to send photos of the current, now red, chain on my commuter
My technique is exactly the same.
I did have to deal with a stiff link the other day which was surprisingly disruptive.
I cleaned it badly and put a lot more lube on and now it functions.
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I actually looked into this before falling asleep the other night and it is some version of a product called Gleitmo, specifically formulation 582:
https://www.roadbikereview.com/threads/wtf-did-they-put-on-my-bike-chain.166120/
Enjoy(?)
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Basically to operate properly bikes have to be either:
A) meticulously cleaned and maintained
B) completely filthy and disregarded
there is no in between
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Animal!
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Haha! The state of messiness and clutter in my house would destroy you. Toddler life is real. I have no idea what’s under my bed but I guarantee that there’s a bunch of shit down there.
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Filthy chains that you can’t touch are hard on my mind, ymmv. Put it this way, if a toddler grabs the chain of my family cargo wagon, it’s all fine. Put another way, after getting lost and bonking and then jamming my chain in the spokes way up a ski hill gravel road on a 300 this summer, it really helped my sanity that my hand didn’t also get filth’d.
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when i need to touch the chain i just find some dirt/gravel to wipe my hands in so it at least makes my hands less transferably dirty
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I find that worrying about making things perfectly clean when we live in a filthy world negatively effects my mental health more than having things be slightly dirty.
It’s something that I have to be conscious of and work to deny in myself. Especially in the kitchen. I’ll spend an hour at night getting the kitchen spotless and then within moments of us coming downstairs in the morning, it’s a filthy mess. I have to not get annoyed about that because then I’m just a grump at my family and that doesn’t help anyone. My mantra is “clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be home”.
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