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What kind is best and easy to find? My bike has been a bit squeaky and after watching a few videos, I'm going to clean my chain and gears. What would be best?
BTW, I'll be keeping the chain on the bike and will be trying to clean the chain w/o one of those things that attach to it to wash it. I'll either use diluted Dawn liquid or Simple Green or Sal's Suds. Opinions?
I've never cleaned my bike chain. I just oil it when it's dry. I got a bottle of oil at the bike shop. Mine's called White Lightning Clean Ride.
I would expect just pressurized water, from a hose to knock off dirt. (simple green if really bad) Then WD40 (water displacement 40) to dry the water, then the lube. (from most of what I have read, people recommend dry teflon type, rather then grease or oil)
Yes, use a chain cleaner if you have one, an old toothbrush will work, too, if you don't already have a chain cleaner. Any of the soaps you mentioned should be fine, although I always use a citrus degreaser. Rinse it well and then let your chain air dry. Put a drop of chain lube, White Lightning is a good recommendation, on each individual chain link. Do not get lube on your rims as it will interfere with your ability to brake!
This is a subject I would like to expound upon at length, but I am going riding this afternoon, so it will have to wait. There have been some good suggestions, here already. I am one of those people who doesn't mind some greasy "chain scars" on my right calf, since reduced drivetrain wear and quick gear changes are essential to me. I use two products: Tri-flow Superior Lubricant, and Lubriplate. Both are available in littlebitty containers that will fit in a bike bag, if you need to take them. The two chain-cleaning tools are: lint-free blue paper shop towels, and compressed air. Use some mineral spirits and foaming aerosol window cleaner to clean up excesses. Be sure to clean your rims. Unless you are a competing "mountain biker" where you get extremely muddy & equipment has a short life span, anyway, my advice is to never, ever pressure wash a bicycle! Don't wash it with a garden hose, either. Be back later..
I do a lot of bike riding, so I bought a Park chain cleaner tool. They run around $25. It is amazingly slick and fast. Another way is to completely remove the chain and soak it in solvent, which I probably would not recommend as it's involves a little bit of skill and experience unless you happen to have one of the cool little quick release links in the chain. There are other ways to clean a chain, like a brush and solvent or soap, but it get messy and will not be as effective. For most casual bike riders it probably will suffice. The down side of detergents is that if it is not well rinsed or dried, the residual will then break down the new oil you'll put on, where as solvents tend to evaporate quickly. In my devil may care days I used gasoline, which worked very well, but I got worried about the fumes. Now I used something that is citrus based.
I just run a line of oil from the bottle onto the chain rollers while turning the pedals backwards. One thing about chain oil is that it attracts dirt which will then accumulate on the chain as gunk, which is not good. Once all of my links are oiled I take a clean cloth and wipe as much oil off as possible. There will still be enough oil on the chain at the places where it matters and will help to avoid a gunky dirt build up. It seems like there are bike geeks who like powdered teflon or wax, which I have not tried, but these both reduce the dirt accumulation you get with oil. I think they both require more frequent applications than oil. For my purposes a good cleaning and light oil do just fine.
I use what ever the local bike shop recommends for oil. It's a very light oil, not expensive and a little bottle lasts forever. The light oil penetrates into the inner workings of the chain better than most heavier household oils and will not goop up as badly. WD-40 is actually more of a solvent than a lubricant. Chain cleaning and light oiling is something I do fairly often and makes for easier riding and shifting and will help protect the chain against rust and wear. Next to checking tire pressure, I think it's about the best routine maintenance a person can do.
A reason for not using a high pressure wash is that water can possibly get or be forced into the bearing cages on the pedals, wheel hubs and bottom bracket, or other contact points, which could then start to rust. I do use a garden hose to rinse down my bike occasionally after wiping down with a bucket of mild detergent.
Thanks. This is something I must do before my next ride. I've got about 600 miles on it, mostly rail trails, which can be a bit dirty. Somehow I always end up with grit in my shoes! It just sounds a bit dry and slightly squeaky when pedaling and it's definitely coming from the chain and gears.
Anyone else name their bike? Mine is called Ruby, a strawberry colored Raleigh mountain bike.
Back again. I am getting old and slow. I went to Ash Grove and back, and it took awhile. The Tri-Flow that the bike shop sells(or you can buy it online, too) does contain PTFE, which DuPont calls "Teflon". It is very light viscosity, so works its way into the links pretty well. I use it sparingly on the derailleur pivot points, and the jockey wheel bearings. The Lubriplate is like squeeze bottle margarine, and I put a thin smear on each side of the chain, for a foot or two. More than adequate lube equals quick, reliable shifting. Essential when you're littlebittyme, and going up and down those hilly Zurra Roads. The WD-40 company is on my list of UNfavored businesses. For the last several years, they have been having vendor space at a large biking event, and doing a complementary bike wash, using pressure washers. It is a pretty popular deal, and it is just shrewd marketing--giving people what they think they need--Clean and Neat and FREE-- even though it is not prudent mechanics. After they "clean" your bike of all that nasty old grease, they spray your chain with some of their nice, clean, sanitary invisible dry lube stuff. Well, many of the cyclists are just light recreational riders, but with newer mid- and high-end bikes but are very, very naïve about mechanical things and apparently value clean and tidy over all else. So, their bike is clean and neat and tidy and sanitized, but chances are, the grease in their bikes' hubs, bottom bracket(crank hub), and headset(steering pivot), that grease is either contaminated with water or washed away! And the chain is squeaky clean, but also inadequately lubed--with WD-40 tidy invisible lube. Then there are the brake caliper pivots, cable housings, and derailleurs. The derailleurs need a very thin amount of lube, and so do calper pivots. So, they direct pressurized water all over the bike, and water not only washes away the lubricant, it seeps into entry points in the frame, wheels, and other components--and sits there, and sets up the process of corrosion & water damage. Not good. You don't really want to leave a bike out in the rain, and I cringe when I see the trying-to-be-cool recreational consumer types hauling bikes down the road on one of those nifty racks on the back of their SUV. There is a draft created behind a vehicle, and it sucks up all manner of particulates(dirt), and showers their bike with it. Cyclists with more sense than dollars(get it?) will haul their bikes inside their car, even if that means quick-releasing a wheel or two, and throwing down a rug for it to rest on. For cleaning up the frame and wheels and brake levers, etc., I use Spray-Way foaming window cleaner sparingly with a soft washcloth. Yes, you want to get the wheels to remove residual oil, dirt that will collect there. Your braking surfaces are the sides of your rim, unless you have disk brakes. So, it helps to clean 'em up. I also recommend one of those small "pancake" air compressors you can buy for $100. They come in very handy for a lot of things--including inflating tires on your car/bike, and bike maintenance. You really need to check bike tires for air pressure every time you ride--unless it's on the same day. A 100 psi tire can drop to 70-80 in several days under normal circumstances; more if you've got an issue. So check it, and do it very often. Otherwise, with low inflation pressure, you'll be in for a pinch flat, which is an inconvenience.