Bike Chains, Part 5

Endless Post
13. Cleaning
14. Deep Cleaning
- The Process
- Solvent
15. Etc.
- New Products
- Cleaning a Waxed Chain

Endless Post

This is Part 5 of a series of 9 posts organized as a single work,
collectively “endless”. There are 8 parts, published as
posts on this blog, and a table of contents of the series in the 9th post. The series is organized into sections, numbered for reference, in the series table of contents and in the table of contents for each post. In March – August 2024 I reorganized and revised the long article extensively. This post has been most recently updated August 26, 2024.

13. Cleaning

The Bike

The solid surfaces of the bike frame and fork are protected with paint – like an automobile or motorcycle. The painted surfaces can be hosed off or gently scrubbed. Few would use a wire brush, sandpaper or metal scrapers on the bike frame.

When the bike is hosed the joints and the open parts, including the chain, are exposed to dirt, water, and detergents. Many products would not harm the painted finish of bicycle frame and fork. Some may splash or spray into vulnerable areas. Brake rotors may be contaminated by materials used to clean the frame or the chain.

Cleaning Products

Solvents and detergents can be used to clean a chain .

Solvents dilute and wash oils and grease off of surfaces. Water is a solvent, which can dilute oils but is not a good solvent to remove oil from metal surfaces. Most industrial solvents are the product of refining or processing petroleum oils. Some industrial solvents are used clean bicycle chains and components that contain bearings.

Detergents are surfactants or mixtures of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions.

Surfactants are chemical compounds that decrease the surface tension or interfacial tension between two liquids, a liquid and a gas, or a liquid and a solid. The word “surfactant” is a blend of surface-active agent, coined c. 1950.
As they consist of a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, they
enable water and oil to mix; they can form foam and facilitate the
detachment of dirt.
Surfactants are among the most widespread and commercially
important chemicals. Private households as well as many industries use them in large quantities as detergents and cleaning agents, but also for example as emulsifiers, wetting agents, foaming agents, antistatic additives, or dispersants.
Surfactants occur naturally in traditional plant-based detergents, e.g. horse chestnuts or soap nuts; they can also be found in the secretions of some caterpillars. Today the most commonly used surfactants, above all anionic linear alkylbenzene sulfates (LAS), are produced from petroleum products. However, surfactants are (again) increasingly produced in whole or in part from renewable biomass, like sugar, fatty alcohol from vegetable oils, by-products of biofuel production, or other biogenic material.
Wikipedia entry, Surfactant

Some detergents may interact harmfully with bicycle chains. Some manufacturers of some chain cleaning products have suggested that some industrial detergents can be a cause of hydrogen embrittlement¹.

Clamshell Cleaners

These are devices that can be attached to the lower span of a chain on a bicycle placed against a support, when the bike is not in motion. The chain is rotated through the device by pedalling backward as the user hold the device steady. The device has rollers with bristles that pentrate inside links and bend the chain into the lower compartment, which is usually filled with a chain detergent. The Park Tool CM-5.3 is one modern device.

These devices remove dirt sticking to the chain by rotating the chain in detergent that facilitates detaching dirt from the metal, and rubbing off the dirt. These devices remove dirt in the chain on the outside surfaces including the surfaces oriented inside such as link plates. This gets close to getting a chain clean enough to lubricate. The bristles and cleaning components of these devices do not reach inside the sleeves, around the pins, or in the spaces where link plates overlap with brushes or friction.

Clamshell devices hold tiny amounts of detergent which gets dirty, which leads a user to believe the chain was dirty – which was a given. These devices have to be emptied and refilled at short intervals. They clean the visible surfaces including most of surfaces of link plates and roller pretty quickly.

The detergent will penetrate the chain. It may take a long time to remove internal contaminants, which will also introduce more detergent and water. They only clean the “insides” of the chain to the extent that detergent gets in and out, and carries away contaminants. It is best to wait and let the detergent dry off before re-lubricating a chain. Wet detergent residue contaminates any new lubricant.

The information security consultant Bruce Schnier uses the term security theatre:

Security theater refers to security measures that make people feel more secure without doing anything to actually improve their security.
Schnier on Security, Beyond Security Theater

A Clean Chain

Chains wear and have to be replaced to protect other drive train
components and ensure the proper operation of the gears. The point of
cleaning, and using using better chains and lubricants is to delay the replacement of the chain and to avoid damaging other components of the drive train.

Most chain cleaning removes visible material that interferes with the chain. Many pages, videos and podcasts discuss cleaning chains; for instance:

The “How to clean your drivetrain” section in The complete guide to bike gears | Bicycle transmissions explained at BikeRadar

Many chain cleaning articles address:

removing the visible dirt that sticks to the ouside and inside of link plates, on the chainwheels, in the derailleur pulleys and on or between the cassette cogs;
cleaning chains that have been lubricated with motor oil, gear oil, and most of the proprietary bicycle chain drip fluid lubes.

It is essential to get the outside surface of a chain clean enough to be able to lubricate it. This is a dirty job

It is difficult to remove the microscopically small particles of grit that adhere to the rollers, link plates, pins and other load bearing surfaces Jobst Brandt, in a paper published in Bicycle Technical Information (Sheldon Brown site), described the problem (emphasis added):

Chain wear is caused almost exclusively by road grit that enters the chain when it is oiled. Grit adheres to the outside of chains in the ugly black stuff that can get on one’s leg, but external grime has little functional effect, being on the outside where it does the chain no harm.

The black stuff is oil colored by steel wear particles, nearly all of which come from pin and sleeve wear, the wear that causes pitch elongation. The rate of wear is dependent primarily on how clean the chain is internally rather than visible external cleanliness that gets the most attention.

Only when a dirty chain is oiled, or has excessive oil on it, can this grit move inside to cause damage. Commercial abrasive grinding paste is made of oil and silicon dioxide (sand) and silicon carbide (sand). You couldn’t do it better if you tried to destroy a chain, than to oil it when dirty.

….

… the chain should be cleaned of grit before oiling, and because this is practically impossible without submerging the chain in solvent (kerosene, commercial solvent, or paint thinner), it must be taken off the bicycle.
Jobst Brandt, Bicycle Technical Information, January 2002, Chain Care, Wear and Skipping; (Also see Jobst Brandt bio and index of Jobst Brandt’s BTI articles.)

The grit in a chain is partly the metal products of friction between steel surfaces, and between chain parts and grit in the lube. The grit includes dust suspended in air or accumulated on the road and suspended in water on the road.

Deep cleaning will be addressed in section 15, below. Deep cleaning of a new, unused chain is the most effective way to remove enough factory grease to let lubricants adhere to bare metal. It is recommended/required as a prelude to lubrication with:

Immersion waxes by manufacturers of the paraffin wax products and the hot waxing advisers; and
Modern fluid chain coating wax products by some of the manufacturers – e.g. Silca Super Secret Chain Coating

A deep cleaning may be necessary “to reset contamination” (as Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling refers to this) if the hard wax on a chain had been contaminated by dirt, water and wear under adverse conditions. Deep cleaning can be used with chains that have been run with drip lubes. It can remove most contamination when a chain has been contaminated during a ride(s) under adverse conditions. It is not a common practice.

Deep cleaning involves removing the chain from the bike. Removing a chain required using a chain breaker to remove and installed a pin for chains without master links. Master links need to be replaced, although not necessarily after a single use.

Deep cleaning also involves soaking the chain in a solvent. The effective solvents have been harsh industrial chemicals which may require handling and disposal as hazardous waste. The detergents have to be flushed with water, and the chain has to be be dried!

The limits of deep cleaning were lllustrated by a parody in an April Fools Day (prank/humour) article “The ShelBroCo Bicycle Chain Cleaning System” in the Bicycle Technical Information (Sheldon Brown) pages. A complete cleaning of a chain could literally require dissassembly of links!

Bike & General detergents

Many users use general purpose cleaners. Some use cleaners marketed as bicycle chain cleaners or degreasers. A 2023 post or page The Best and Effective Degreasers in 2023 at the GeekyCyclist site listed products sold in bike shops including:

Simple Green
WD-40 Bike Degreaser
Park Tool Bio Chainbrite
Muc Off Bio Drivetrain Cleaner
Pedro’s Oranj Peelz

In Canada, the cycling section of any Mountain Equipment Cooperative store sold the MEC store brand Bio-Cycle Chain Cleaner detergents.

Many bike and general detergents are easier and safer to handle than solvents but once used to remove grease or oil, may be subject to hazardous goods disposal rules for oil and grease.

Some users use a chain cleaner/degreaser detergent product to clean the chain. Some use the cleaner/degreaser with brushes or a clamshell cleaner. Some users used a cleaner/degreaser before removing a chain to deep clean it with solvents.

14. Deep Cleaning

The Process

Deep cleaning a new chain or a chain that is not worn is necessary, if the user wants to remove have factory grease, or lubricants applied by previous owners and users. Removal of factory grease and reside of lubrication applied by the seller is necessary before immersive waxing or the use of chain coating emulsion lubricants.

Deep clean of a chain that has been lubricated with an oil based fluid and used but not contaminated with dirt or water may be a choice or option.

A chain that that has been contaminated by exposure to dust and water, and by the products of chain wear (metal dust) may need to be deep cleaned before it is lubricated again.

A deep cleaning may may start before the chain is removed, but often involves removing the chain from the bike. It involves:

Removing visible contaminants and lubricants from the exterior surfaces of the chain and the drive train components that contact the chain – chainwheels, cassette cogs, derailleur pulleys. Some parts can be scraped or brushed. For other, rags can be used, or the strong blue disposable paper towel (e.g. Scott Paper Shop Towel). Some users use microfiber wipes and towels. Small amounts of detergent may be used.
Washing a contaminated chain with/in a detergent. This involves taking the chain off the bike. The methods include soaking, soaking and agitation, soaking and scrubbing any surface than can be reached with a scrubbing device. Some soaking is necessary to allow the detergent to contact the material to be cleaned off inward facing visible surfaces and visible on the edges of load bearing surfaces (edges of rollers and link plate). Some advice cautions against soaking a chain in detergents that may chemically interact with the chain steel, causing “hydrogen embrittlement”. Some advisors recommend automotive or aviation detergents to remove oil from metal without damaging the metal.
Washing the chain in solvents.

When a chain is immersed, it needs to be rinsed and dried before another substance is applied. A chain can be hung on a peg or a nail, in a dry place and left to dry. Users with the tools and time may blow compressed air through a chain.

Deep cleaning means, basically, washing the chain in solvents that remove grease and oil. Some advisers recommend soaking in the solvent before washing. The method is: immerse the chain in the solvent in a closed container, and shake it. The shaking caused turbulent flows of material in the container, including the movement of diluted grease out of the chain and clean solvent into the chain. The shaking or agitation of the chain in the container is shown in many videos on the web. (Many of the videos refer to this method a part of a program of applying paraffin by immersion.) Some use plastic bottles (bottles for Gatorade and similiar products, with wide mouths – not narrow mouthed soft drink bottles). The videos will suggest on attaching something to an end of the chain to extract the chain from the container. Removing factory grease take several rounds of immersion and agitation. It depends on what the chain manufacturer put on the chain, and on how much.

Solvent

The recommended solvent for deep cleaning is mineral spirits (“mineral terps” in Adam Kerin’s Australian English), or white spirits, a low viscocity combustible petrochemical product. Some white spirits are formulated, packaged and sold for specific applications: fuel, solvent, paint thinner or even as lubricant.

Mineral spirits, as opposed to paint thinner, are preferred for degreasing metal items. Turpentine is a paint thinner made from plant resin; it is not used for cleaning metal because it leaves residue.

In Canada, most retailers sell mineral spirits manufactured by Recochem Inc.² in the H.I.G. Capital³ portfolio under the brand name Solvable. Recochem does not offer a Solvable brand odourless mineral spirit; Recochem makes an “odourless” mineral spirit sold as Varsol, usually as a paint thinner; Varsol is a trademark of Imperial Oil in Canada.

Adam Kerin of Zero Friction Cycling has deep cleaned many chains in the ZFC business and the ZFC tests. In Episode 6 “Chain Preparation FAQ” of the ZFC YouTube series, Adam Kerin notes the differences in the removing factory grease – some chains take 3 rounds of mineral spirits but SRAM chains take 4 or 5. This was a useful aside. Removing factory grease, and using wax or a high-reputation drip lubricant appears to make a SRAM chain run silently.

Mineral spirits cut the grease, but may leave microscopic amounts of water that cause some oxidation of the metal. It is also necessary to rinse the chain with a polar solvent that will carry off any water. Denatured alcohol (“methylated spirits”) is a polar solvent. It is mainly made of industrial ethyl alcohol or ethanol. Ethanol is the intoxicating chemical in potable beer, wine and spirits. In the US, the federal government mandated during Prohibition – the rule was never changed – that industrial ethyl alcohol must be “denatured” (poisoned) with methanol to deter people drinking it and bootleggers from selling it. It is a clear fluid – no food flavouring, colour or sugar. It evaporates quickly. It is cheaper than potable spirits (hard liquor). Using potable spirits to clean a bike chain is inefficient: potable spirits contain other substances that leave residue, and it is expensive. Solvable does not offer a denatured alcohol, but does distibute methyl hydrate or methanol. Some Canadian hardware stores sell the Klean Strip brand “Denatured alcohol clean burning fuel” in the blue metal container depicted in the image on the denatured alcohol Wikipedia page (link above).

Rinsing a chain cleaned in solvent in the polar solvent allows the user to dry the chain. Again, when a chain has been immersed in mineral spirits and alcohol, it needs to be dried before lubricants are applied. Generally, after an alcohol rinse, the alcohol evaporates quickly.

Used mineral spirits may or may not be subject to hazardous goods handling rules. The used spirits are contaminated with fine particles, factory grease residue, and petrochemical lubricant residue. Mineral spirits are petrochemicals. Rules vary.

15. Etc.

New Products

There are new detergents s available in early 2024 that can dissolve oil and be used to remove factory grease or to clean a dirty oiled chain.

Ceramic Speed manufactures UFO Drivetrain Cleaner (and UFO Clean Bearings and UFO Bike Wash).
Silca manufactures and distributes SILCA Chain Stripper, SILCA
Bio Degreaser and Gear Cleaner, and a few kinds of wipes and micro-fiber
cleaning cloths.

Cleaning a Waxed Chain

This is discussed in Part 7, on immersive waxing (immersion in heat paraffin) and chain coating fluids.

One approach is to remove dust from the exterior of a chain. Modern microfiber towels are resistant to the damage of being shredded in rubbing a chain and can be washed. Chains that have been ridden a few hundred Km. in dry conditions or only for short rides in mild wet conditions can be rubbed clean and dry and simply immersed in hot wax again. This is the Molten Speed Wax manufacturer recommendation for “training chains”. The wax will get mildly contaminated, but this method can be repeated many times before the wax needs to be is discarded. A variation on this approach for more serious contamination is swishing the chain in boiling water to wash off the contaminated wax, drying the chain and putting the chain in the hot wax. Zero Friction Cycling lists the boiling water method, with these comments, among other options:

… There is no tangible benefit to boiling water flush rinses after dry rides – especially road riding where extremely little contamination will get into your solid wax lube – but even for most offroad riding unless extremely dusty – just wipe outside. …. Don’t over complicate things – basically just re wax unless fully wet ride …. With waxing just even straight re-waxing will reset contamination in chain extremely well, and a brilliant job can be done with just some boiling water.
Zero Fiction Cycling, Waxing-FAQ.pdf

A badly contaminated chain may need a deep cleaning to reset the chain to a clean condition, and an immersion in clean wax.

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