And another quick question.....

[jashburnham]

I always think that there's no point in cleaning your chain unless you are going to clean the rest of the transmission as well. I take the chain off (use a SRAM powerlink and its KMC equivalent). I don't degrease my KMC chain but do with the Ultegra one (altough it maybe time to sop doing this). Once the chain is thoroughly wiped and cleaned I lay it out flat and lube it, then wipe it down thoroughly again. Meanwhile, clean the front chain rings. I then take off the rear cassette, take it apart and clean each sprocket. Then clean the front and rear derailleur, if I'm being really anal then I will take the rear jockey wheels out and give them a through clean and lube as well. Put everyhting back on the bike and lube the chain again, spin the pedals quicly for 1 min or so then wipe the chain again and you're done.

It's not the quickest method but well worth it when things have got grubby, especially when you are running higher end components. I'm having a Pinarello Prince built up with Chorus at the moment and given the cost of cassettes and KMC chains I will be cleaning everything religiously!

 

[Spoked Wheels]

I do a lot of riding on Bournemouth's promenade so I get sand on the transmission system. I try to clean the chain every 200 miles or less. I think I should really do it every 100 miles

I use the Park Tools cleaning device, orange degreaser, a brush, hose pipe, GT85 and Finish Live lube.

With the bike on the workstand I use a rag with some degreaser to remove some of the black gunk. Then I used the park tool device to finish the job.

The second step is to clean the sprockets... I spray orange degreaser and use a brush and water to clean the sprockets.

The third step is to dry the chain with a rag and then lube it with Finish Line oil. Rotate the pedal unticlockwise a few times, finally I use a rag to remove excess lube.

Fourth step is to dry the sprockets and spray GT85

The final part is to lube the derailileurs.