Cleaning Chains
As winter comes to an end, its time to get back out on the bikes! My commuting bike (called the bus) has taken a hammering over the winter months and the chain is not in a good way.
Sheldon brown shares a good tip on cleaning chains. Sometimes when you think that you should buy a new chain for your bike, all that it needs is a good clean.
Drop the chain into a plastic Coke bottle with a couple of ounces of un-diluted citrus degreaser, cap it, and shake thoroughly. Fish the chain out with a spoke, rinse in water, and you are all set! (I am told that Pepsi bottles also work, and are easier to remove the chain from, because they have a wider mouth…but I’m a Coke guy, not a Pepsi guy.)
I have had ok results with this method. I only managed to get solvent based degreaser which is horrible smelly cancerous stuff. The bottle top was pretty wee so a larger one in future will be better. It also only worked quite well and not as good as I thought.
I will need to try with real citrus degreaser in the future and see how that goes.