Best drive train degreaser

[Deleted]

What do you use to clean your bike's drivetrain? 

I've used lots of different types, but want a cheap and quick option now it's winter. 

WD40 - as recco'd by GCN - works well, but still it can be pricey. 

Any tips and recco's? 

[Deleted]

Muc-Off Chain Cleaner works very well for me and is quick/easy to use.

[David Joss Buckley]

Fenwick's Foam √√√

[Deleted]

If you search for "citrus degreaser" on amazon, you can find litres of the stuff much cheaper than any bike-specific products.

[jonathanmaher]

+1 for fenwicks foam.

Works better, and makes less mess, than the Citrus based alternatives

[Alex Ioannides]

I learnt something today.

[stuart lynn]

For those not willing to compromise on drivetrain hygiene:

[Deleted]

I actually went to a car parts store and ending up picking some of this water soluable 500ml degreaser for under £5. And works brilliantly, never mind the name!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using proboards

[jonathanmaher]

Oh to be a fly on the wall in the marketing meeting where they came up with that name..

[Jeremy Beswick]

White spirit works perfectly well, applied with a 2" stiff paintbrush to get deep into the cassette, and the hard-to-reach parts of the chainrings. Hose it off right away, run the chain through a sponge with some washing up liquid, give it a final rinse with the hose and...job done. (Don't forget to let the chainset dry before applying some lube).

I've spent plenty of money on bike specific degreasers and chain-cleaning devices, but none of them work as well as my cheap method above!

Now, is there such a thing as effective chain lube that is not bike specific (and expensive)?

[carl Statham]

If you use white lightening clean ride on every ride de-greasing becomes a very irregular event.

[Deleted]

GCN said WD-40. Can't remember why that's frowned on but someone somewhere gave me what sounded like a good reason at the time. Can anyone shed any light on that?

I use GT-85 (easy to get hold of and usually around £3 for a can from Halfords). I pretty much follow the "GCN Clean your bike in 5 minutes" method of spraying the chain, cassette, chainset and cogs with GT-85, then leaving it to soak whilst washing the rest of the bike with a clean sponge and soapy water, clean the drive chain with a dirty sponge, then rinsing it all off and finally cleaning and drying the drivetrain with a towel or rag. Then apply Rock 'n' Roll (Alex at Le Bicycle swears by it), wipe away the excess and you've got a gleaming sparkling Sunday best Bike again :-) Not managed anywhere close to 5 minutes though, maybe 15 :-)

I tried using Gunk once - that stuff STINKS! Maybe a touch of overkill. Never again :-)

Muc-off also works well but GT-85 is cheaper and does the job well.

[jonathanmaher]

I'm pretty sure WD-40 has some sort of sponsorship tie in with GCN, recall seeing WD-40 ads in a couple of their videos, perhaps why they seem to be such big evangelists of using one specific product for everything..

[Deleted]

Nice one chaps.

Will give the gt-85 a go, and white spirit another time. googling Rock 'n Roll now, @samevans83

[Deleted]

Nov 30, 2014 9:25:41 GMT Jeremy Beswick said:

White spirit works perfectly well, applied with a 2" stiff paintbrush to get deep into the cassette, and the hard-to-reach parts of the chainrings. Hose it off right away, run the chain through a sponge with some washing up liquid, give it a final rinse with the hose and...job done. (Don't forget to let the chainset dry before applying some lube).

I've spent plenty of money on bike specific degreasers and chain-cleaning devices, but none of them work as well as my cheap method above!

Now, is there such a thing as effective chain lube that is not bike specific (and expensive)?

I saw a video or blog online somewhere about how the pro teams clean and maintain their bikes. It was a "Pro Top Tip" or something like that :-) On the topic of cleaning the drivetrain, they said to fill up a bidon (with the top cut off) with degreaser (but they didn't say what kind) and put it in the bottle cage on the bike. Then use a paintbrush to work the degreaser throughly over the chain, chainset, cassette, cogs etc. This seems like a really good option especially if you've got those things lying around anyway, but possibly not quite as quick and handy as a spray-on degreaser...

In GCN's 30 minute bike clean they also use this method... I've never got around to doing it this way but definitely looks like it would be good to do once in a while for a really thorough bike clean.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ak4AzlUz5Q

Day to day I use GT-85 because I don't have a paintbrush, citrus degreaser or chopped-off bidon :-) Being a spray in a can is quite handy.