Best drive train degreaser
Dec 2, 2014 11:44:12 GMT
Charlotte "Charly" R., stuart lynn, and 1 more like this
Post by Pete Owen on Dec 2, 2014 11:44:12 GMT
It's great to see pro team mechanics at work, but it's worth bearing in mind that their bikes only have to last a season, if that. Not everything they do is best for the long term health of the bike; you'll often see them jet-washing bikes at the end of a stage and one of the cheapest degreasers to use is diesel fuel, which you can brush into chains and cogs to dilute greasy residues.
The seals on bearings, hubs and headsets are designed to keep out water even when submerged (although if you've got Campag Record or Super Record Ultra Torque bearings the internal faces of them aren't sealed at all, so if you get water in your BB shell they will very quickly rust), but they're not usually capable of keeping out high-pressure water. We'll often see spotlessly clean bikes with a complete set of knackered rusty bearings full of watery rusty grit - it's easy to tell they've been jet-washed, which has forced water in under high pressure, forcing the grease out and leaving dirty water in the bearings to rust. If you're a pro team with a stack of replacement headsets and BBs, it will only take a team mechanic a few minutes to swap out something that's too knackered.
Similarly, diesel and other basic degreasers can cause seals and other parts to degrade and can damage anodising. No team is going to be too bothered if some of their Dura-Ace derailleurs are starting to fade after three weeks of the Tour de France, but most customers will get very put out if their components look blotchy or speckly after a few months' use, particularly if they've paid a lot of money for them.
The old industry standard in bike shops used to be Safetykleen, which is still used in a lot of motor garages. It's a highly flammable mixture of kerosene and other solvents, from what I remember. You had to wear a lot of protective stuff, gloves, goggles, apron, and you could only use it in a well-ventilated place. It stinks and it's not nice if you get it on your skin. It's similar to Gunk, from what I recall. It comes in a big oil drum with a sink on top of it, the drum of liquid needs changing regularly and it's pretty horrible stuff, but effective.
Most bike shops (including us) these days use Rozone, which is a much more eco-friendly cleaner. It's a water-based solution with enzyme agents that basically eats dirt and oily grime, similar but much more potent than bio washing powder for clothes. Because it's biological, it needs to be kept at around 40 degrees C to work best, so it's not really practical for home use but it's very good stuff and removes cack from components almost as well as the old toxic stuff. (It sometimes takes a little while longer, so many mechanics will take drivetrain bits off a bike at the start of a service, wash them down in the Rozone machine, get on with the rest of the service then come back to the machine and finish parts cleaning before rinsing the degreaser off and taking them back to the bike) It's definitely a lot nicer to have around, much less toxic, you need less protection and if you get it on your skin it's not a huge problem as long as you wash it off (much like washing up liquid, I suppose).
So, somewhat off-topic there, sorry. My advice is to get a bike-specific degreaser that is tested not to eat seals or fade anodising, and either a decent chain cleaner tool like the Park one or a less sturdy but much cheaper to replace one like the Juice Lubes Dirty Little Scrubber (great name) and work it into the chain. Both the ones I mentioned don't need you to remove the chain from the bike. Also from Juice Lubes, their Dirt Juice concentrated citrus degreaser is very good value and you can dilute it lots and use it to clean the rest of the bike too.
But the important thing if you're using a degreaser is to make sure it's all rinsed off the bike (a low-power hose or a couple of buckets of water usually suffices) before you apply whatever lubricant you're going to use - otherwise the degreaser will carry on doing its job and dilute or degrade the fresh lube you're busily applying!
My standard for a home mechanic would be:
- concentrated Dirt Juice in a chain cleaner and maybe also an old toothbrush or paintbrush to work it into the derailleur pivots,
- dilute Dirt Juice to wash down the rest of the bike, with a rag or non-abrasive sponge (you can use washing up liquid for this but bear in mind it's usually very salty which will cause rusting - use car shampoo if you don't want to buy bike-specific stuff),
- a very good rinse. DO NOT JET WASH, but a spray with a low-power hose or a few buckets of water thrown and poured over the bike,
- GT85 sprayed on everything that needs to move. It's a lightweight oil-based water displacer, much like WD-40, which is why neither of them are very good as a general purpose lube either: they tend to evaporate quickly, but are good at dispersing water from sitting in seals and pivots, *
- a fairly viscous wet lube applied to derailleur pivots, run along cables and worked into the chain (hold the bottle inverted and drip oil into the inside of the chain just behind the chainrings - below where your cadence sensor would fit if it was for some reason on the drive-side of the bike) and then the excess wiped off with an old rag. If you leave the chain dripping with oil, you'll make a mess of your floor and it will get dirt and dust stuck to the oil, which forms a nasty grey clay-like susbstance.
* NB if you've got disc brakes, don't spray or apply oil anywhere near them! Disc brake pads are quite easy to "contaminate", meaning they'll soak up oil fairly easily. As their job is to create as much friction as possible against the disc, and oil's job is to remove as much friction as possible, this will not end well. Use a solvent cleaner like Disc Brake Cleaner, or isopropyl alcohol on discs and pads.
Others will have different methods and different preferences - you may love ceramic oil or wax-based lubes that need a fairly fastidious approach but can be very low-maintenance in the long run - but I hope I've provided some useful reading anyway. I'd been planning to write a blog post for our website about this, so I'll probably appropriate the above some time in the next few weeks.
Right, back to work...!
The seals on bearings, hubs and headsets are designed to keep out water even when submerged (although if you've got Campag Record or Super Record Ultra Torque bearings the internal faces of them aren't sealed at all, so if you get water in your BB shell they will very quickly rust), but they're not usually capable of keeping out high-pressure water. We'll often see spotlessly clean bikes with a complete set of knackered rusty bearings full of watery rusty grit - it's easy to tell they've been jet-washed, which has forced water in under high pressure, forcing the grease out and leaving dirty water in the bearings to rust. If you're a pro team with a stack of replacement headsets and BBs, it will only take a team mechanic a few minutes to swap out something that's too knackered.
Similarly, diesel and other basic degreasers can cause seals and other parts to degrade and can damage anodising. No team is going to be too bothered if some of their Dura-Ace derailleurs are starting to fade after three weeks of the Tour de France, but most customers will get very put out if their components look blotchy or speckly after a few months' use, particularly if they've paid a lot of money for them.
The old industry standard in bike shops used to be Safetykleen, which is still used in a lot of motor garages. It's a highly flammable mixture of kerosene and other solvents, from what I remember. You had to wear a lot of protective stuff, gloves, goggles, apron, and you could only use it in a well-ventilated place. It stinks and it's not nice if you get it on your skin. It's similar to Gunk, from what I recall. It comes in a big oil drum with a sink on top of it, the drum of liquid needs changing regularly and it's pretty horrible stuff, but effective.
Most bike shops (including us) these days use Rozone, which is a much more eco-friendly cleaner. It's a water-based solution with enzyme agents that basically eats dirt and oily grime, similar but much more potent than bio washing powder for clothes. Because it's biological, it needs to be kept at around 40 degrees C to work best, so it's not really practical for home use but it's very good stuff and removes cack from components almost as well as the old toxic stuff. (It sometimes takes a little while longer, so many mechanics will take drivetrain bits off a bike at the start of a service, wash them down in the Rozone machine, get on with the rest of the service then come back to the machine and finish parts cleaning before rinsing the degreaser off and taking them back to the bike) It's definitely a lot nicer to have around, much less toxic, you need less protection and if you get it on your skin it's not a huge problem as long as you wash it off (much like washing up liquid, I suppose).
So, somewhat off-topic there, sorry. My advice is to get a bike-specific degreaser that is tested not to eat seals or fade anodising, and either a decent chain cleaner tool like the Park one or a less sturdy but much cheaper to replace one like the Juice Lubes Dirty Little Scrubber (great name) and work it into the chain. Both the ones I mentioned don't need you to remove the chain from the bike. Also from Juice Lubes, their Dirt Juice concentrated citrus degreaser is very good value and you can dilute it lots and use it to clean the rest of the bike too.
But the important thing if you're using a degreaser is to make sure it's all rinsed off the bike (a low-power hose or a couple of buckets of water usually suffices) before you apply whatever lubricant you're going to use - otherwise the degreaser will carry on doing its job and dilute or degrade the fresh lube you're busily applying!
My standard for a home mechanic would be:
- concentrated Dirt Juice in a chain cleaner and maybe also an old toothbrush or paintbrush to work it into the derailleur pivots,
- dilute Dirt Juice to wash down the rest of the bike, with a rag or non-abrasive sponge (you can use washing up liquid for this but bear in mind it's usually very salty which will cause rusting - use car shampoo if you don't want to buy bike-specific stuff),
- a very good rinse. DO NOT JET WASH, but a spray with a low-power hose or a few buckets of water thrown and poured over the bike,
- GT85 sprayed on everything that needs to move. It's a lightweight oil-based water displacer, much like WD-40, which is why neither of them are very good as a general purpose lube either: they tend to evaporate quickly, but are good at dispersing water from sitting in seals and pivots, *
- a fairly viscous wet lube applied to derailleur pivots, run along cables and worked into the chain (hold the bottle inverted and drip oil into the inside of the chain just behind the chainrings - below where your cadence sensor would fit if it was for some reason on the drive-side of the bike) and then the excess wiped off with an old rag. If you leave the chain dripping with oil, you'll make a mess of your floor and it will get dirt and dust stuck to the oil, which forms a nasty grey clay-like susbstance.
* NB if you've got disc brakes, don't spray or apply oil anywhere near them! Disc brake pads are quite easy to "contaminate", meaning they'll soak up oil fairly easily. As their job is to create as much friction as possible against the disc, and oil's job is to remove as much friction as possible, this will not end well. Use a solvent cleaner like Disc Brake Cleaner, or isopropyl alcohol on discs and pads.
Others will have different methods and different preferences - you may love ceramic oil or wax-based lubes that need a fairly fastidious approach but can be very low-maintenance in the long run - but I hope I've provided some useful reading anyway. I'd been planning to write a blog post for our website about this, so I'll probably appropriate the above some time in the next few weeks.
Right, back to work...!