The Ultimate bicycle chain clean

If you want to do the chain clean once in a while with oiled chains you might find this helpful: I store my used fluids in extra containers. After some time the particles fall to the bottom and leave a mostly clean fluid. When I do another chain unlubing I carefully fill most of the clean fluid into the container with the chain. After taking the chain out of the degreaser I let wipe it and let it dry for a minute before rinsing it. In the end I might have to add one more alcohol clean. Like that I can reuse especially the more expensive and "unfriendly to the environment" fluids. Btw. please recycle these fluids instead of pouring the into the drain.

I'm a year and a half into prepping my mtb chain as Oz directs herein. THIS TECHNIQUE ROCKS! And it produces quantifiable results in shifting, chain life, and cleanliness of the drivetrain. I used to spend a considerable amount of time trying to get my chain and drivetrain clean and well lubed for shifting performance. Oz's technique does take some time and preparation, but I now batch prep 2 chains for each family member's bike, and simply swap out the chains with freshly cleaned/waxed ones as needed; and then I can clean and re-wax at my leisure. In the end, I'm saving time by using this technique rather than using the lubes of old. I love how clean my drivetrain stays--that's a great benefit of this technique. But my favorite part is the longevity of great shifting. I ride about 50 miles/week on trails that are often dry and dusty in the Colorado Front Range. I get good shifting for at least 4x longer than I did pre-waxing. I'm still using my initial batch of 1 lb. of wax w/ 50 grams of teflon (PTFE) and have probably done initial waxing and re-waxing about 15 times. It's almost time for a new batch of wax/teflon. Oh yeah, I picked up a used slow cooker on craigslist for $10. I couldn't find PTFE in 1.6 micron size in the US, but the 3 micron size is doing the trick; but I don't doubt that smaller size PTFE is better. Thank you Oz! This is one of the most satisfying changes I've made that produces great results with bike maintenance. I raise my glass to you brother!

THANK YOU ! ! ! Never have I seen such a detailed view and break down of why waxing IS by far the way to go . . Cheers from Montreal,, mate!

10:40 for the directions to clean

This is perhaps the best explanation of chain cleaning and reason to use a dry lubricant that I have ever seen. Just excellent work!

From my lab days - the best way to get rid of the dirty petrol (gasoline) and methylated spirits (alcohol) is to let it evaporate in the sunshine. Wipe away the dry residue and dispose of that properly. I use one of those simple black pans sold for oil changes. It sounds like a strange method, but industry is allowed to let evaporate thousands of gallons of chemicals on a weekly basis. Evaporation much better than pouring it on the ground or down a drain. Thanks for this great cleaning technique.

For a period of my early working life I repaired avionic equipment where the workshop had a glass faced vacuum chamber . The ultimate relube is to put your clean chain into your lubricant of choice , agitate beaker to remove majority of air and then evacuate the environment to equivalent 40 thousand feet or so. Many many bubbles leave the links of the chain and oil/hot wax fills the void. It was very satisfying to watch knowing how thorough a job was being done. I question how much wax , even when hot ,truely gets to the actual wearing parts as shown in this video but its the best method I can do these days. This video does a great job showing how to get the wax to stick to where it gets access but surface tension would inhibit a lot into the small spaces that matter as I witnessed years ago! Missing from this video are the pressure ratings of waxes compared to oils. This doesn’t detract from the virtues of wax contained in this vid though.

I use wax one my Road bikes for years now. Works perfectly fine. This winter I started to go gravel instead of indoor training. Here's the problem: in temperatures around 0 Deg Celsius and below the wax became brittle and just falls off the chains. After 20 km off-road mud is the only "lubricant" being left and shifting becomes f***d. After going back to synthetic oil the problem is solved. My result: summer bike=wax, winter bike=oil

I have roughly followed your wax method for a year on commuter.This vid encouraged me to do better clean first. Thanks Steve.

This was incredible. Well explained, clean and simple editing, and insanely useful. Thank you for a great video!!

I have watched this video a few times and it finally hit me why it seems familiar: you shake the jars like John Cleese rings a bell in the Monty Python interview skit. I thank you for the wax instruction, and for the reminder!

I've been doing a slight variant on this method for several years that's quicker and simpler, plus my own little twist. I use these same little plastic containers, pour in some mineral spirits, and swish the chain around. I have a rare earth magnet taped to the outside bottom of the container. The rare earth magnet will attract the microscopic steel wear particles to the bottom of the container and hold them there. I'll shake the chain in the mineral spirits and let it soak for a little bit, then pull it out after it's settled a little (and the wear particles are bunched up at the bottom of the container by the magnet), then put them in another container with cleaner mineral spirits and give it a rinse. Then it's just hung up to dry, reinstalled onto the bike, re-lubed, and off I go. It's possible that a third rinse in brand-new mineral spirits would achieve an even more thorough cleansing, but it's really unnecessary. With the rare earth magnet trapping the overwhelming majority of any metal wear particles in the first bucket, and another rare earth magnet trapping any wear particles that were still present in the second rinsing bucket, this chain is as clean and free of wear particles as it reasonably needs to be. If you try this with the rare earth magnet, you'll be shocked at how much stuff is stuck to it, and after only a few hundred miles of riding. The amount of worn steel particles pulled out of a really good-looking and relatively new chain that's been ridden is probably far greater than most folks would predict. Getting that material out of the chain is the primary benefit of this method of cleaning, because removing wear particles from the insides of the chain where the links contact each other is going to reduce the rate of wear.

Chains going to be clean, wife's going to be dirty about everything that belongs in the kitchen is now in the shed. 😂

Thanks for the great video. I am a long time fan of waxing and Santa brought me an ultrasonic cleaner last year. FYI, methylated spirit is more commonly known as denatured alcohol in the USA and perhaps in other locales. Since the rinse water is miscible in alcohol it also provides the benefit of removing any hidden water before waxing.

Thank you so much for all your videos. They're some of the most informative and helpful episodes anywhere. I especially love the "chain" videos and am now a waxing convert. I look forward to all future productions.

Thank you for the thorough video!! Watched on a Tuesday. Started my new chain cleaning and waxing routine by Friday. This is gold!! I love it!!!

Steve, whenever you post it brightens my day and I always end up with a smile! You've taught me more about bike care and maintenance as well as tips and tricks than anyone else! Keep it up mate! Much love!

I have 3 Melitta coffee filter cones that I run the solvents through when I'm done. The really fine particles will clog the filters occasionally so you may have to use 2 or 3 filters. I'm still using your original wax recipe, I made a large batch that will last me another couple of years.

I got black carbon bike so, my chain matches

Not sure if it's available in Australia, but here in Poland we commonly use low-aromatic extraction naphtha. Very potent degreaser, guaranteed to remove all grease, oils, dirt and grime. Leaves the chain extremely dry.