Before the season starts I want to apply fresh wax, but cleaning is mandatory to do so obv.
Last year I washed it with my hose, degrease, and lastly kept going with the pedals with a rag wrapped around the chain. I kept doing it for half an hour until I gave up, since it didn't seem to get any cleaner, and applied the wax – worked good enough.
But this year I want to have it squeaky clean – casette, and chain.
My idea was to dissasemble cassette, and dump it with the chain in a mixture of water, soap, and some degreaser.
Am I stupid for wanting to do that? My old man keeps telling me about some "seals" or something going loose that will destroy the parts.
Should I just go with that, or find a better method?
by gracekk24PL
9 Comments
Your cassette and chain have no seals, they are entirely made of metal. Once fully degreased, switch to using wax drip lube and remember ”less is more.” One drop per roller, perhaps two drops for the first application.
You can go mad chasing the goal of a clean but well-lubricated chain. Squeaky clean is a fool’s errand, these are mechanical parts. Apply a degreaser if you must, wipe your chain clean, and apply a lubricant. Replace parts when they’re worn. If you want to go further, remove the chain occasionally, soak it and clean it and remove the cassette or freewheel and clean it too.
That chain and cluster looks cleaner than those on any of my bikes.
Your plan isn’t stupid. To properly degrease the chain and cassette you could use mineral spirits, then isopropyl alcohol.
Look it up on youtube, many people are doing it before switching from lube to wax
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l3CxiZqItGw
Just don’t ,your old man is right .
Too much degreaser even too much chain lube will wash the grease out of the rear wheel bearings eventually.
Just wash with soap and water and don’t use a hose on it.
If you want to properly clean your chain and gears ,remove them from the bike to clean .
I’d be careful, I think that’s a freewheel, not a cassette, but hard to tell from the photo, if it’s a freewheel I wouldn’t soak it in degreaser as there are moving parts inside that need grease to function
That’s a freewheel not a cassette so it has its own special cleaning regime because it’s full of ball bearings and grease and it’s not well sealed .
Cassettes can be put in an ultrasonic cleaner once removed from the bike freewheels cannot unless you dismantle them and do a full rebuild on the freewheel.
See RJ the bike guy on YouTube for a tutorial on rebuilding freewheels .
Check out the video on chain waxing on the oz cycle channel on YouTube it answers all your problems.
Never hurts to take it apart and clean it, but the difference between just cleaning it well as you did before and a full “service” will be negligible. Chain cleaning rig and degreaser and a good scrub of the cassette would probably suffice. Servicing the freehub would do more for efficiency and lifespan of the bike
New 6 speed freewheel is like $15.
Don’t spend $100 on lube for low end parts like this