8/16/15 2:09 PM

My drive train is dirty in a way that it gives me a chain ring tatoo.

Thing is, it's been cleaned over the winter. The chain, the cassette, even the pulleys got some TLC and they were reasonably clean when the season started.

Now half way through the season, the chain is black'ish again! I cleaned the chain in those chain cleaning gizmo. But I noticed the cassette and the pulleys got a lot of junk on them so the chain pick those up in no time.

My chain is quiet so functionally it's working fine. But how do you KEEP the chain in a condition that doesn't give me a greasy black mark a month after cleaning everything?

I use ProGold as lube so far.

8/16/15 2:20 PM

Yep, 500 miles will make a mess out it. And the longer you wait to degunk it, the more work it is to get the deep stuff in the cassette and DR pulley areas. And obviously the chain rings.. I confess to doing 200-330 miles wipe downs and like that. Do it outside, the caked grease turds tracked through the house is bad news, I hear. ;O

I still get the occasional chain ring tattoo, only really pisses me off when I managed to get it on the sock...

8/16/15 4:01 PM

One blue (disposable) shop rag and a bottle of homebrew or Giant Liquid Silk lube. Both are high in spirits and dissolve gunk/build-up while lubricating.

Drip a link at a time, wipe down chain vigorously. Repeat down the chain. Wipe down chainring teeth and pullets especially. Repeat on chain as needed.

I do this at least once every month or two as I can't stand a dirty chain. Takes all of 10 minutes.

Last edited by sanrensho on 8/17/15 12:14 AM; edited 1 time in total

8/16/15 5:10 PM

The black boogers are dust/microscopic metal filings/oil. They come when you ride the bike. Unless you clean your drivetrain after every ride you will get the black boogers sooner or later.

I use simple green on my chain and follow up with home-brew. Which is clean but still gets messy after a couple hundred miles. I live with it.

8/16/15 6:31 PM

Erik got it right. That stuff is inevitable.

The answer to this

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how do you KEEP the chain in a condition that doesn't give me a greasy black mark a month after cleaning

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8/17/15 2:17 AM

I'll second the suggestion to use "high in spirits" type of lube, I often add spirits to various lubes.

Less residual lube means it stays cleaner with less wipe-downs, but it never hurts to wipe down the chain after a ride, or even after every ride, as the lube and detritus usually seems to find it's way onto the exterior of the chain.

I don't do drop-at-a-time though. The nice thing about diluted lubes is that, with a fine straw tube on the squeeze bottle, a metered stream directed at the moving chain has the entire chain fully lubed in under ten seconds. I rest my knuckles against the seatstay to steady my aim at either side of the chain, where the sideplates overlap.

So the entire lube-plus-wipe-down need only take two minutes, and that includes wiping the rotating pulleys and putting a drop of lube on any cables passing under the bottom bracket.

Sufficiently diluted lube plus frequent re-application and wipe-down equals a relatively clean chain. Luckily, modern chains require only very scant lubrication for quiet operation and long wear life. I use a terry shop rag for wiping the chain, a single one-foot square rag easily does 50 or more wipe-downs before getting "heavy", just don't create a fire hazard with it!

8/17/15 6:31 AM

quote:

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But how do you KEEP the chain in a condition that doesn't give me a greasy black mark a month after cleaning everything?

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8/17/15 7:23 AM

Thanks to all who offered advises. So it looks like I can reduce it by wiping off the excess lube but that's about it. I can't really completely avoid it.

That's good to know.

8/17/15 10:21 AM

...is that you're ignoring periodic maintenance that others do without thinking about it. Two good examples are using shift cables until they break (twice!) and not understanding that cleaning a chain doesn't mean that it will stay clean indefinitely (or in this particular case 8+ months of use). I assume that you don't drive your car with the same oil in it until the engine seizes, so why would you think that chain cleaning & lubing lasts that long?

The chain lube you're using (Pro-Link) does a good job of cleaning, as it contains mostly solvent (mineral spirits/paint thinner). If you want to give it some help, pick up some mineral spirits, wet a rag with it and use it to clean the outside of the chain. If it's really gunky, use a toothbrush to loosen up the bulk of the crud.

Apply the lube liberally (I still do it link-by-link to make sure that nothing gets missed), spin it for a while to work it in, then wipe it clean. Repeat the process a second time, then clean the excess lube off the cassette and chainrings. With Pro-Link, you should let it dry overnight before riding.

8/17/15 3:46 PM

The easiest way to avoid chain ring tattoo is to always unclip the left foot when you stop. Leave the right foot clipped in until you want to get off the bike. Frequency of chain ring tattoo is greatly reduced.

8/17/15 4:02 PM

if you have shorter legs and bigger calf muscles this is sure to be more common, as that sort of anatomical configuration simply puts your calf in closer proximity to said chain-ring.

i have longer legs and miniscule calf muscles, so i *rarely* get "fred marks" on my calf.

i'd much rather have big calf muscles.

8/17/15 7:26 PM

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in this particular case 8+ months of use

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8/18/15 5:06 AM

I have muscled calves, I don't get ring marks but my muscles are high on my lower leg and my ankles are skinny near the ring too.

I think it is because I unclip my left foot at all stops and my right foot stays around the 1:00 position so my leg is far away from the ring.

8/18/15 5:44 AM

..."Thing is, it's been cleaned over the winter." That's what I based my assumption on. Regardless, whether it's 8 months or 8 weeks, it's still going to get dirty and require maintenance. My point is that you need to get into a routine of maintaining your bikes properly, rather than going from crisis to crisis with your cables and shifters or complaining about getting chainring tattoos because you don't clean and lube the drivetrain often enough. If that qualifies as "grumpy attitude", so be it.

8/18/15 9:49 AM

Interpretation of any "correct" level of maintenance can take into account things like how much "spare" time one has at their disposal, but the biggest factor is whether or not the bike is used in a group-ride setting, where other riders might or might not be inconvenienced or endangered by another rider's relative laxity of maintenance.

So it seems fine if I want to take my new "Goodwill or garage-sale prize" used bike for a gentle test-ride through nearby trails, but such a bike and real-time maintenance level might well be seen as an unreasonable imposition on a group of fellow riders.

Most of us will have a grungy bike at one time or another, and I myself am loathe to rebuild an Ergo shifter that is still not surely "dead of spring".
But for group rides, I take a clean bike and I try to be as certain as possible that the mechanicals are A-1.

8/18/15 10:52 AM

quote:

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I have muscled calves, I don't get ring marks but my muscles are high on my lower leg and my ankles are skinny near the ring too.

I think it is because I unclip my left foot at all stops and my right foot stays around the 1:00 position so my leg is far away from the ring

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8/18/15 10:58 AM

I've been getting them more here as a result of having to ride nose into the crossing buttons and re-position in line to get going when the walk goes green [white] for the scoot across. I usually lock the front brake and swing the back with the back wheel off the ground. Now that I am thinking about it, I will try to swing away from the chain ring side as see if I can avoid tattooing another sock, permanently too it appears.

8/18/15 5:13 PM

You can completely avoid it.

Get a bike with the Gates Carbon Drive belt with a hub for gears. No lube, no mess.

I've seen the belt drive on a few bikes. I think it looks really neat.

Sandiway

8/18/15 5:22 PM

quote:

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"Thing is, it's been cleaned over the winter." That's what I based my assumption on.

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quote:

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My point is that you need to get into a routine of maintaining your bikes properly, rather than going from crisis to crisis with your cables

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8/18/15 8:21 PM

Clean the chain ring, and only the chain ring.

Wait a minute, forget that. I just erased a simple solution because I came up with something better.

Don't clean your chain ring, or your chain for that matter. It's quiet, it shifts fine when the cable....

Don't clean your chain ring, clean your leg instead.

Go to Chick-Fil-A, swipe a few wet-naps, and tear one open the next time your bike bites you. Plus wet-naps come in handy if you get scraped up some other way too.

It's not a character flaw to ride a less-than-showroom bike. And the alcohol feels nice on your leg.

8/19/15 6:15 AM

Get a crank with a chainguard - they can be got with either two or three chainrings.

Three chainrings plus a chainguard:


Two chainrings plus a chainguard:

8/19/15 10:04 AM

"I've been getting them more here as a result of having to ride nose into the crossing buttons and re-position in line to get going when the walk goes green "

Ditto. My commute is mostly on a multi use path that crosses a couple major roads. Seems like the only times I have gotten a "tattoo" has been one particular light where I have to reposition myself and the bike after hitting the crossing button. Not a big deal in shorts, bigger deal when riding in pants.

8/19/15 2:33 PM

Nick, I wonder what material Shimano used for that tidy chainguard on the LX trekking crankset(?).

I've noticed that various of the old-school cast-aluminum or stamped-steel chainring guards were relatively fragile (easily bent) in order to be lightweight. Tough plastic guards (that I've seen on Shimano cranks) could be broken, but kept their accurate shape better than metal ones, at least up to their point of fracture.

I think that a guard can be incorporated with no forced compromise to a crankset's "Q" factor width, and further can protect chainring teeth from damage.
I have occasionally kept and used the chainring guards that came installed and still in good condition:

8/19/15 5:34 PM

Don't know what material Shimano use for the chainguard on those cranks, as I've only ever seen them in photos. I do have one of the Sugino XD cranks setup with an outer chainguard and the two chainrings at 110 and 74 BCD positions. That setup does, however, mean that the "Q" is slightly wider in order to get a correct chainline.

8/24/15 8:59 PM

I use Rock n Roll and can go several hundred miles before the black crud causes chain tattoos. I then use citrus degreaser and wipe down the chain. It usually takes two times applying the degreaser and wiping. Then I do the pulleys, cassette, and chain rings. It's about a 15 minute effort