Hello All *** UPDATE on my lube experiment. **
Here's what I did: 1) Took both cassette and chain off the Atlantis. 2) Put the chain in a big plastic screw top bottle without 2 inches of degreaser for a few hours, and shook it up now and then. Then drained, rinsed, and went over it with a toothbrush for a few minutes afterwords until it was shiny clean. Cleaned the cassette by hand until it looked the same. 3) Mounted everything back on the bike and applied Smoov lube, which was recommended to me by Adam at Zero Friction. He said the key is to drip it on, then wipe off the excess with a cloth while spinning the chain backwards, so I dd that. Let it dry for a few hours. The lube looks white and waxy, though you don't see much of it except in the joints of the chain after wiping down. I've put about 150 miles on the bike so far, including pretty dirty fire trails with puddles of mud, and after hosing the bike down the chain still remains shiny and clean. Pretty amazing. You're supposed to reapply the lube regularly, and I'll do that again soon. Still figuring out how often I need to do that. So far I'm super-impressed. No black chain, no black cassette. Chain quiet and drivetrain happy. And the lube was only $25. Best, Paul On Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 7:18:22 PM UTC-4, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > Greetings, one and all. It has been a long time, at least a few years, > since my last post and I am just assuming my membership is still active. > > At 75+, I still ride regularly, although not the distances I used to. I > live in a small town in far northern VT, which has mostly dirt roads. I > just ride; I don't desire new stuff nor do anything heroic worth writing > about. I have a Ramboulliet, a Trek 620, An early Saluki (my goto ride), > and a custom Bilenky touring tandem. My wife rides a Betty Foy and my > daughter a Cheviot. All but the Trek have fenders but that's still a lot > of chains out on dirty roads and a lot of messy time cleaning them. > > Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Well maybe. I clean the chains, > rings and cogs with mineral spirits and citrosol. I use a standard oil > lube and wipe them down as best I can. The process of wiping down the > chains inevitably contaminates the rings and cogs with oil and the first > ride bleeds oil from the inside to the outside of the chain. The oil > collects dirt, which wears down rings and cogs. (I just ordered three new > rings today, so I'm focused). Every time I go through this process of > cleaning 9 chains, I watch a youtube video on chain waxing but get put off > by the initial effort and purchase of a crock pot, ultrasonic cleaner, etc; > and wonder if it would really improve this process ; keep the chain cleaner > and reduce wear? > > Your experience, appreciated. > > Michael > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/c6359d37-48b9-405a-bcab-0da039282e62o%40googlegroups.com.
