Cleaning Mountain Bike Chain

A super clean drivetrain rapidly reduces the rate of wear on your bike components.

Cleaning mountain bike chain.

Cleaning bike chains is a mixture of art and science in the mountain biking community. This article and the above will help you keep a clean running machine. Your frame needs to be cleaned regularly and the components require cleaning and servicing as well. At worst parts will break or fail.

The chain and drivetrain are typically the dirtiest parts of your bike and this dirt is bad news for bike longevity and performance. Here are are hacks and tips on how to get that chain spotless. Regular cyclists will likely perform a chain cleaning every week or two or at least once every 200 miles or so depending on how much riding is being done and under what conditions. You can pick up pretty much everything you need to clean a mountain bike at your local hardware store or chain stores like walmart.

With your bike in position apply solvent something like wd 40 or isopropyl alcohol to the chain. You do this by slowly turning the pedals backward to move the chain a section at a time so you can clean it by either spraying on the solvent as you wipe down the chain with an old rag or by wiping down the chain with a rag that is saturated with the solvent. While there s no limit to the variety of techniques that can be used i ll cover three simple approaches that you can use to clean your bike chain at home. The best way is to perform regular mountain bike maintenance.

Failing to grease and clean components can result in a noisy ride at best.