SS chain needs removing just to clean?

Caden

No, not another thread for every method under the sun for cleaning chains.. I just cleaned the chain on my single speed San Jose for the first time and ran into the problem that you can't use on-bike chain cleaners on these bikes! There's no place to put a chain cleaner that doesn't get hit by the pedals or interfered with by the chainstays.

What do folks do? Break the chain every friggin time you want to clean the chain? Well, that's what I had to do. The bike came with a KMC 7a chain, which I know nothing about. Couldn't find a master link on it so I had to push a rivet out.

Is this really what folks do every time they need to clean or oil on a single speed? The pain!

kdelong

You don't need to break the chain every time you want to clean it on a single speed. Get a pan filled with water and a little Simple Green degreaser. Place the pan beneath the chain and get a scrub brush like Park's chain brush, or any other stiff bristle narrow brush. Scrub away until the chain is nice and shiny, and then lubricate it with a lube like ProLink which cleans and lubricates at the same time. Re-lube it every 200 - 300 miles and you should be good to go.

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sideshow_bob

unless the chain is putrid (which on a track only bike lets face it should never ever happen!), i just liberally pour whitespirit/shellite/petroleum ether into a rag, have the bike up on the workstand and use the rag to grab a handful of chain and then let the cleaning begin.

fwiw, i use knc 1/8 chains which have a butterfly master link in them. i've never actually broken the chain to clean it, only to change it over when i change the gear ratio.

--brett