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You are here: Home / Bike Commuting / Bike maintenance / How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way

How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way

September 21, 2020 by Average Joe Cyclist 2 Comments

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Here is how to keep your bike chain clean the easy way! Bike chains need to be kept clean and lubed to keep your gears working smoothly. But the good news is that regular light maintenance will keep your bike in great shape. This post with videos shows the quick and easy way to clean your bike chain, and keep it lubed too.

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Table of contents

  • How To Clean Your Bike Chain the HARD Way
  • How To Clean Your Bike Chain the EASY Way – and Lube it Too
    • Regular Maintenance is Key
  • How to Clean Your Bike Chain – and Lube it – Quickly and Easily
    • Step 1: Get Your Bike off the Ground
    • Step 2: Clean the Chain with a Dry Cloth
      • Video Showing How to Clean Your Bike Chain
    • Step 3: Also Clean the Cogs
    • Step 4: Lube the Chain
      • Video Showing How to Apply Chain Oil
    • Step 5: Spin the Pedals
    • Step 6: Wipe off Visible Oil
    • Step 7: Repeat Step 6
  • Bike Chain Cleaning Kits
    • Keep your Bike Going Well with this Great Bike Care Kit
How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way. This bike isn't going anywhere fast! It needs a good chain clean, just for starters ...
This bike isn’t going anywhere fast! It needs a good chain clean and lubing just for starters …

Accumulated gunk on your chain will cause gears to slip, and make it hard to ride your bike. And a dirty chain will wear out your sprockets in record time. Plus it takes very hard work to remove accumulated gunk from your bike chain.

How To Clean Your Bike Chain the HARD Way

One way to get your bike chain clean is to take it off, dismantle every single link, and then clean each link with enormous care. This is the traditional method, and it does make get your bike chain extremely clean. However, it is difficult and time-consuming. Plus it takes quite a bit of techie expertise to take the chain apart – and even more to put it all back together properly. Personally I would rather buy a new chain than go through all that!

Keep your bike chain clean the easy way!
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How To Clean Your Bike Chain the EASY Way – and Lube it Too

Regular Maintenance is Key

A much easier way is to make sure your bike chain never gets dirty enough to need a heavy-duty clean. For that, all you need is regular light maintenance. During rainy weather, do the routine below at least once a week, but preferably even more often. At the end of each biking day is optimal. Think of it like brushing your teeth – a routine that takes a few minutes out of your day, but is worth it in the long run.

If you can’t manage every day, once a week will usually do it. And if you are lucky, you might get away with once every two weeks. It also depends on how often you cycle in rainy, muddy conditions.

How to Clean Your Bike Chain – and Lube it – Quickly and Easily

This method assumes that you are doing regular chain maintenance, so your chain is not filthy when you start.

Step 1: Get Your Bike off the Ground

Make the chain accessible so you can work without hurting your back. Ideally, put your bike on a bikestand. These devices make cleaning or repairing your bike a whole lot easier.


But if you don’t have a bike stand, a bike rack on the back of your car makes an excellent stand. We use our Thule Helium bike rack (reviewed here). You can also just turn the bike upside down, and balance it on its handlebars. Make sure to first remove items such as lights or bike computers that might get damaged.

How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way. Our Thule Helium bike rack doubles as a bike stand for cleaning and repairing bikes in comfort
Our Thule Helium bike rack (reviewed here) doubles as a bike stand for cleaning and repairing bikes in comfort

Step 2: Clean the Chain with a Dry Cloth

Hold a cloth firmly around the chain, then turn the pedals a few times. This enables you to easily wipe the chain clean, as shown in the video below.

Video Showing How to Clean Your Bike Chain
https://averagejoecyclist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Chain-cleaning-1.mp4


This should get most of the dirt off the chain. The best possible option is to use a dedicated microfiber cloth. These are surprisingly cheap, and really get the job done well. Unlike an old towel or t-shirt (which I use to clean the bike frame), these will not get lint in your chain links.

You can simply use a clean, dry cloth if your chain is fairly clean. However, if you have a lot of oil and dirt on the chain, you will need to put a good quality degreaser on the cloth.


How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way. Chain cleaning day just requires a bit of space, some old rags, and a chain degreaser
Chain cleaning day just requires a bit of space, some old rags, and sometimes a chain degreaser

Step 3: Also Clean the Cogs

Also wipe off the round cogs on the rear derailleur, and clean off any visible dirt or grease you can see along the chain or on the derailleurs. If you have a sprocket cleaner, use it to clean between the sprockets. A sprocket cleaner is like a plastic toothpick for bikes – cheap and worth buying, and usually sold together with a brush that you can use to brush out any gunk in the links.


It is useful and inexpensive to have the right tools, degreasers and lubricants. I recently discovered a great line of chain-cleaning products called Finish Line. They work well for me.

Step 4: Lube the Chain

Once the chain looks clean, turn the pedals again, applying a line of oil along the links, as shown in the video below. Your aim is to average out at one drop per link. Use a drip-type oil can. Three pedal turns should ensure you get the whole chain. Good oils will trickle out at just the right speed when the can is held upside down.

Video Showing How to Apply Chain Oil

https://averagejoecyclist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/oiling-chain.mp4


Tip:
For the rainy season, buy a lube that is designed for wet weather. These are usually called dry lubes. They are wet when you put them on, but they dry into a waxy film.


Step 5: Spin the Pedals

Spin the pedals for about 45 seconds to give the lube time to settle into the inside of the chain links.

Step 6: Wipe off Visible Oil

Repeat step 2: hold a rag firmly around the chain, then turn the pedals a few times. This will enable you to wipe off all the visible oil. Your goal is to have oil inside the links, not on the surface. Surface oil will just attract dirt, causing a buildup of filthy gunk.

Step 7: Repeat Step 6

If you want to be a bike chain super hero, repeat step 6 the next morning for one or two pedal turns, to wipe off any oil that has oozed out of the links overnight. To remind myself to do this before leaving for work, I used to leave a rag on my seat overnight!

How To Clean Your Bike Chain the Easy Way. Keep your bike chain beautifully clean and lubed, and it will thank you with thousands of miles of smooth rides - without any dropped chains!
Keep your bike chain beautifully clean and lubed, and it will thank you with thousands of miles of smooth rides – without any dropped chains!

Final Tip: If your bike is brand new – note that new bikes come pre-lubed with very superior lube. Don’t clean it off before you have to, because the oil you replace it with will not be as good. If cycling in dry, clean conditions, you might be able to go for a few hundred miles without lubing the chain of a brand new bike.

This whole chain-cleaning-lubing routine takes just a few minutes and is dead easy. But if you repeat it regularly, your chain and gears should keep rolling smoothly right through the rainy season.

Bike Chain Cleaning Kits

You can of course make this whole process even easier if you have on hand everything you may need. This is most easily achieved by buying a bike chain cleaning kit. I have one like the one below and it is easy to use on a chain that is moderately to extremely dirty. Just do NOT do what I did – leave it on the ground and then step on it, spilling oil all over the floor!

Keep your Bike Going Well with this Great Bike Care Kit

This kit includes wet lube, dry lube, bike wash, grunge brush, scrub brush, multi-degreaser, and even a bike maintenance guide. This is packed into a water-tight, easy-to-carry scrub bucket.


Note: I know that people have different opinions about cleaning bike chains, and some people feel quite strongly about it. So I want to end this post by quoting the late, great Sheldon Brown:

“This article is based on my personal … experience and my own theories. If you disagree with them, I won’t call you a fool or a villain, you may be right. I hope you will extend me the same courtesy.”

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Related Post: Bike Maintenance: How to Keep Your Bike Clean

Related Post: How to Change Gears on a Bike – Beginner’s Guide

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Comments

  1. AvatarMike C says

    September 26, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    Step 4 says, in wet weather you should use a dry lubricant. Shouldn’t you use a wet lube in wet weather?

    Reply
    • AvatarAverage Joe Cyclist says

      October 4, 2020 at 2:37 pm

      Yes, I know it sounds wrong 🙂 But in fact you use a dry lube that is intended to keep the chain from getting too wet. This is so mud will not stick to it.

      Reply

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