17. How To Clean and Lubricate a Chain
Frequent chain cleaning and lubrication will help keep dirt off your chain and prevent wear.
IMPORTANT: Nuts and bolts on your bike should always be tightened to the manufacturer's specifications.
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Regular cleaning and lubrication of your chain will help prevent your drivetrain from wearing out. You should clean and lubricate the chain when it is dirty, dry or begins to sound noisy. If you ride every day, you should clean and lube the chain at least once a month.
Chain Lubricants
I don’t recommend using either motor oil or 3in1 oil to lubricate the chain. Motor oil is too heavy and won’t fully penetrate the rollers, and 3in1 oil is vegetable based and will gum up the chain. I also don’t recommend using wax lubricants because while they don’t collect as much dirt, they are a lot of hassle to apply correctly, and wax is simply not as good a lubricant as oil. I do recommend mineral based chain oils like Finish Line Cross Country or Phil Wood Tenacious Oil because they do the best job of fighting corrosion and don’t wash away when they get wet.
Chain Cleaning
For cleaning, first shift the chain into the smallest sprocket on the rear. For average dust and dirt, wipe the chain clean with a solvent soaked rag. The easiest way to do this is to hold the chain still at the rear derailleur cage while firmly wiping the lower run of the chain. Then move the chain backward and wipe again until you’ve wiped the entire length of chain. Wipe between the rear sprockets using either a rag or a sprocket cleaning tool. Then clean all of the front chainrings on both sides.
Chain Lubrication
Shift your gears into the middle sprocket both front and rear. Remember that oil does a good job of spreading itself, so try not to over-apply the lubricant. Lubricate the inner circumference of the chain, on the side that faces the sprockets along the top of the lower run of the chain. Run the chain backwards while dropping oil down both sides of the rollers.
Shift through all of the gears to spread the lubricant evenly through the drivetrain. Then use a rag to wipe off any excess oil.
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Recommended Books:
- Zinn & MTB
Mountain Bikes: Maintenance, repair, and troubleshooting. - Zinn & Road
Road Bikes: Maintenance, repair, and troubleshooting. - Sutherland's Manual
Sutherland's handbook for bicycle mechanics on CD-ROM. - Park Blue Book
Hundreds of photos and hundreds of procedures.
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68 Responses to “How To Clean and Lubricate a Chain”
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and oh, if you have a maintenance/repair question, please ask in the help forums.
Recommended Tools & Lubes:
- Park Citrus Cleaner
Biodegradable Citrus ChainBrite removes grease and grime. - Cleaning System
Everything needed to quickly and easily clean the chain. - X-Country Lube
Recommended for both dry and wet riding conditions. - Phil Wood Oil
Extra-heavy duty chain oil. Also good for older 3-spd hubs. - Park CC-3
Accurately indicates when a chain reaches .75%-1% wear. - Park CC-2
Quickly determine the wear and stretch of any chain.
For solvent, I’ve been using turpentine. It cleans pretty well, but you have to clean the chains outside, and turpentine isn’t that environmentally friendly. Another good solvent for chain cleaning is Wurth’s Pineline, which is a pine-oil based product, and when diluted properly, can be used also for cleaning the whole bike.
@Tin: Paint thinner can damage some of your plastic parts, so you’d have to use it carefully. I’m not sure, but it may not work as well as traditional bike cleaners.
Hi Will,
Why do you not recommend dry teflon lubricant. You say it is difficult to apply. Why is that? Does the chain have to be extra clean before applying and do you have to wait a long time for it to dry? Sorry if you have answered this before. I heard this somewhere and can’t remember where. Thanks for a great series!
Alan
Wax lubes are difficult to apply because the chain has to be spotless clean first, in order for the lube to be effective. And you have to let it sit for about 1/2 hour, and I personally feel that it doesn’t lubricate as well as regular lubes. This video discusses lubricants a bit more in depth…
Alex, what would be the best solvent to use? Which solvent do you use?
Personally I use EcoTech as a cleaner… works great!
Hey Alex! I’m looking forward to the ‘drivetrain bath’ video! I hope it’s still in the works. Thanks very much for making these videos available. They’re fantastic and helped me build my own bike from parts. It wasn’t economical to do that but it was a fun project and I learned a lot.
If the ‘bath’ involves breaking the chain, I hope you include advice for those without quick release master links. I have a cheap 9sp Shimano chain that had a master pin to join the chain for installation. Thanks!
No problem Stig, glad to hear the tutorials are helpful. Here’s a video that shows how to operate some of the more common quick release types. Hope that helps!
Hi
Where did you get the sprocket cleaning tool? I can’t seem to find one anywhere.
Hi Tim,
You can get the Park gear cleaning brush here.
Hey thanks for the awesome tuts man! They are so honed it’s incredible!
I find that Tri-flow works just as you said, I used to use White Lightning, but never again! Now I just need to remember to wipe off all the excess.
Great tips & videos. Many thanks. Planning on using them for staff training sessions. We’re in the Great White North and moving into freezing and sub-zero temps soon. We recommend and use Pedro’s Syn Lube and/or Phil Tenacious Oil for chain lube this time of year as it’s harder for road slop/ salt to wash off. I wouldn’t use anything that heavy in the warmer months of the year. We also use WD-40 for cleaning chains; saturate a rag with it and wipe it down. Seems to be the only good use for it in a bike shop! We agree – Tri-flow rocks for chain lube in the warmer months.
The thicker the better IMO. Chain saw bar and chain oil is similar to Phil Wood. They’re both tenacious but the chainsaw bar oil is a small fraction of the price, less than 1/50th, plus it’s a little thicker and more tenacious.
Thick is good but you have to apply it drop by drop, one link at a time along the bottom run of chain between the rear derailleur and front chainring, let it sink in for a few minutes then wipe off all the excess before it comes into contact with the chainrings, cogs and pulleys, then backpedaling to bring another section of chain into position. Even in dry summer conditions I have to lube the chain every 3 or 4 days with anything other than Phil Wood or chainsaw oil I find that most chain lubes are too thin to stick around for long, even in dry conditions, requiring me to lube twice per day when it’s really wet. Continuous large gear hammering at high wattage will force the lubricant out of the joints inside of the chain where it needs to be. The really thick stuff will stay in there longer.
Great website! Lots of useful information and easy to understand.
Thank you
Martin
I’ve been removing the chain and placing it in a bottle with a mix of Simple Green and water with some small pieces of a fine scrubbing pad. I shake it up, let it set for awhile and rinse with water. It seems to to a great job without the disposal problems associated with solvent.. If its really dirty I’ll repeat the process. Any comments?
I have used a variety of chain lubricants over the years. While they work fine, they also leave a film on the chain that can attract dirt. This is especially true when mountain biking where the bike will be exposed to a lot of dirt, etc. What I found that works great is lock lubricant. One can’t afford to have the internal tumblers gummed up by regular oil-based solvents. Lock lube is basically is a slurry of fine graphite powder in a carrier solvent. It penetrates well and when the solvent evaporates, it leaves a film of graphite on the chain parts. Graphite is a natural solid lubricant and doesn’t suffer the effects of organic-based lubricants. Before using the lock lubricant, I cleaned my chain well with mineral spirits (paint thinner) and let it dry completely. Lock lube comes in small bottles and in spray cans and is readily available at most hardware stores.
I have a question. I’m not trying to cheap out here, but I have a can of aerosol brake cleaner in my garage, it tears the break dust and all that right off of cars, would that be too aggressive for a bike chain and cassette?
I live in UK and have only just discovered this site. Now 64 so cycling down to about 400miles each month. Best bike maintenance videos I’ve ever seen. Thanks.