Do any of you clean your cassette while it’s on the hub or do you pull all the cogs off?
I was looking at buying some of the Park cleaning supplies and see they have a niftly little brush on one end with a toothed part on the other for cleaning between the cogs.
Would it not make sense to just pull all the cogs off and degrease them as well or is that kind of overkill? I hate having a messy cogset/chain.
More importantly, do any of you have any ‘home remedies’ or solutions you use as a degreaser? I have to believe there are other great options than keeping Park Tool fat and happy.
I use citrus cleaner for my chain, but somehow it doesn’t quite get all the gunk off my cogs.
You can pull them all off if you want to use something like simple green to clean it… or you can do what I do and use brake cleaner. Blasts all the nasty gunk off pretty easy.
Probably not so good for the paint though. Good thing my bikes are anodized.
If you are in the habit of giving the chain a weekly lube/cleaning, you should be able to keep the cassette looking good by running an old rag between the cogs as though you are flossing it. I clean the chain once a week (Rock’nRoll Gold!) and run a rag through the cassette maybe once a month. My stuff stays pretty darned clean for relatively little effort.
The number 1 thing I have done to clean up my drive train is to quit lubing it all the time.
I used to put a squirt on before almost every ride ‘just to be safe’ but what that really does is
provide a nice moist medium for dirt to adhere to. Now I give it a good cleaning every few months
and leave it alone. My chain stays shiny clean for weeks.
When I do clean things up, I use the cassette brushes like you mention, they are good for getting
residual gunk out. I also make sure to scrape the crud off the derailleur jockey wheels…they make a
good repository. I don’t think pulling the cassette is necessary in normal use…maybe just CX racers.
**BONUS ROUND: **This summer I noticed my MTB chainring looking out of true and ordered a new big ring
to replace the ‘obviously’ bent one on the bike. When I disassembled the crank I found a decent handful
of grit and impacted foliage down between the rings. I’d guess 2-3 OZ worth, and it had built up to the
point that it pushed the rings out of true. It turned out the ring was fine …
This may be due to one of the trails I ride in which has a lot of long grass overgrowing the
singletrack…but I bet I’m not the only one.
Before you go spent $100+ on a new seatpost to save 20-30 grams…clean your bike!
When you go for a real cleaning, pull the cogs off. It takes all of about 30 seconds. Simple Green or the orange citrus degreaser from Home Depot. For a quick rub down before heading out, just use a rag in between the cogs like someone else said.
When you go for a real cleaning, pull the cogs off. It takes all of about 30 seconds. Simple Green or the orange citrus degreaser from Home Depot. For a quick rub down before heading out, just use a rag in between the cogs like someone else said.
I did that on my parents new driveway, now theres 20 perfect cog and spacer outlines on the ground hehehehe…
