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Hi All,

I'm new here - see my intro on the intro board. I'm relatively new to motorcycles.

My question for you is how do you clean your chain? My friends/neighbors who have bikes use a rag soaked with acetone or gasoline. I'm thinking there must be a more environmentally friendly way of doing this. Any suggestions?

Kerosene is the best choice, a lot of bikes today use o-ring chains which contain grease in each roller sealed in by a set of rubber o-rings, your manual should tell you if that's what you have.
Gas and Acetone can destroy the o-rings....as far as I know<being an old-schooler with 30 yrs of riding behind me>.

I am unaware of any non-petrol type cleaner which can penetrate and cut petrol based grime............good luck and safe riding.

Like the above member said ,all modern streetbikes have O-ring chains . I rarely bother to clean my chain , but if you do just use a stiff bristle brush to scrub it ,and scrub the rear sprocket .

Now if you really want it clean ,you might dilute some simple green , spray,scrub and rinse with a hose. Yes ,there is a tiny chance that some simple green will make it between the O-rings , but it is very hard to get under them.

Luck,
Charlie

PS- I'm not much on motorcycle or bike chain maintenance. Without using a chemical of some sort-detergent or solvent - you really can't get all the grunge off( and you aren't supposed to use chemicals on the 0-ring chains). Even a small amount of goo is enough to grab tiny abrasive particles that finally wear your sprockets away ,and just scrubbing WON'T get the goo off -catch 22. On the bright side it takes a long time to wear out a chain.

I always remove the chain coil it up in a pan and soak it in a very light weight oil. Then hang them and let drip dry. I never scrub or wash around on them. The o-rings in my exp. are easy to mess up or get grit under if you scrub around on them.

Im looking forward to a belt drive on my nxt bike. I would go shaft drive. But nobody has gained good control of shaft jack IMHO.

The very best way I know of is to use a Scottoiler or similar lube device. These drip a very small amount of engine oil on the rear sprocket when the engine is running and the sprocket centrifugally distributes it to the chain. Used correctly, it accumulates the dirt/oil mix under the smaller front sprocket and not on the fender or your jacket, it then easily comes clean with a blast of the garden hose.

Best of all it truly does double the chain life, on non-oring chains it's like three or four times the life. Pays for itsself after the first time you [U]don't[U] have to change your chain and sprockets.