Chain care and SRAM PowerLink tip

[Dex]

I recently had occaison to take my chain off, and had a hard time
getting the SRAM PowerLink apart. My solution was to take a short
length of insulated automotive electrical wire, and loop it through
the two rollers that I wanted to take apart, then twist a bit with a
pliers. This pulled the two roller close enough together to take them
apart easily.
I lube my chain with melted parafin wax. I heat it on a charcoal
grill in a two-pound coffee can, and when the melted parafine has
penetrated the chain, I remove it with a pliers, wipe the excess
from the chain with a cloth and hang it up to cool. This lube doesn't
attract any dirt, and doesn't "sling" off and mess up your bike. I
have used chains for as much as 7500 miles before replacing using this
parafin for a lube.

 

[ookook]

>I lube my chain with melted parafin wax. I heat it on a charcoal
>grill in a two-pound coffee can, and when the melted parafine has
>penetrated the chain, I remove it with a pliers, wipe the excess
>from the chain with a cloth and hang it up to cool. This lube doesn't
>attract any dirt, and doesn't "sling" off and mess up your bike. I
>have used chains for as much as 7500 miles before replacing using this
>parafin for a lube.

I've been using parafin wax to lube my hypercycle chain for about 18
years. Clean and dry, but I'm not sure how good a lube job it does.
On the other hand, I read a test report somewhere that said that
there's almost no loss of efficiency using an unlubed chain. Just
faster wear. If you can go 7500 miles without having to replace the
chain, it's pretty good.

I used a double-boiler arrangement to melt the wax- parrafin vapors
are VERY flammable.

I saw somewhere that the whole parrafin lube thing was due to some
American reading and misunderstanding something in a British cycle
magazine. There was something about using parrafin to lube/clean
chains and so the American, who was unaware that parrafin in British
is kerosene in American, mistook the whole thing and started lubing
his chain with wax.

In general I think chains last about 3x longer on recumbents than on
DF bikes. That is mainly because the chain is about 3x longer, so all
the bending around jockeys and chainrings happens about 1/3 as often.
Chain ring and cassettes on a recumbent should last about as long as
on a DF bike, or maybe a little longer since the chain isn't wearing
as fast.

 

[Steve Knight]

to get the link off you need no pressure on the chain. so I just take it off the
smallest chain ring. plus it helps to lube the link to make it easier.
I have been playing around with Honda's chain lube. it attracts almost no
gunk at all though I only get 100 or so miles between applications. but you just
spray it on and run the chain around a few times nothing to wipe off and it is
clear. I have been using it for two months now and only a little bit of black
gets on the chain. I wiped it off a couple times but it was very little. no
black cogs or chain rings.

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