How To Deep Clean A Mountain Bike Drivetrain

now i know you lovely lot keep a nice clean bike but gunk will build up over time so it's a good idea to give it a good deep clean every now and then especially after a harsh winter now a clean drive train is a happy drivetrain because it'll run more efficiently it runs smoother it'll work better but it'll also last longer because it's not got any mud or grit wearing it out so that's exactly what we're going to do today we're going to give this drivetrain a really deep clean [Music] so i think i've dragged neil's downhill bike out of the locker here and uh well shockingly it was the only dirty bike in the lock up for starters and it's actually shocking how dirty it is look at those jockey wheels just absolutely caked in gunk so for a deep clean i like to take the parts off i like to take the cassette off and the jockey wheels and the chain itself so that i can really scrub it but also you know there's hard to reach areas behind the jockey wheels and the chain you don't want to be cleaning that and then rotating it around onto dirty jockey wheels and just chasing your tail generally so me personally for a deep clean you're only going to do this every now and then it's better to take them off so i'm just taking off the chain with chain leg pliers now be sure to check whether your quick link is single use or not if it's single use you're going to need a new one to put it back on so as these are pretty gunked up i would take a note of lower and the upper jockey wheel and if they are in any kind of direction just in case they're too gunked up or worn to see how they go back on so that's my lower and you might need to manipulate the derailleur a little bit to get to your upper to try and take no of any washers that fall out where they go back and keep a record of whether it's the upper or lower and which direction they go in or what what way round they go because you might not have the signs or the writing still on the jockey wheels after you've cleaned it now i would absolutely love a parts washer in this workshop but we don't have one so the next best thing is my homemade method which is basically some old takeaway containers which i'm going to fill with some warm water and just another one to give it a good scrub in just to protect my work surface basically but probably a good idea not to use your mum's best ones just some old ones will do an array of brushes will really help a big one is good for your cassette and i would say anything with a claw like this one will get some of that gunk off your jockey wheels and something really stiff as well like a detailing brush will really work some of that gunk off i'm going to be using a drivetrain cleaner mainly because i'm using the sort of warm water method which means i can unscrew it and pour it in there are some spray methods out there you could probably use some washing up liquid but it may not be as easy to use it may not give you the finish that you want but you know use the products that you want to and and just for bonus here bonus products something like an mo94 just to get some of that water out of the chain once you finish cleaning it is a really good idea to stop it rusting up afterwards some grease as well for your free hub when you put your cassette back on there and of course your favorite lube for when your nice new chain is back on there so i've got some warm water in my little takeaway cup here i'm just going to pour some dry train cleaner or whatever your favorite cleaner is a degreaser is probably going to be better for this sort of thing and then i might actually give the chain a bit of a spritz before i put it in as well just to really soak it in now the idea of the warm water is where if you think about when you're washing up it's always easier to clean those pans when it's warm rather than cold so already you can see that gunk starting to move but it will be better if we can leave it to soak for a bit so let's pop that in there so you can already see that the gunk is starting to come out of the chain chain even starting to look a bit silver there which is lovely um so i'd probably leave that for about five or ten minutes and you can get on with cleaning your drivetrain or your jockey wheels while that soaks and then just pop it out and have a look at what you've done either put it on a bit of blue roll or you can do what i do get another piece of tupperware and just get it into the corners of the tupperware so you can really give it a good scrub and then go all the way down the chain and flip it over and do it on the other side [Applause] so you can see already this is the bottom one's a lot more silver than the top one which we haven't scrubbed yet so a good firm brush or even a toothbrush would be great for really getting into all of those linkages so the reason i love this sort of tupperware is because you can really get it into the corner edges of the tupperware and just keep moving it along putting it in scrubbing it and then moving it along again and that way you know you've got every inch of that chain and being as it's not on the bike anymore you know it's not rotating round on some dirty jockey whales you're doing a proper job here so i'm nearly at the end of the chain here it's quite hard work it does take a long time because you're going to have to do this you're going to get to the end of the chain and then you have to flip it over and do it again but you know what that's what a deep cleaners then what i'd do is basically pop it in maybe for a quick soak and then i'd run it under a tap or like wash it in some clean water so we've given it a scrub front and back so i'm just going to give it a quick soak for another couple of minutes just to get what we've just scrubbed out of the linkages off the chain and then we can give it a nice little rinse in some clean water so i'm just going to wash it under some water in the tap probably some warm water just to see how it's looking just to identify if there's any more scrubbing i need to do now you may need to dry this off and repeat the process but you know put on some music have a nice time so i'm just drying off the chain now and i'm looking at it and i'm seeing is it's pretty clean there's there's barely any dirt in there but there are some marks on it where rust has stained it you know that's going to happen it's it's not a big problem for your chain but maybe you want to consider a new chain soon get a chain checker check the stretch on the chain see if it's coming to the end of its life maybe it's time to replace it anyway but for now it is nice and deeply cleaned so we can get that back on the bike so next up is the cassette i do like to take this off because i can give it a really good scrub with my hands and not have a frame in the way or a wheel in the way and also i can check in the back i've had all sorts pulled out there sticks straw all sorts so it's a good idea to take it off but you don't have to now drivetrain cleaner obviously you can soak this the reason i'm not is because it doesn't fit in my tupperware but if you have something and you can soak it by all means go ahead otherwise good old elbow grease and some drivetrain cleaner will do it so just give it a good old scrub and this kind of demonstrates another reason why i like to take the cassette off because look at all the spray that you get you don't want those on your disc brakes if you've got them that's going to contaminate your discs unless you've got any disc brake covers so if you're leaving these on the bike then make sure you do use some kind of towel or disc brake covers to protect your brakes from all of this dirt that's coming off okay so believe it or not that is clean it looks half black and half silver because well i think this cassette used to be black it's just been worn silver but if you look nice and close it is actually clean so make sure you do determine between mud and well drive train color basically i've given it a rinse i'm just going to dry it off and pop it back on the freehub body i'm choosing to wipe down the freehub body at the moment if you've got time i would say give it a proper wash but do make sure you cover up the discs or even take them off because as you saw when i cleaned the cassette it can spray some muck around so just giving that a wipe nice and clean and then getting some grease or some anti-seize on there just to protect it from the elements and make sure things don't seize up after getting any water and grass so with your nice greased up free hub and your thread on your cassette it's ready to go back on however you took it back off jockey whales i've been dying to get to these because look at them they're like a slab of cake now i would usually put these on a piece of kitchen roll or a piece of paper and just label them up make sure you know that this is your higher and this is your lower if you've taken them off and make sure all your washers are still in place now the reason i don't put these in to soak is because well there's just there's bearings in them so they need to spin nicely i don't want to soak out all the grease drivetrain cleaners shouldn't damage them but i'd just rather scrub them so you get a really thick brush really thick bristled brush and just get the main dirt and cake off of it look at all of that get all of that off a toothbrush is a really good tool for this you can do this on the bike as well you know without the wheel you can get behind it a lot easier but just for demonstration purposes i'm taking them off today so as you can see they're starting to look a bit more like plastic and not like mud look at all this that's come off and you know this is just a manual labor thing here clean them up as best you can until you start to see the teeth again and you start to see the grooves you might even find that you'll see higher or lower written on there and your direction arrows might come back to life so i've just wiped these down and just given the bearings a bit of a wipe too at this point it's a good idea to check that they still spin quite freely this one's not too bad it's not as free as i'd like it should spin all the way around quite quickly so it's probably a telltale sign that those bearings are on their way out and you might need to get a new set of jockey wheels technically you can take off this o-ring and put some grease in there to give it a bit of life but also technically once you've picked that out you've compromised the seal and they're not gonna last as long as a new set so don't forget that your new clean chain is about to roll around on this chain ring so you might want to give that a bit of a scrub and a clean and just so you don't put dirt back on it okay ready to put the jockey wheels back on to a reasonably clean derailleur i'm not going to clean all of your bike nil um so hopefully you've remembered which jockey wheel is which you need to make sure that you get those little washers on either side of the bearings and hopefully you've remembered which way they're supposed to spin as well if they're directional so top one first because that usually keeps your derailleur together so we're just going to put the chain back on check to see if your chain is directional when you roll it back on there it could have some arrows or it might just have branding on the outside also when you're threading it through make sure it stays to the left of any little bridges in your derailleur because otherwise that's going to make one heck of a racket it's also not going to be very good for your derailleur or your chain lovely and then up and over the top jockey well so your chain link should be directional there's usually an arrow on there pointing back at the bottom it's the direction that your chain travels in so i'm going to click one in here get my other one in the opposite direction so just fit them into each other and give them a bit of a pull so they stay in place if you've got the back wheel in you can rotate this back up to the top and put some pressure on the pedals to click this into place or you can do it with your chain link pliers so if you haven't already you're just going to need to put your back wheel in and you should have a lovely clean drivetrain so that's your drivetrain deep cleaned now neil i'm not going to clean the rest of your bike but the most important part is now clean and working lovely and should last a lot longer now so once you finish cleaning maybe add your favorite lubricant to it i'd recommend adding a drop to every link and let it soak in overnight and just wipe off the excess before you ride it the next day but other than that you're good to go so let us know if this video was helpful down in the comments below and give us a thumbs up see you next time [Music]

Channel: GMBN Tech

Views: 161,073

Keywords: drivetrain, transmitssion, cassette, clean, deep clean, clean bike, how to clean, jockey wheels, clean bike gears, clean bike chain, deep clean gears, drivettrain service, gmbn tech, mtb tech, bike tech, mountain bike, Bicycle (Product Category), MTB, bicycle, gmbntech, GMBN, Global Mountain Bike Network, mountain biking, Downhill, XC, Cross Country, Enduro, MTB skills, bike skills, mountain bike skills, bike, bike riding, cycling, gmvn, Anna Cipullo, Ҙ, 4599, 1o, ኽ, 1v, ው, Ꮖ, Ң, ፕ16, ҩ, Ҧ, Ү, ҵ

Id: htntYKHkx0E

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022