Now mind you, this was before O-ring chains.
Back in "the day", we used to attach a worn out sprocket to an old BBQ rotisserie motor....mount the motor (using a home made bracket) to the wall so the bottom loop of chain hangs in a bucket of solvent....plug in the motor and walk away for a few hours. Get the picture? The chain would travel through the solvent and the excess would drip back into the bucket, carrying the dirt.....Pretty slick huh?
Pretty slick Steve, I have this device for my bicycles to sort of do the same thing. It was designed to fit on the bike while you service the chain. you pour the cleaner into it and attach it to the bike and turn the crank and the chain would move through the cleaner and then brushed on all four side and in the process it would clean the chain. I think I like your idea better. althought most bicycle chains do not have a master link. I remove my chain and coil it up, put it into a gallon size bucket and pour cleaner over it and let it sit for a day or so then hang it up over the bucket of cleaner to drip dry. seems to work ok.
Hey have any of you guys ever heard of this? The guy that mentored me use to oil his chain.. back in the day before we had chain lubes.... by mixing up gearlube and Wax. I do not remember the ratio. Any way he would heat this mix up and drop the clean chain into it. Then he would allow the chain and mix to cool and sit for a day or two. Seems to me He had two chains for his bike and he would just alternate back and forth. I can see this being a potential problem, if he got the mix too hot you could ruin the temper of the chain. I bet it would not be too good for O ring chains either. but I bet you would get a deep pentration of lube into the rollers and pins. ... just a thought not a recomondation. Terry keep your mind out of the guttter.... I know how you think.
Thom Green,I own and ride a 76 250 MC5 MX which I bought new.
The summer that I spent in Austria in 1969, allowed me to see a lot of things that I'd never seen before, one of them being the chain oiling (greasing?) process used by KTM's only in-house engineer.
Sigfried Stuhlberger was KTM's engineer, but he was also their whole Austrian Championship motocross team. He rode the 50 and 175 classes in the Austrian Championships against a 4 or 5 man Puch team, and unless one of them knocked him down, he'd beat them.
Anyway, after he would wash the bikes, he would take the chains off them, blow out the water, (that reminds me of another amazing story) in preparation for his maintenance process. He had a pan that was about half full of a light grease, and he'd put it on a hot plate until the grease was fully melted, and then he'd put the chains into the mixture for a full day, allowing the lubricant to seep into the chain for the next race. I really can't say how long his chains lasted, but it sure seemed to me, to be dandy way to maintain the chain.
When I got home, I decided that this process seemed pretty good, so I thought I'd try it. I didn't use grease, but rather STP, and it worked pretty well, with two problems: 1. it was a hassle to do, and 2. the stuff got everywhere on the bike. I only did it once, after which, I decided that chain lubes or regular oil would have to do.
The water reference in the washing of Sigi's bikes, reminded me that I was totally shocked when I got to KTM, and found out that they didn't even have a pressure washer. Sigi used a hose and some brushes to wash his bikes. Back at home, at Penton Honda, we had a top of the line L&A machine, which was as good as any car wash of the time. And here I was, at (for those of you who wondered what KTM really meant) Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Motorfahrzeugbaugesellshaft, the maker of the Penton motorcycles, and they didn't even have a pressure washer? I was shocked! How the heck was I going to wash the three or four bikes that I had at my disposal? I couldn't be reduced to using a hose! Well I was, but I got through it.
Dane
Dane, I agree with you. The new chain lubes are so much better than what we use to use. I can remember using WD 40 and then I found out that it breaks down under heat losing its lubing qualities. I abandoned that and broke down and started using the real stuff...
I have never used a pressure washer until the last race in April. The mud at Woodland is a mixture of loam and silt from mount Saint Helens run off. it really sticks to everything. The little electric pressurewasher really worked great.. It is now on my wish list.
We use to go to the local selfhelp carwash and pressure wash the bikes there. but the cemicals that they use I was told are hard on seals. Anyway so for the most part we have always just used a high pressure tip for the garden hose and a brush and dish soap to clean the bikes. I never got too concerned about getting them to look like they just came off the show room floor, after all it was a bike that I rode. No wonder I liked that maico! Not pretty just functional.
Thom Green,I own and ride a 76 250 MC5 MX which I bought new.