Question about stripping factory grease. Has anybody just used an ultrasonic cleaner with hot water and something and a degreaser like the citrus degreasers from a hardware store? Will that do the trick or mineral spirits is a requirement? I’m not currently waxing chains I just use a wax drip lube
Silca Stripper is the easiest way to degrease a chain IMO, takes only 10 minutes and you’re done
1 Like
Yes, Adam at ZFC has covered this and so has Josb at Silca. You can even do degreaser in a bottle and shake it, Silca has videos on this on youtube.
Adam is currently testing mineral spirits baths vs. UFO clean vs. Silca Chain Stripper and I think they’re neck and neck.
So if your point is avoiding the mess with mineral spirits or equivalent, I’d look into UFO Clean or Silca Chain Stripper.
See Adam’s guide on how to chain prep and follow it. It’s all there.
2 Likes
I’ve just never seen examples where he uses only degreaser. It’s always degreaser and acetone and denatured alcohol in older videos
Newer stuff is ufo clean and now chain stripper.
I think for the future I’ll use chain stripper since I can use it just to remove factory grease. And then for future cleanings either just use ufo clean or degreaser/cleaner or effete allpine extra.
Why chain stripper and UFO Clean? I’ve never see UFO Clean for both removing factory grease and periodic (on bike) cleaning. Works great.
I haven’t decided yet. Do you soak a chain in UFO clean to remove factory grease? I’ve used UFO clean just for cleaning off cassette chainring.
The chain stripper looks appealing since you just drip it on each chain link.
On bike cleaning
I’ve done that to remove factory grease too, on my grocery store bike and my wife’s Townie Electra. It’s not the best way to remove factory grease.
And @WindWarrior
https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Chain-prep-Guide-Concise.pdf (this has been posted here several times)
So UFO Clean and Chain Stripper are both better alternatives to mineral spirits + methylated spirits for home chain prep.
1 Like
I think what I’m not clear on is when using UFO clean from the spray bottle is it sufficient to just use the spray to remove factory grease or do you need to soak it. They describe it as soaking in 100ml of UFO clean which is 1/5 of the bottle.
So it almost seems from a cost effective standpoint using chain stripper initially to remove factory grease then UFO clean to just clean cassette, chainrings, and chain occasionally might be more cost effective. idk
Adam does not advise that use to strip a chain. Always soak and short agitation. He also offers the “on bike” alternative linked in the PDF.
Per his math, they’re both always more cost effective. For myself it’s the lack of mess and having to deal with disposal of chemicals.
Same
I think the best option is to soak & agitate in either UFO or Chain Stripper when balancing cost, mess, effectiveness, etc. I believe the spray method is really intended for people who want to use drip wax and not remove their chain, although I would still recommend initial prep with immersion in the one of the degreasers above even in that case.
I would personally never do on bike chain stripping. silcas chain stripper is so potent I think you could easily destroy hub, pulley, or BB bearings if any got on them and seeped in past the seals. Plus it’s so easy to clean in a jar
1 Like
ZFC says you can do at least 5 chains per 100 mL.
That’s good to know. I guess I could just keep that 100ml in a separate jar. And just use the UFO clean spray for general cleaning of drivetrain
1 Like
I have waxed chains for my road bike plus two mountain bikes and have always done the mineral spirits soak (2x) + alcohol rinse to strip them. When I started waxing years ago the traditional method was the only choice since these new products hadn’t be developed yet. I never found it to be too much of a burden and since I had all the stuff setup for it I always continued to use that method.
But after looking at the Silca video if I were just getting into waxing today this definitely the way I’d go. And even though the stuff is stupid expensive, a little goes a long way and will do a lot of chains.
2 Likes
What I do is pour off 100ml of ufo, soak a chain in it then pour it into another bottle (marked with an X so I know which!) which I use to clean cassettes, drive trains as and when needed. I’ll reuse this a few times of possible, but working with bikes I generally go through it at a decent speed. One/two/three chains worth of stripping will still leave plenty of power to clean a chainring, and it means I’m slowly disposing of small amounts of contamination within the cleaner so not great, but better than pouring it down the drain…
1 Like
That’s a good idea. I’ve found UFO clean to be very effective at easily cleaning off the drivetrain components. I just do it when things really start to get yucky and I just spray it on, brush it in, let it sit and it rinses right off. I’ve tried other degreaser/cleaners and they do not work anywhere close to as well.
1 Like
Mines usually used on dirtier waxed drive trains, I have a bunch of people on tri tension all weather and if not wiped down it gets a bit gunked up. UFO just melts it off, where degreaser doesn’t do much - it’s not grease after all!)
