[Kaufmanrider]

if you cant get kerosene you can use plain old Diesel from a gas station pump.

but never use gasoline !

You can get a small bottle of kerosene at Walmart in the camping section for a few bucks. I use it to clean the chain, than lube with a brush and 80W oil, about every 500-700 miles, or after I ride in some heavy rain.

[phroziac]

you need to oil your chain any time it doesnt look oily, regardless of milage....

[Syndacate]

You're not supposed to use a whole bunch of kerosene, that would be wasteful. Just pour it in something small and dip the brush in it and gently scrub the chain with the kerosene. Doesnt take that much. Hell you can even re-use it to an extent, but i doubt you want to.

Problem is, you dont want to clean that chain any more than you have to. That brush is going to tear up the o-rings if you get too agressive or do it too much. Tear up the o-rings and the chain's life is severely shortened due to what those o-rings are holding in...

Also, when hiding contraband, you are better off hiding a smaller amount of it. Think about it.

And thats bull**** that you cant have oil lamps. Of course, maybe you dont have as many power outages as we do here....

I've never had a power outage in the 4 years I've lived here - 'cept once, and that was planned because they were setting up a new appt complex and needed to do some of the core wiring.

At my house it's different, power outages all the time, but here, at school, at RIT, one of the richest *** tech schools in the country? Hell no, not with the tuition rates we have to pay . But even outside of the school I'd say I don't think I've ever seen the power out around town, the main monopoly power company in the area does a good job at keeping **** up and running. Though at home we have a whole-house generator with an automatic transfer panel and starter - we only lose electricity for 10s or so...gotta be one of the greatest things we ever put in..

Anyway, that goes back to the brush deliemma, a lot of people say don't use X brushes because they tear up the O rings, a lot of people say don't use ANY brush because they tear up the O rings, then more people say they use a brush and it doesn't tear up the O rings...Gahh...Another thing nobody can agree on..

With how easy it is to hide ****, here, if I had to make the choice of getting a larger for a lot cheaper (and I'd actually use it all), and smaller, with a higher unit price, I'd go bigger.

You can get a small bottle of kerosene at Walmart in the camping section for a few bucks. I use it to clean the chain, than lube with a brush and 80W oil, about every 500-700 miles, or after I ride in some heavy rain.

What type of brush do you use?

you need to oil your chain any time it doesnt look oily, regardless of milage....

It seems the widely agreed upon average guideline is 500 miles, unless you've been on dusty roads or something. I'm thinking of ~250-300 for mine, as I like to be preventative like that..

[phroziac]

I've never had a power outage in the 4 years I've lived here - 'cept once, and that was planned because they were setting up a new appt complex and needed to do some of the core wiring.

At my house it's different, power outages all the time, but here, at school, at RIT, one of the richest *** tech schools in the country? Hell no, not with the tuition rates we have to pay . But even outside of the school I'd say I don't think I've ever seen the power out around town, the main monopoly power company in the area does a good job at keeping **** up and running. Though at home we have a whole-house generator with an automatic transfer panel and starter - we only lose electricity for 10s or so...gotta be one of the greatest things we ever put in..

Anyway, that goes back to the brush deliemma, a lot of people say don't use X brushes because they tear up the O rings, a lot of people say don't use ANY brush because they tear up the O rings, then more people say they use a brush and it doesn't tear up the O rings...Gahh...Another thing nobody can agree on..

With how easy it is to hide ****, here, if I had to make the choice of getting a larger for a lot cheaper (and I'd actually use it all), and smaller, with a higher unit price, I'd go bigger.



What type of brush do you use?



It seems the widely agreed upon average guideline is 500 miles, unless you've been on dusty roads or something. I'm thinking of ~250-300 for mine, as I like to be preventative like that..

I'm planning on going on some long rides soon. The KR rally might not be possible this year for me, but I'm going to be riding ~350 miles to the UP and back. Am i suppposed to carry kerosene with me and stop and clean along the way? If i do go to the KR rally, that's going to be about 1700 miles of nearly continous riding...no cleaning. That's a lot more than i'd normally go without cleaning, but on a long ride like that, the chain can deal with it, as long as i stop and oil it ..quite a few times. (700 mile one-way trip, 700 miles back, probably a good 300 miles of riding when im there...)



And i've seen people on this thread say things like, lube every 500 miles, etc. Now, I just got my bike and for whatever reason didnt lube my chain for about 300 miles, and then i realized how much i was riding it, and that it was a little dry, and felt very guilty. But now i lube it a lot more, more like every 150 to 200 miles. I have no problem with stopping on a long ride and lubing it, especially since I use oil, and it flings off a lot faster than a chain lube would.

As for brushes, a brush really can tear up the o-rings. It's a pretty simple and obvious fact. I haven't even cleaned my chain yet, other than just wiping it off with a rag. But if you aren't using a wire brush (therse a guy on this forum that swears by it, wtf? i wanna see his chain!), and aren't getting all OCD on it and trying to get every last little particle off it, you should be fine. But 500 miles is overkill, my chain isn't even close to dirty at 500 miles. 1000 miles sure, but i'd rather clean it on the "when i feel it needs it" scale. If i go to lube it and it needs it, im gonna clean it!

Are you really going to stop and clean your chain 5 times in a day and a half ride (1000 miles)?

I'm personally gonna use an old tooth brush on it. Problem is, i dont have one.. I'm gonna prematurely replace mine to take care of that.

Also, i want to point something else out. If you are using an oil or lube that flings kind of a lot, it will keep your chain cleaner....the dirt flings off with the oil. I used to use a chain wax when I had a dirtbike, but I switched to oil for the kat with the realization of the fling issue. Wax doesnt fling *AT ALL*, therefore it traps dirt on it. You have to clean a waxed (offroad) chain every time you lube it, so it doesnt end up between layers of wax...but, the advantage for a dirtbike is obvious...if you clean it when you should (every time you ride lol), the dirt never really gets into the lube.

I'm using 30 weight motor oil, so that has a lot to do with why my chain doesn't need to be cleaned at 500 miles, at all. I'm going to start using 90 weight gear oil this week, and i'm also going to replace the gear oil in my differential in my car as well. I suspect it'll be a lot better than 30 weight.

Hell, without even going on a long ride, i often ride 200 miles in a day. I'm not going to clean my chain every day. That's ridiculous!

[Syndacate]

I'm planning on going on some long rides soon. The KR rally might not be possible this year for me, but I'm going to be riding ~350 miles to the UP and back. Am i suppposed to carry kerosene with me and stop and clean along the way? If i do go to the KR rally, that's going to be about 1700 miles of nearly continous riding...no cleaning. That's a lot more than i'd normally go without cleaning, but on a long ride like that, the chain can deal with it, as long as i stop and oil it ..quite a few times. (700 mile one-way trip, 700 miles back, probably a good 300 miles of riding when im there...)



And i've seen people on this thread say things like, lube every 500 miles, etc. Now, I just got my bike and for whatever reason didnt lube my chain for about 300 miles, and then i realized how much i was riding it, and that it was a little dry, and felt very guilty. But now i lube it a lot more, more like every 150 to 200 miles. I have no problem with stopping on a long ride and lubing it, especially since I use oil, and it flings off a lot faster than a chain lube would.

As for brushes, a brush really can tear up the o-rings. It's a pretty simple and obvious fact. I haven't even cleaned my chain yet, other than just wiping it off with a rag. But if you aren't using a wire brush (therse a guy on this forum that swears by it, wtf? i wanna see his chain!), and aren't getting all OCD on it and trying to get every last little particle off it, you should be fine. But 500 miles is overkill, my chain isn't even close to dirty at 500 miles. 1000 miles sure, but i'd rather clean it on the "when i feel it needs it" scale. If i go to lube it and it needs it, im gonna clean it!

Are you really going to stop and clean your chain 5 times in a day and a half ride (1000 miles)?

I'm personally gonna use an old tooth brush on it. Problem is, i dont have one.. I'm gonna prematurely replace mine to take care of that.

Also, i want to point something else out. If you are using an oil or lube that flings kind of a lot, it will keep your chain cleaner....the dirt flings off with the oil. I used to use a chain wax when I had a dirtbike, but I switched to oil for the kat with the realization of the fling issue. Wax doesnt fling *AT ALL*, therefore it traps dirt on it. You have to clean a waxed (offroad) chain every time you lube it, so it doesnt end up between layers of wax...but, the advantage for a dirtbike is obvious...if you clean it when you should (every time you ride lol), the dirt never really gets into the lube.

I'm using 30 weight motor oil, so that has a lot to do with why my chain doesn't need to be cleaned at 500 miles, at all. I'm going to start using 90 weight gear oil this week, and i'm also going to replace the gear oil in my differential in my car as well. I suspect it'll be a lot better than 30 weight.

Hell, without even going on a long ride, i often ride 200 miles in a day. I'm not going to clean my chain every day. That's ridiculous!

I didn't mean clean every 500 miles, I meant lube every 500 miles. From what I gather the average for cleanings is 2/3x a season, or once other lube, or once every 1k or so. That just seems to be the general guidelines that people follow.

I plan on lubing my chain every 250-300/400 or something like that (haven't quite decided yet). If I was going to make a long trip though, it'd obviously mostly be highway driving, which isn't really going to be bad on the chain, not a lot of change in pace, it's pretty nice to the bike as a whole if you think about it in comparison to towns where it's stop and go, constant shifting, etc. That being said, if I had to drive 1700 miles, I'd probably do it 5-600 miles, and clean it before I go, and right before I start to make the trip back.

1700 miles one way is a lot, IMO, though. I plan on making my first "long" trip when I get my license. I'm going to drive 250-270 (depending on which route I take) miles to my dad's house. Ha, then I need to go to my mom's house and surprise her - she'll have a heart attack =).

Guess we'll see how I do on that trip before thinking of something longer. I'm going to fill out the form for an MSF tomorrow that's July 22nd/24/25 in case I fail my road test (which I suspect I most definitely, without a shadow of a dobut will fail), Jul 14th. Wouldn't attempt anything as long as 3400 round my first season, though.

So yeah, under avg conditions around town I'm thinking lube every 250-500 (give or take), and clean every 800 or so. Though if I was going on a long trip (constant highway) I'd say lube every 5-600 and clean before leaving both ways..

My views are still inexperienced, obviously, only been riding a month or so, I'm just using what seems logical/common sense...

[H-2 CHARLIE]

If you lube a chain every 3-4 tanks of gas your fine thats like almost 800 miles on a stock kat . I wipe my chain with a wet rag of kerosene about every 1000 miles then lube it often ...dont make me tell you how racers floss there chain with two types of nylon string

[Free Coffee]

If you lube a chain every 3-4 tanks of gas your fine thats like almost 800 miles on a stock kat . I wipe my chain with a wet rag of kerosene about every 1000 miles then lube it often ...dont make me tell you how racers floss there chain with two types of nylon string

Well....**** all that nonsense. Though- I guess it'll give me something to do in January.

[Syndacate]

If you lube a chain every 3-4 tanks of gas your fine thats like almost 800 miles on a stock kat . I wipe my chain with a wet rag of kerosene about every 1000 miles then lube it often ...dont make me tell you how racers floss there chain with two types of nylon string

Okay, that's ridiculous, I'm definitely not that anal about it. I don't need racing perfection, if I did, a diet would be a lot more beneficial than a few grits of sand.

Mine's more like 500miles or so it seems. I get about 35mpg around town, so about 3.5gal is from full to the top of the red zone, which is where I typically fill it up.

I'm probably going to clean it to a schedule similar to yours.

[phroziac]

I didn't mean clean every 500 miles, I meant lube every 500 miles. From what I gather the average for cleanings is 2/3x a season, or once other lube, or once every 1k or so. That just seems to be the general guidelines that people follow.

I plan on lubing my chain every 250-300/400 or something like that (haven't quite decided yet). If I was going to make a long trip though, it'd obviously mostly be highway driving, which isn't really going to be bad on the chain, not a lot of change in pace, it's pretty nice to the bike as a whole if you think about it in comparison to towns where it's stop and go, constant shifting, etc. That being said, if I had to drive 1700 miles, I'd probably do it 5-600 miles, and clean it before I go, and right before I start to make the trip back.

1700 miles one way is a lot, IMO, though. I plan on making my first "long" trip when I get my license. I'm going to drive 250-270 (depending on which route I take) miles to my dad's house. Ha, then I need to go to my mom's house and surprise her - she'll have a heart attack =).

Guess we'll see how I do on that trip before thinking of something longer. I'm going to fill out the form for an MSF tomorrow that's July 22nd/24/25 in case I fail my road test (which I suspect I most definitely, without a shadow of a dobut will fail), Jul 14th. Wouldn't attempt anything as long as 3400 round my first season, though.

So yeah, under avg conditions around town I'm thinking lube every 250-500 (give or take), and clean every 800 or so. Though if I was going on a long trip (constant highway) I'd say lube every 5-600 and clean before leaving both ways..

My views are still inexperienced, obviously, only been riding a month or so, I'm just using what seems logical/common sense...

I've been riding a month longer than you or so, but being a longhaul trucker i only ride every couple of weekends...so chances are you've ridden more than I!

That trip i mentioned is 1700 miles round trip, one way would be nuts!!

Anyway, i gotcha. However, i'd rather just oil it when it needs it, myself. pretty easy to tell,

Okay, that's ridiculous, I'm definitely not that anal about it. I don't need racing perfection, if I did, a diet would be a lot more beneficial than a few grits of sand.

Mine's more like 500miles or so it seems. I get about 35mpg around town, so about 3.5gal is from full to the top of the red zone, which is where I typically fill it up.

I'm probably going to clean it to a schedule similar to yours.

thats a damn nice looking chain though

[zcphoto]

doesn't anyone use gear oil? that is what is says to use in the manual. i bought some with teflon, it was cheap and seems to do the job. to clean i spray on some simple green (mountain bikers trick) and let it sit for a few minutes and then hose it off. no brushes, no taking off chain to soak etc. with the oil it just doesn't get that dirty.

i have never used wax but it would seem to me that it would be a pain in the @ss to clean the old stuff off. also dirt sticks to it and that is going to wear down the chain/sprockets.

[phroziac]

doesn't anyone use gear oil? that is what is says to use in the manual. i bought some with teflon, it was cheap and seems to do the job. to clean i spray on some simple green (mountain bikers trick) and let it sit for a few minutes and then hose it off. no brushes, no taking off chain to soak etc. with the oil it just doesn't get that dirty.

i have never used wax but it would seem to me that it would be a pain in the @ss to clean the old stuff off. also dirt sticks to it and that is going to wear down the chain/sprockets.

I used to use maxima wax on dirtbikes. It works great but only if you're religious about cleaning. The dirt stays on the wax not the (inside of the) chain. It also looks really cool. I tried to use it on mountain bikes but it made it harder to pedal haha..

Im switchin to gear oil this week. Motor oil works great but a little thin.

As for simple green, mountain bikers trick? it's a trick in *every* hobby involving nasty dirty greasy ****, lol. I used to race rc cars, it was the only thing that took the sludge off without taking paint off.

[ctandc]

That proves nothing. You didn't try any other motorcycle chain lubes on that chainsaw. I bet maxima would perform just the same. That said, it's a VERY different application. I will remember this for when i buy a chainsaw though.....

Actually the application IS THE SAME. The idea is to reduce the wear on a chain from friction, which causes HEAT.

And common sense tells me that a chain saw cutting wood would generate more friction than a motorcycle chain under normal conditions.

But in all honesty, if the Dupont lube wasn't so cheap and easy to get, I'd probably just use WD-40. I hear the horror stories on the internet, but all I have to do is walk down the street to see the guy who has at least a couple HUNDRED thousand miles on motorcycles and all he uses is WD40.

And I had over 20K on my chain / sprockets on the Kat when I replaced them. They honestly didn't need replacing, I had scored a REALLY good deal on a 15/47 setup with RK chain to replace the stock 600 14/46 setup.

[Staerke]

Wd-40.

[phroziac]

Actually the application IS THE SAME. The idea is to reduce the wear on a chain from friction, which causes HEAT.

And common sense tells me that a chain saw cutting wood would generate more friction than a motorcycle chain under normal conditions.

But in all honesty, if the Dupont lube wasn't so cheap and easy to get, I'd probably just use WD-40. I hear the horror stories on the internet, but all I have to do is walk down the street to see the guy who has at least a couple HUNDRED thousand miles on motorcycles and all he uses is WD40.

And I had over 20K on my chain / sprockets on the Kat when I replaced them. They honestly didn't need replacing, I had scored a REALLY good deal on a 15/47 setup with RK chain to replace the stock 600 14/46 setup.

Application is the same? Uhm, my kat's chain doesnt cut anything. if yours does you have an issue.

I read this whole post as "im right because im always right and i dont care"

[ctandc]

Application is the same? Uhm, my kat's chain doesnt cut anything. if yours does you have an issue.

I read this whole post as "im right because im always right and i dont care"

Nope. Just trying to relay knowledge that I've picked up and that's been relayed to me by riders much smarter than I.

It is what it is.