How to Clean and Lube Your Bike Chain: The Step-by-Step Drivetrain Guide

If you learn one piece of bike maintenance at home, make it this one. Your chain is the part that wears fastest, and how you look after it decides how long your cassette and chainrings last too.

Here is why chains wear, how to clean and lube one, and how to tell when it needs replacing.

Photo: SportPlus.sg / Isis Ang

Chain Care at a Glance

Why Chains Wear

Cyclists talk about chain "stretch", but as Sheldon Brown's chain guide explains, the side plates are not being pulled out of shape. The main cause is wear. As the chain wears, it gets slightly longer, and a worn chain wears the sprockets it runs on.

Dirt speeds that up. Oil can carry grit into the chain, and the mix of grit and oil acts like grinding compound. Some of that grit is metal worn from the chain and sprockets themselves. How much harm it does depends on where you ride, how you oil the chain, and whether you re-lube it before it gets very dirty.

How to Clean and Lube Your Chain

What You Need

• A Bike Degreaser: Made for bike drivetrains.
• A Brush: A stiff drivetrain brush, an old toothbrush or a clip-on chain cleaner.
• Two Clean Rags: One for grime, one for drying and finishing.
• Bike Chain Lube: Not household oil or motor oil.

Step by Step

1. Degrease: Apply degreaser to the chain, the rear derailleur's small pulley wheels and the cassette, and let it work for a couple of minutes.
2. Scrub: Backpedal while you brush the chain on all sides, and clear the gunk off the pulley wheels.
3. Rinse and Dry: Wipe the chain with a rag as you backpedal until it looks clean. If you rinsed it, dry it thoroughly before you lube.
4. Lube the Inside: Apply lube to the inner side of the chain as you slowly backpedal, so it reaches the pins and rollers.
5. Wipe the Outside: Give it a few minutes, then backpedal through a clean rag to wipe off the excess. You want lube inside the chain, not on the outside collecting dirt.

What Not to Use

Sheldon Brown's guide warns against motor oil, which contains detergent and is designed to be constantly renewed, and household oils such as 3-in-1, which lack extreme-pressure additives and tend to gum up. Use a lube made for bike chains.

Lube belongs inside the chain. The outside should be clean and dry.

Wet or Dry Lube?

Bike chain lubes broadly come in wetter, oilier formulas that hold up better in rain, and drier, waxier ones that pick up less dust. In Singapore's frequent rain, many riders use a wetter lube and wipe the chain more often. Whatever you use, re-lube after riding in the wet, and before the chain gets very dirty.

How to Check for Wear

You can measure wear with a ruler. Line up the zero mark with a link pin and look at the pin 12 inches along. Sheldon Brown's guide:

• Under 1/16 Inch Past the Mark: All is well.
• 1/16 Inch Past: Replace the chain. The sprockets are probably undamaged.
• 1/8 Inch Past: You have left it too long. Your most-used sprockets will be badly worn, and a new chain may skip on them.

A chain checker tool does the same job faster. Either way, replacing the chain on time is much cheaper than replacing the chain, cassette and chainrings together.

Get Your Drivetrain Serviced with BikeCraft One on ATHLO+

Home care keeps the chain going, but a full service looks after the rest of the drivetrain. BikeCraft One's General Service ($85) includes gear tuning and chain lubrication, and the Full Service (from $290) runs through six stages and more than 120 checkpoints. See all options on our bike servicing page.

Ready to know what else to watch for? Read 5 Signs Your Bike Needs a Service next.