>
> My opinion is to clean with kerosene and lube with 90 wt gear
> oil - just
> like the manual says.
> Do this on both my bikes with good results.
>
not to say your method is bad, far from it. but for those of us who are too
lazy, or who ride lots in the dirt and prefer riding to messing with stuff,
or for those who don't know what to do with the leftover kerosene with all
the gunk in it, don't feel like you're destroying your bike or anything.
as long as you clean most of the gunk off (you can use simple green and a
bucket and brush, right on the bike), and lube your chain with something,
sometime, you'll probably be fine. i find that much of the year in
california, there's so much dust that simply using a brush and water after a
ride gets it pretty dang clean. then i wd40 it, and put real lube on the
next day. total time, about 3-4 minutes.
even if it were true that my laziness were to make my chain wear faster, if
it takes 15 minutes to do the kerosene and 90 wt thing (i have no idea how
long it really takes), and if i did it every 1000 miles, then my method
saves enough time in 10000 miles to justify just buying a whole new set of
chain/sprockets. and after 10000 miles, my chain and sprockets still seem
fine, so i think i'm coming out ahead, unless i vastly overestimated the
time or frequency of the fancy cleaning job.
anyway, just ride, use something for lube, and don't use too much of it, and
everything will be fine.
mw