Question on chain degreasing/lubing

[gripweed]

My chain is making noise again, so I figure it's time to clean up and lube up.

I went and looked at it last night, and the chain had these little orange spots everywhere. Looked like bright orange rust, but it wiped right off.

I had just washed the bike a couple days ago and then it's been sitting since. Could it just be rust washing out with the water and pooling up on the chain and drying like that?

Here's a picture....




This is what I use for degreaser...

http://www.amazon.com/DuPont-Motorcycle-Degreaser-Net-M00110101/dp/B003OBM5EQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1338401880&sr=8-2

and lube...


http://www.amazon.com/DuPont-Teflon-Chain-Saver-Lubricant-CS0110101/dp/B003OBP63S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338401880&sr=8-1




On a book I have for the bike, it warned against using spray lubricant due to damaging o-rings. I figured that was 30 years ago and the spray lubes are probably different now, due to that's all I see, so I'm hoping that didn't cause some issue.


Thoughts?

[1_v8_merc]

it's flash rust.
(which wipes right off)

Just wipe the chain down and get it all off, then relube the chain. That chain looks like it's got a little age on it, no?

[gripweed]

Well it's 30 years old.

Only 8k miles on it though and I'm assuming it was looked over well by the guy I bought the bike off of who restores old barn finds.

It seems to be great, but every 500-600 miles it starts to get a little noisy so I gotta clean and lube.

I'll post a pic after I clean it this weekend and see if ya think it looks bad...I really have no idea.

[Guest]

Iron oxide (= rust) is very soft. When you clean the chain well enough to remove all the lube, you will get flash rust. When I had a bike with a chain, the cleaning procedure was
1) blast chain with high pressure water
2) spray with LPS to displace water
3) apply chain lube.
4) wipe the chain down to remove excess lube.

OTOH, aluminum oxide is quite tough.

[1_v8_merc]

The chain is noisy because it's probably shot!(and old as ****)
I'm tellin ya man, that old 630chain is holding you back!

The chains usually develope Tight and Loose spots in them, and become noisy and put Major Strain on your transmission, and will damage it over time.

I was running an old 630 chain for a while, and had the same problems...once I converted to a 530, the bike was unbelievably different...no noise,smooth and Much faster!

[MAJikMARCer]

Interesting compairson of different cleaning solvents that I found while trying to figure out what LPS was: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=345397

[Don-lo]

Never use high pressure water on an o-ring chain. The o-ring keeps the innards greased, water out. Use kerosene on a rag or soft brush to loosen the grime, wipe it down with a clean rag, and apply chain lube. All the new lube is o-ring safe. I really like tri-flow, started using it back in the early 80s when it was tri-flon. I think this procedure worked out well: my original chain on my GS1000 went 44,000 miles.

[Guest]

When I clean my chain, I get a decent used sock spray it with some WD40 and wipe the chain down good, then take a dry sock and wipe the excess off. I also let it set for a bit for any WD40 to evaporate. Then wipe off again. This way I don't get the orings soaked and cleaned off in short time. Leaves a very nicely clean chain. Relube and off ya go.