Drivetrain maintenance is critical to your bikes perfomance as well as extending the life of your chain, chainring, cassette, and derailleur. This is something that requires inexpensive tools and is easy to do. The drive train should be inpsected after every ride however frequency of drivetrain maintenence depends on how much mountain biking you do as well as the conditions riden in.
If you recall in a previous post on setting up a Sram GX 12 speed derailleur it was obvious that my drivetrain was well overdue for a cleaning. So here it is, how to clean and maintain your mountain bikes drivetrain!
Tools needed:
For the basic “on the bike” maintenance the following tools are needed:
- Chain Scrubber
- Gear cleaning brushs
- The above can be purchased as a single chain/gear cleaning kit
- Pick
- Rag
- Chain Lubricant
In order to perform a deep clean (discussed below) additional tools are needed. Check here as these were all included in the must have tools post. This will include the following at a minuimum:
- Allen keys
- Chainlink removal tool
- Chain whip
- Socket for cassette removal
- Grease
Lets break drivetrain maintenance down into three categories: After Every Ride, Monthly, and Bi-Annually
Drivetrain Maintenance After Every Ride
This is the very basic drivetrain maintenance however is critical after every ride. Nothing needs taken off the bike to perform this maintenance.
- Hold a rag on the chain and spin the crank backwards. Do this several times getting most of the dirt off the chain. A chain brush coul also be used here as well.
- Inspect the Cassette to ensure no grass or dirt is in between the gears. Use either the gear brush or pick to clean out the cassette as needed.
- Note that leaving debris between gears can cause the chain to not fully seat on the cassette and cause damage including broken teeth…trust me I know!
- For 12 speed cassettes the gear tool doesn’t always fit between gears, which is why the pick is needed.
- Apply lubricant to the chain
- Applying lubricant after a ride allows it to dry and therefore ready for the next ride.
Monthly Drivetrain Maintenance
In addition to the items above the following should be performed:
- In place of the chain brush or rag use the chain scruber. Install chain scrubber onto the chain, fill with some water and degrease, and spin the crank several times. Afterwords dry the chain off with a clean rag.
- Clean any build up and grease off of the derailleur jockey wheels with the gear brush, pick and rag.
Bi-Annual Drivetrain Maintenance
This is considered a deep clean of the drivetrain and does require parts to be removed from your bike.
- Remove the Chain, Cassette and Jockey wheels from the rear derailleur.
- Place the chain and Cassette in a bowl of degeaser and allow to sit. Ensure all parts have been exposed to some of the degreaser. Here is the degreaser I use.
- Remove the dust covers off the jockey wheels with a pic and apply additional grease to the exposed bearings.
- There is an upper (U) and lower (L) jockey wheel that are NOT identical but marked. Take notes and place keep when taking apart
- Re-install Jockey wheels on rear derailleur
- After the chain and cassette have set for 30 or more minutes in degreaser remove, rinse and allow to dry before reinstalling.
- Once everything is back on the bike apply chain lube.
Bonus Drivetrain Maintenance Tips
- Use a Chain Gauge to meaure chain wear to determine when to replace your chain which will also save your cassettes life.
- If the shorter (.75) side of the tool falls into the chain it means the chain is worn and needs replaced.
- If the longer (1.0) side of the tool falls into the chain its possible the worn chain has damaged the cassette. The cassette could now also need replaced.
- Replace rear cassette under the following conditions
- After 3 or 4 chain replacements when found to fail the .75 test above
- If the chain skips teeth this will sound like ghost shifting gears but instead of jumping gears the chain is actually skipping over teeth. Typicall this will happen in your most used gear whene you are really getting after it.
Keeping up with your drivetrain maintenance is crtical. This keeps the bike shifting smooth and extends life of these not so cheap components. Take the couple minutes required and apply the above maintenance for a long lasting smooth shifting drivetrain.
