A few months ago I was sent a sample bottle of El-Duke degreaser to try out on my bikes, and after working on getting bikes super-dirty in the meantime, I’m in love. It took me a few months to really get a chain super-narsty to give this stuff a really fair shot. But after the monsoon-like weather we’ve had recently it was easy to get a chain to the point where it was so dirty that it was grinding grit into the rings.
Using my Park chain cleaner I went after my hyper-messy chain using El-Duke and it really cleaned the heck out of that chain. In fact, I ended up ruining the chain due to cleaning. I’d intended to lube the chain after cleaning it, but I got distracted packing my bike gear for a weekend cycling trip.
Fast forward to the next day and my super-clean bike chain is mounted to my car’s rack for the seven-hour drive to my destination and watch as the clouds roll in. About three cumulative hours of rain fell on my bike.
The next morning my chain was rusted nearly solid. I’d pulled off so much of the grease that when I forgot to lube it again it was left utterly bare. That’s good cleaning.
The solution is non-toxic, bio-degradable and doesn’t smell like chemical or oranges. It’s sold by a small company which limits the distribution of the solution, there are no more than a dozen places that stock it. If you can find it, pick up a few containers as it’ll quickly become a staple in your workroom.
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What is it? A propionate blend?
Hey just out of curiosity does the degreaser leave a residue of any sort? If it actually cleaned your chain to the point where it had no lube on it, was there a slimy feeling on top after u wiped the chain dry? A lot of times some company will make a great degreaser but the thing is, it will actually reside on your chain and degrease the lube you put on the chain after a cleaning. During the winter I use Rock n’ Roll lube usually since its a very dry lube that doesn’t gunk up easy, but lately NYC has been very humid and rainy so I’ve had to switch from my normal Pedro’s Ice Wax (Really good for dry seasons since its a heavy wax lube) and try a few different lubes until i found Pedro’s CHAINj completely by accident.when I had asked for a bottle of Boeshield T9. (Another great wet weather lube-just doesn’t last too long on the chain) Instead the mechanic there handed me the Pedro’s CHAINj lube in combination with the Finish Line Speed degreaser. I saw the products were fairly cheap priced so I decided to test them out just for the hell of it since all summer my chain has been deteriorating in the weather. KMC Rustbuster chains do slow down the process of rust, but it still happens. So I took out my good old wire brush, sprayed some finish line degreaser on it highly doubting it would work since it was the first bike product I owned that was in an aerosol can. Well I have to say I sprayed it on the chain expecting nothing to happen since it was advertised as it burns the junk off the chain. That was a lie but i sprayed it pretty liberal (remember my chain had a little bit of rust on it around the pins) and got down and dirty with the wire brush. Didn’t see a difference until I took a rag and wiped the chain down. I was amazed…the chain was basically shiny and felt pretty slick. This stuff does not evaporate as they say it does so just be sure to get in there good with a rag and just wipe the excess off. Then i took some of the CHAINj which i assumed coming from Pedro’s wouldn’t work in wet weather, but boy was I wrong. It’s a small overpriced bottle, but this bottle is magic. I ride about 100 miles a week at the least and I was able to leave this lube on for 1month and sure enough there was no extra rust on my chain.