How do you keep your chains clean??????

OK, you're on to us.  We never actually take our bikes on the road.

After most rides (or at least once a week when I ride outside), I fill a bucket with hot water and simple green or detergent.  I run the chain through a chain cleaner with degreaser, then use the detergent/simple green on the chain, the rings, and the cassette. I also use the detergent to clean off the rest of the bike, then wax the frame, relube the chain (I prefer an ice wax), a little triflow on the cassette and cables, and put some armorall or some formula 303 on the tires.  Then when I hang up my bike, it looks factory new.

If you clean (and lube) your chain every couple of hundred miles, the road grit won't eat away so much on the chain and cassettes. This will extend their lives. If you are pretty regular about it, the annual maintenance is much easier.  Also, the shifting will be smoother with a clean chain.

I'll be among the first to admit my routine is a bit excessive, but I love the look of a shiny bike. Frame cleaning really only needs to be done once a year, and then mainly so you can see if there are any cracks in the frame. Polishing and tire cleaning is purely cosmetic, obviously.

Bicycletutor.com has a nice video on how to clean and lube the chain here.

Heh...I made the same mistake when I started. I would even ride in the rain and not dry it or clean it and it...rusted. The Bear gave me a tsk, tsk tsk. I learned.

My tri-bike has been hanging from a hook in the mudroom for the last 10 months. (I'd give it the but I was getting ready for a two week backpack trip )

I clean mine about once a month and try to avoid riding in the rain. 

I really do, on my road bike, anyway.  The first time I waxed my bike, I thought about putting that spray stuff you use on car tires to shine them up, but I worried about how they would affect the traction.  So I sprayed on some Formula 303 instead.  I knew it would not make the tires too slippery.  Then I switched to Armorall when I grabbed that bottle once by mistake, and it worked just as well.

The "look" only lasts until I take it out for a ride, but for the day or two between rides as the bike sits in the gearzone, it looks really really shiny! And I have not had any handling issues of the tires getting too slick. 

Honestly, I clean my bike about every 2 weeks and rarely, if ever, clean the chain.  If I see it's really dirty, I will take a rag and spin the chain through it. 

I bought a chain cleaner about 5 months ago and it's still in the package.  But the LBS did clean it before my last big race.  He was probably shaking his head at me.

 I have used White Lightning for years.  That was the wax type lubricant I referred to in my post.  I have never had any problems with using that lube.  I have only switched lately on the advice of my LBS.  I like the performance of the new stuff, but not the way it turns black so fast.

I agree with this post.  I only degrease once at the beginning of the season and once at the end if I managed to ride some in the winter, otherwise I degrease at the end.  They key I have found is the wipe down after each ride. 

I also use a bike stand.  I can' t imagine working on the bike without one anymore!

I don't use dgreaser on the chain because I don't want residue to work its way in and breakdown the new lube. To keep it clean I always use the same non-wax lube. The fresh lube acts as a solvent for the old stuff.

But really the trick is to wipe away the residue so there isn't anything to attract the dirt. Thats why the wax based ones look so nice because they are dry.The lube belongs inside the linkage parts not on the outside. I wipe it every couple of rides. A  cleaner chain will keep your cassette and derailer parts cleaner, too.

Trivia:  In a Pro stage race they replace the chain every day. So it always looks shiny. As a consequence the cassettes don't really wear out, on some of the pro bikes the cassettes are years old but still look new.

I use a repair stand, and I probably would not be nearly so tidy with my bikes without it. As for the degreaser getting in between the links, unless you soak the chain in degreaser, I haven't found it to be an issue.  Run the chain through a chain cleaner first with citrus degreaser, then with detergent, then rinse it off by spinning the pedals and squirting from an old water bottle. The degreaser will be rinsed away, and it's cheaper than pouring lube on the chain, wiping till clean, then re-lubing.

Ummmm, I rarely clean mine.  Oops ....

I will lube it about every month or two.  I will clean it and re-lube it before big races.  And I will always apply lube to it after riding in the rain (after drying it).

I only clean my bikes before bigger races as well.

Honestly, unless you are riding through really crappy areas with lots of dirt and such, or you ride in the rain and wet a lot, I don't see much need to clean it all that often.  Just my preference.  But I also replace my chains about every 2,500 miles or so (really about all you should put on a 10-speed chain.  Obviously plenty go more than that, but then you run into the risk of needing to change the cassette and rings out as well).

x2