Olive Oil

C

CoolATIGuy

Intrigued yet? ;)

Just cleaned my chain, hands were greasy, didn't have anything handy to cut through and clean up. Mother-in-law is here, recommended a little olive oil, then soap n' water- worked like a charm! I'm sure there are as many home remedies as there are mothers, but thought I'd share - easy on the hands and a fairly staple cupboard item.

Cheers! :thumbup:
 
CoolATIGuy said:
Intrigued yet? ;)

Just cleaned my chain, hands were greasy, didn't have anything handy to cut through and clean up. Mother-in-law is here, recommended a little olive oil, then soap n' water- worked like a charm! I'm sure there are as many home remedies as there are mothers, but thought I'd share - easy on the hands and a fairly staple cupboard item.

Cheers! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

That of course makes me wonder if you could use Olive Oil to clean the chain.....:D
 
RJ2112 said:
That of course makes me wonder if you could use Olive Oil to clean the chain.....:D
Click to expand...

My first thoughts are, does it have properties that might degrade the o rings, and does chain degreaser have properties that allow the grease and degreaser to all come off together whereas olive oil might be more apt to linger and not come as easily off the chain?
 
CoolATIGuy said:
My first thoughts are, does it have properties that might degrade the o rings, and does chain degreaser have properties that allow the grease and degreaser to all come off together whereas olive oil might be more apt to linger and not come as easily off the chain?
Click to expand...

I'd think that the olive oil would be less damaging to O rings than anything with solvents in it. Pretty much anything that is sprayed out of a can has to have some sort of thinner in it, to allow it to spray. Whatever that is, has to evaporate, leaving the material you want to apply behind.

As the thinner is almost always a solvent, you have to wonder where that all goes..... some must penetrate the O rings. From my thinking, that means applying anything from a spray can is going to degrade the lube inside the rollers at least some small amount. Particularly when we start talking about applying it to a hot chain, so it will intentionally migrate 'in' as the metal cools.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I have had very good chain life using 90 weight gear oil as my only chain maintenance material. Soak a rag, (usually an old wash cloth) scrub the chain lightly, and then wipe it off with another rag.

My belief is that keeping as much of the OEM lube inside the rollers for as long as possible is the key to long chain life. Damage to O rings will let the lube leak out. Whether that damage happens due to mechanical action, or chemical attack, when the O rings fail, the chain has a limited life after that point.

<0.02>
 
RJ2112 said:
I'd think that the olive oil would be less damaging to O rings than anything with solvents in it. Pretty much anything that is sprayed out of a can has to have some sort of thinner in it, to allow it to spray. Whatever that is, has to evaporate, leaving the material you want to apply behind.

As the thinner is almost always a solvent, you have to wonder where that all goes..... some must penetrate the O rings. From my thinking, that means applying anything from a spray can is going to degrade the lube inside the rollers at least some small amount. Particularly when we start talking about applying it to a hot chain, so it will intentionally migrate 'in' as the metal cools.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I have had very good chain life using 90 weight gear oil as my only chain maintenance material. Soak a rag, (usually an old wash cloth) scrub the chain lightly, and then wipe it off with another rag.

My belief is that keeping as much of the OEM lube inside the rollers for as long as possible is the key to long chain life. Damage to O rings will let the lube leak out. Whether that damage happens due to mechanical action, or chemical attack, when the O rings fail, the chain has a limited life after that point.

<0.02>
Click to expand...

I use Kerosene like Yamaha says in the manual. Not sure about gear oil but I did read not to use motor oil on chains.


Olive Oil?? Pass the extra virgins please!
 
Red Wazp said:
I use Kerosene like Yamaha says in the manual. Not sure about gear oil but I did read not to use motor oil on chains.


Olive Oil?? Pass the extra virgins please!
Click to expand...

Kerosene is completely free of solvents. It's really just a very light grade of oil, nearly the same as Diesel... probably around a 0 weight oil, possibly as thick as 5W. I'd think it's about half as thick as Olive oil....

I don't see any point in introducing anything to the chain that is potentially going to degrade the O rings, or remove the OEM lubricant.

There are two (environmental) things that can damage a chain. Grit, and corrosion. The rest of the wear that occurs to a chain is going to happen no matter what you do for maintenance...
 
The only downside on this is you have to waste perfectly good olives, I love olives. Green or black, which one did you use?
 
Well, Goop works fine for me. Wonder if I should use that on my chain too? I personally use a wax though, on my chain. The dupont one that Webbikeworld.com recommends. I mean, if they were getting 10k+ on a 520 chain, sounds good to me. Maybe once I replace the one the stealership farked up then, my 530 will last even longer.
 
I do believe that I will be trying this evoo trick next time I go to lube my chaij

Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
 
The ancient Romans used olive oil as soap, so there really is nothing new under the sun.
They'd mix it with a bit of sand when they really needed to scrub off Barbarian bits after a battle.
Wouldn't recommend mixing it with sand for chain cleaning, however.:D
 
Did Chevy or Hump or anyone else actually try the olive oil on the chain? Sounds like the royal treatment for bikes... lol
 
I completely forgot about this, and over the last month would have been the perfect time to try it since my chain had about had it. I just replaced it last night so I will have to wait a while to try it now lol
 
I just degreased mine today, but not feeling brave enough myself. :) Any tips on cleaning down between the rollers in the inside edges of the links? Rags only get the outside surfaces.
 
I use a chain cleaning brush I picked up from cycle gear. It looks kind of like a over sized tooth brush but with bristles in he shape of a "U" so 3 sides of the chain can be cleaned at the same time. It also has some longer stiffer bristles on the opposite side to use in other spots. Ive used it a bunch and it works great!!! It looks very similar to this View attachment 42798
 
Yep got that, The Grunge Brush, wally world sells them too. Still had some in the links though. Guess cleaning it cold doesn't make it slide off as well though.
 
CoolATIGuy said:
Did Chevy or Hump or anyone else actually try the olive oil on the chain? Sounds like the royal treatment for bikes... lol
Click to expand...

Ohh yeah I completely forgot about this thread :spank: And yes I did use the olive oil :thumbup:........ Humpy wanders off through the 'E' drive of pics :)....................

............
.......................................

Found it :D Came up pretty good I reckon....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Hobbesca
What a day !
Replies
5
Views
670
BamBam
BamBam
Doorag
9 Meals
Replies
7
Views
692
Nelly
Nelly
Back
Top