Silca Chain Stripper

[BRad704]

Just saw this on YT from Silca. Curious to try it, because right now I'm using the combo of Mineral spirits, Simplegreen in the ultrasonic and then water and isopropyl alcohol for drying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttWQeoaCQGA

[drgonzo]

same here, would really be interested to hear if anyone has tried it yet.

[Nomadmax]

Thirty six bucks for 16 ounces? Put me down for mineral spirits and a 20 dollar bottle of Pinot.

[bart998]

I use the $5 gallon of parts cleaner from Harbor Freight. Soak for about an hour and wire brush on a towel. Then I follow up with some Gumout Carb cleaner to remove the residual cleaner (dries rapidly) and blow dry with the air compressor to get anything left out of the bushings.... Cleans out all the old wax. I know because its in the bottom of the bowl when I'm done soaking.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by bart998

I use the $5 gallon of parts cleaner from Harbor Freight. Soak for about an hour and wire brush on a towel. Then I follow up with some Gumout Carb cleaner to remove the residual cleaner

It has literally been decades since I've even thought about Gumout carb cleaner ...but now that you remind me, my recollection of how it worked (and especially how quickly and effectively it worked...on auto carburetors at least) makes me wonder:

Is the hour soaking in parts cleaner really necessary? Couldn't you just saturate your chain with Gumout and have a relatively gunk-free chain in only a few minutes?

[Dave]

If I ride 6000 miles per year, I'll clean chains 10 times, at most. I have 10 chains in rotation, so I co I could go a long time before cleaning any of them, but I tend to do one at a time. It certainly doesn't take a gallon of camp stove fuel to clean 10 times. I used to get a gallon for around $8, but it's now $15. I've got some old water bottles that have been used for chain cleaning. Some are 20 years old. I don't leave chains soaking for very long.

I keep some in a solvent dispenser bottle to apply to paper shop towels for wiping chains before relubing. As a final cleaning I may drizzle some spray brake cleaner or more camp stove fuel on the chain, held vertically over my well used plastic trash can. Allow to dry and then apply my drip wax.

[Upcountry]

I’m a bit confused by the fact they continuously mention using a “new factory chain”, “grease and oils”, but nowhere mentions existing wax. So it sounds to me like this is solely intended to remove factory grease off of a new chain, rather than stripping existing wax/dirt off of a used chain. As such it’s a bit of a bait and switch, to get people over the initial hurdle(which is tiny, and will be encountered 200-300 miles later).

[BdaGhisallo]

Originally Posted by Upcountry

I’m a bit confused by the fact they continuously mention using a “new factory chain”, “grease and oils”, but nowhere mentions existing wax. So it sounds to me like this is solely intended to remove factory grease off of a new chain, rather than stripping existing wax/dirt off of a used chain. As such it’s a bit of a bait and switch, to get people over the initial hurdle(which is tiny, and will be encountered 200-300 miles later).

Why do you need to strip off existing wax from a chain? If you think it's loaded with contaminants, just rinse it off with a kettle's worth of boiling water and throw the chain in the crock pot and re-wax it.

[GregL]

Originally Posted by BdaGhisallo

Why do you need to strip off existing wax from a chain? If you think it's loaded with contaminants, just rinse it off with a kettle's worth of boiling water and throw the chain in the crock pot and re-wax it.

^^^This^^^ I picked up a $1 sauce pot at a thrift store. If my bike /chain is really dirty (e.g., after a wet gravel race), I just place the chain in boiling water to remove any residual contaminents, blow dry with compressed air, then re-hot wax. Quick and easy. My chains last (seemingly) forever.

Greg

[teleguy57]

So I just did a new chain, and even with 2 OMS and 1 acetone bath I must not have gotten it totally clean as it's fairly noisy after waxing. I've waxed chains for a while so I know the silence to expect.

What the recommendation here? I could just throw it back in the wax pot but if it didn't take well the first time will this make any real difference vs figuring out how to strip completely and start over with wax.

[AngryScientist]

ridiculous.

I get that when you run a company, you need new products to drive sales, but seems like at least every month Silca has a new $$$ product that you simply need for chain maintenance.

[BRad704]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

ridiculous.

I get that when you run a company, you need new products to drive sales, but seems like at least every month Silca has a new $$$ product that you simply need for chain maintenance.

To me it's not any more rediculous than when companies started selling chain wax with additives, so you (the customer) doesn't need to buy/blend your own parafin with PTFE or whatever else you want to add.

I also don't think it's every month. And definitely isn't as expensive as when Sram or Shimano come out with new products annually.

Maybe I'm just a sucker, but I've enjoyed the Silca products I have for chains and will keep buying them. I'll prob even buy this stripper when it's time to put new chains on a few bikes.

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by BRad704

To me it's not any more rediculous than when companies started selling chain wax with additives, so you (the customer) doesn't need to buy/blend your own parafin with PTFE or whatever else you want to add.

I also don't think it's every month. And definitely isn't as expensive as when Sram or Shimano come out with new products annually.

Maybe I'm just a sucker, but I've enjoyed the Silca products I have for chains and will keep buying them. I'll prob even buy this stripper when it's time to put new chains on a few bikes.

I am as guilty or worse than the next guy for buying stuff I dont really need, so I'm not throwing any stones here

[mcteague]

Well, it is faster than multiple baths of chemicals...and better for the environment (according to them). One thing I like is you can strip grease and oil off an existing chain while still on the bike. My Campy bike has a pinned chain that I wanted to move to wax but was too much bother to break it and use a quick link. For some reason they always were iffy on that chain so stuck with the pin. With this stuff I can clean it off on the bike and use the Silca drip wax, which I already have. It is pricey but may be worth it on a time/$ calculation. YMMV.

Tim

[fredd]

If this does what it promises, $36 sounds like a very reasonable price to pay to save me from the time and hassle that it is to do it the long way with mineral spirits.