How To Clean A Rusty Bike Cassette
Once dirt is removed look for rust.
How to clean a rusty bike cassette. How to clean a rusty bike chain june 4 2020 june 4 2020 by kristen bonkoski if your bike has been sitting outside for a while or if you live in a wet climate chances are that at some point you ll end up with a rusty bike chain. Since these parts aren t especially cheap to replace let s take a look at how you can clean this part of your bike and keep your drivetrain running smoothly. Wipe off road gunk with a clean dry rag and brush out hard to reach dirt with a small bristle brush or toothbrush. Unlike other parts of your bike the chain is most prone to rusting.
A thin cog brush such as the park tool gearclean or pedro s toothbrush can help with the task. The cassette is one part that often gets overlooked which can hinder your bike s performance and eventually wear down the cogs chain and rear derailleur. The road salt loves the metal on your bike as much as you do. I will upload some pictures tomorrow.
Lay the wheel down flat cassette up. I soaked the freewheel and chain in evaporust for a day. So i took the challenge. How to clean your cassette without bothering to remove it.
Cassette even with proper maintenance cleaning it s hard to completely avoid rust in the winter. If you clean it once a week say every friday before locking it away for the weekend you should be fine. Few things look worse than rust on your bike but rusty parts don t need to be thrown out. The whole drive train is rusty actually so i would have to clean the front and the back and buy a new chain.
Manually clean the cassette chainrings or the whole driveside crank and chain in a degreaser bath. With a shop apron on i usually just put the wheel in my lap. But if i could clean the whole freewheel intact and then maybe just spray some wd 40 and then inject some oil into the bearings that would save a lot of time. You might need several different sized brushes to get into tight areas between side plates and center rollers of the chain.
With a few things you ve probably already got around your house you can have rusty bike parts looking. Some of my viewers wanted to see me try to remove the rust from a very rusty drivetrain and shoot a video of it. Not too soaked but enough to help break up the grime. None of this matters of corse if you don t clean it every now and then.