How To Clean Rusted Bike Gears

Scrub the crank arms and front gear or gears with steel wool and penetrating oil.

How to clean rusted bike gears. The steel used for bike chains tends to rust especially when exposed to salt on the roads which is highly corrosive to steel. With a few things you ve probably already got around your house you can have rusty bike parts looking. Part of the series. With your bike in position apply solvent something like wd 40 or isopropyl alcohol to the chain.

Evaluate the condition of the chain. Use a toothbrush or a brush with long sturdy bristles. Removing rust from bike gears. Wipe them clean with a soft cloth.

Rust and bike chains have an affinity that seems designed to frustrate even the most fastidious biker. Scrub up and down individual spokes to remove rust if needed. Drag a soft cloth between gears to remove particles. Either way it will be cheaper than buying a new.

Since it s only been a year you should be able to do a decent clean up. Bike gears can be cleaned by spraying solvent onto the top of the chain and using a gear brush while the gears are turned. Keep rust removal simple with regular cleanings and lubings that help prevent the orange brown stuff from accumulating. You do this by slowly turning the pedals backward to move the chain a section at a time so you can clean it by either spraying on the solvent as you wipe down the chain with an old rag or by wiping down the chain with a rag that is saturated with the solvent.

Lime will also work best in this situation. Bike gears may take a while to deal with. And they shouldn t get rusty if properly oiled. Few things look worse than rust on your bike but rusty parts don t need to be thrown out.

If despite your best efforts there s still lots of rust left or the bike doesn t feel right then your local bike shop should be able to fix it. In most case you can remove bike rust yourself. Plan on a tune up charge at minimum or some new components in the worst case. A little rust won t hurt the sprockets.

Depending on the severity of your bike rust you may use household items like baking soda and vinegar or cleaning chemicals to get the job done. Scrub the gears on the back wheel. Take a look at your chain up close. To ensure the longest life and best operation of bike chains avid cyclists should clean their chain once.

By gears i assume you re talking about the rear sprockets or perhaps the smallest front sprocket since they re about the only gears that are made of steel. This helps reach tricky parts of the gear mechanism. How to clean bike gears. A rusty bike can turn an enjoyable ride into a bumpy mess or ruin your bike s overall shine.