How to clean and oil your chain

Inspect your chain and sprockets

To begin with, get your motorcycle out in the sun and have a close look at your chain and sprocket. If your chain is encased in a chain cover you may want to take it off to go further. First thing you check for is the wear, as the chain and sprockets are moving parts which are prone to wear. When inspecting your sprockets, check for roughness or reduced tooth section and hooked or wave shaped tooth tips. Worn sprockets also equate to a worn chain and since they are all part of the final drive components, it is best to replace both sprockets and chain all at once. However, if the chain and sprockets are still in good shape and just have a bit of surface rust or are greasy here is what you should do.

Clean your chain and sprockets

Completely dry with surface rust or extremely greasy chain and sprocket all require a good clean. There are a number of tools and degreasers available that promise to help clean the chain more efficiently but we will help you with the most basic step. All you will need is an old toothbrush, a rag and a bucket of water or a high pressure washer. Get prepared to get your hands dirty and get right into it. Use the rag for all of the accessible surfaces and the toothbrush for hard to reach surfaces. Spraying the chain and sprockets with high pressure water will save you from this dirty work but make sure to use the rag midway to get a thorough clean.

Alternative tool and products – Chain cleaning brush and chain degreaser sprays.

Let it dry

There’s not much to explain here, let all the water or the alternative product used dry. This will help nothing come between the oil and your chain and sprockets.

Alternative tool – Pressured air.

Oil it up

There are a number of chain sprays available off the shelf, use any. They come in two main types – wet and dry. As their names suggest, wet chain spray is suitable for wet conditions, the dry lube is suitable for dry conditions. The sticky wet chain spray will stick to your components and is less likely to get washed off by rain. The downside, because it is sticky, it picks up the dirt from the road. Dry chain spray is much lighter and cleaner, the downside is that because it is that much lighter, it'll get washed off in wet conditions. Choose wisely and give your chain and sprockets a good spray, make sure each chain link is clean and shiny by the end of it.