My winter program is to wear the whole thing into the ground. An old chain, cassette and chairing can stay on all winter if you just let the oil/dirt residue build up. When I hit the shoulder season, I just leave the old drive train on and keep applying oil. Every so often I rub off some excess but in general just leave it a big oily mess.
It drives the shop guys crazy and every so often one of them "does me a favour" and cleans the drive train, charges me $20 to do it and I have to throw it away because the chain sucks and everything is far too gone to replace any one part.
I don't see the point in running a new drive train in the winter and trying to keep it all looking fresh and new. A big ol oily mess actually runs better than you think and all the gunk makes it forgiving when running it into the ground. If I ran a new retrain in the winter and swapped on a chain or two, I'd have to replace it in the spring anyways. This way I just run the one that is half worn all winter and start fresh in the spring.
Jan. 18, 2020, 10:10 p.m. - Reed Holden
My winter program is to wear the whole thing into the ground. An old chain, cassette and chairing can stay on all winter if you just let the oil/dirt residue build up. When I hit the shoulder season, I just leave the old drive train on and keep applying oil. Every so often I rub off some excess but in general just leave it a big oily mess. It drives the shop guys crazy and every so often one of them "does me a favour" and cleans the drive train, charges me $20 to do it and I have to throw it away because the chain sucks and everything is far too gone to replace any one part. I don't see the point in running a new drive train in the winter and trying to keep it all looking fresh and new. A big ol oily mess actually runs better than you think and all the gunk makes it forgiving when running it into the ground. If I ran a new retrain in the winter and swapped on a chain or two, I'd have to replace it in the spring anyways. This way I just run the one that is half worn all winter and start fresh in the spring.