Finally got my old 90s mountain bike shifting smooth again after 3 years of bad habits

Honestly I used to just spray WD-40 all over my drivetrain when it got gritty and call it a day. It worked for like a week then everything would get sticky again. Last month I finally watched a video from a shop in Portland about proper chain cleaning and realized I was making it worse by gumming up the jockey wheels. So I picked up a proper degreaser and a chain scrubber tool for like 15 bucks total. After taking the cassette off and actually scrubbing each gear with a brush the difference was night and day. Now I can shift through all 21 speeds without any skipping or noise. Has anyone else had that moment where you figure out you've been doing something basic completely backwards for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbarahill9d ago

Three years of bad habits, I feel that so hard. I did the exact same thing with my old Trek 820 - just dousing it in WD-40 every time the chain started squeaking. It finally clicked when I saw a Park Tool video on chain maintenance and realized I had been trapping grit inside the rollers this whole time. Getting a chain scrubber and a proper degreaser was a total game changer for me too. The first ride after a real clean and lube was like getting a brand new bike.

the_michael8d ago

Keep at it and you will never go back to the WD-40 habit, barbarahill. That first ride after a proper clean really does feel like you swapped out the whole drivetrain. I found that staying on top of it every couple hundred miles beats the heck out of fixing a rusted chain later on.