DIY Bike Chain Cleaner

Photo credit: Karsten H.68 via Foter.com / CC BY-ND

I’m so annoyed. I saw this blog written by this biker/tech geek who took some leftover cable ducts and turned them into bike chain cleaners. No, seriously. I can’t find the post anywhere and it’s driving me crazy. I’m starting to wonder if I dreamed the whole thing. Stop gaslighting me, internet!

Anyway, this dude works all day long installing horizontal and vertical cable management systems. His life revolves around two things: (1) making sure server farms don’t have crazy messed up cables and (2) biking. One day he cut up a piece of duct and had this little chunk left so he brought it home. He hot-glued some Nylon brushes to the duct ‘fingers’ and voila, an easy-to-use bike chain cleaner. That’s pretty cool, since bike shops can really overcharge for that kind of stuff so if you can make a chain cleaner out of stuff you have lying around, I say go for it.

To clean his dirty bike chain, he simply holds the wire duct in one hand, places the chain so that it runs through the brushes, and cranks the pedals to turn the chain with the other hand. All the grit, sand, pet hair, old leaves and other debris just falls right out.

I think I can make one of these from memory but I’d sure like to find that post. If you find it, paste it in the comments, please!