How to Grease a Bike Chain

Greasing your bike chain regularly will make it work better and last longer. To extend the life of your bike chain, follow these simple steps.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bike chain lube
• Rag

1. Place the bike upside down in an area that can get dirty like a garage or outside. You'll probably want to place it on top of some newspapers.

2. Inspect the chain. If it's dirty you can wipe it with a rag. A little bit of bike lube or lighter fluid will help the rag clean the chain.
   

3. Drop a small amount of bike lube onto each link of the chain while turning the pedal backwards to move the chain.

4. Turn the pedal for half a minute or so after all the links are lubricated. This helps the lube get distributed.

5. Wipe off any excess lube from the chain and any that has dripped on the bike.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to grease the bike chain before every ride.
• Grease the bike chain with a lube made for bike chains. Grease made for cars or motorcycles is too thick and heavy. WD-40 will work temporarily, but is very thin and won’t last long.

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[laresekae]

on 3/31/2009 i didn't have any bike lube handy, but i had WD-40 and motor grease, and applied them both, so i had the penetrating action of the WD-40, and the staying power of the motor grease... worked pretty well.