The Hodaka Club Forum

I have a basic question about chain maintenance for our practical wrenches. Most of my years of motorbiking have been on a shaft drive bike, so I'm a noob when it comes to chains. As a kid, we'd cpean the chain with a spray of WD40 and lube it with engine oil.
What is the modern, best-way schedule to clean and lube the chain? Especially short term regular maintenance, technique and interval.
What I have done is during the big annual maintenance is remove the chain, wash it in a pan of mineral spirits, dry it, hang it up and lube it with PJ-1 spray lube.

Just like transmission oil, everyone has their own favorite brand and opinion. Cleaning schedule depends on use - ie: road riding, occasionally as needed, MX racing, every race, etc. Main thing is to keep track of the chain and it's condition. When it gets dirty, clean it. Whenever it gets at all dry, lube it with a good modern chain lube. I prefer the type that sets up like a wax as it doesn't seem to fling off or collect as much dirt.

Found this excellent video on YouTube on cleaning and lubing your motorcycle chain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEmWCK208g

I personally only use a wire brush unless the chain is really cruddy.

Good info on chain maintenance and useful vids on procedures. My "first guess" on how-to is in line with what y'all have suggested. I have a couple of long-handled nylon bristle brushes, and even one of those motorcycle chain brushes shown in the vid. My "anti-splash backstop" is political sign coroplast material and I use a disposable roasting pan for the drippings. Thus far I've been able to coordinate the cleaning/lubing when I've had the scoot on the lift.

I tried going "old school" on my chain one time. I cleaned it in a pan of diesel fuel, hung it to dry, then soaked it in a pan of 30 weight motor oil like I used to do as a kid in the 60's. Talk about a royal mess. That stuff flung everywhere and all over my pants and shoes. Funny how I remembered it differently. Now I stick to spray chain lube like everybody else.

I have been using nothing but WD40 for the last 20 years on all my off road bikes...o-ring chains last me 1200+ miles...only reason i replace them is because the sprockets wear out.

O-Ring chains are really the way to go. I wouldn't use WD40 as lube. It was never intended to be a lubricate like chain lube. But your results seem to be counter-intuitive to that wisdom. Ha!

The procedure I use for cleaning my standard DID chain after racing mx, is fill a small plastic dish pan with simple green and warm water. Soak the chain and clean with a brass bristle brush. Hose it down with garden hose. Hang the chain and dry it off using an air compressor. After that I spray well with PB Blaster so no rust starts forming. Lay it on a towel in and wipe and dry well. Don't forget to do all this with the master link too. Put the chain back on the sprockets. Lastly, I spray it with Bel ray Super Clean white chain lube. This stuff doesn't allow any dirt to cling to it and it awesome stuff.