Grease mark on leg - badge of honor?

Use Goop - Auto Zone / Peep Boys

I was out riding with my daughters this weekend and the one said she had thought about getting a tattoo her calf in the same pattern the chain left. Since she always has it there anyway.

The easiest way to avoid grease marks is to keep your chain clean.  A good degreaser, and being thourough when cleaning your chain, chainrings, cassette, and rear deraileur will take all that grease off completely. 

The key is when you re-apply the chain lube.  You should apply it liberally, getting lube into each link and let it sit there so the lube can make it's way into the pins.  But after that, you should run your chain through a cloth to get all the excess lube off your chain...because that's what the dirt is sticking to and causing your chain to get black.  You don't need lube on the outside of your chain...you need it inside where the pins are...where the chain "pivots".

yup-that's intended as a playfull put down.

A chain ring grease tatoo on your calf is NOT a badge of honor.

Buy a Park Tool cyclone chain cleaner and a good degreaser..  Simple green is cheap and works well.  Dilute it and apply wherever needed on your bike.  Use full strenght in the cyclone chain cleaner.  Get a good cassette brush and clean the gunk from the cassette.  Hose the whole thing down and take a clean cloth and run the chain through it until there is no more black.  Make sure to get the gunk on the teeth of the front rings and the jockey wheels as well. 

Then once it's shinny clean.  Apply a synthetic lube... I use Purple Extreme.  Apply a tiny amount ONLY on the bushing of each link.  Then run the whole chain back through a dry cloth to wipe off excess.  Letting it dry overnight is best.  I can swipe my finger along my chain and have no grime on my finger. 

A shinny chain on a sparkling cassette IS a badge of honor.

I was told that was called a "rookie tat."  Not sure, but I always wipe it off.  Oh, and then clean my chain really well.

jami

This spring has been so wet there's no way I can keep the drivetrain anywhere near clean without making it my life's work. 

I tell myself it doesn't have to be showroom clean to avoid excessive wear.

My wife gets one every single time she rides.  I finally decided to tear down the entire drive train and clean every single part by hand.  It was glimmering.

We did a 75 mile ride.  At the end of the ride she a (albeit faint) mark on the back of her calf

You can never keep a drive train perfectly clean.

Yeah, I've heard it called a newbie tat.

MOST degreasers will work.  Read the bottle first however.  For example if you use Greased Lightning it is NOT safe for aluminum.

If your bike is new, or it is a new chain, it comes with a ton of grease on the chain. Clean that off. WD-40 works well, and degreaser. If you don't, all you will do is have a ton of grease on your chain and loosen it up every time you lube.

If you live in wet you need to use wet lube. Apply it regular, but wipe off excess. You should not have a tone of crap on the chain all the time. And you should therefore not have a ton of crap built up on the chainring to wipe off on your leg.

If you live in dry climate, use dry lube. If you do, then you can use the best thing since spoke.... White Lightening. Liquid based wax. Used it for 15 years now. I can grab any chain I have and not get dirty.

Ha!  Sorry, missed that...

I think I'm older than a lot of you, because we called them Cat 4 tattoos (Cat 5 wasn't around yet). Now just rookie marks to me as I'm not involved with USCF any longer.

I agree that they are not a badge of honor, just a sign of a dirty chain and bad bike handling skills.

Caution. WD-40 is a powerful solvent and might be useful for cleaning, but it is not a sufficient lubricant for a bike chain.  ?And the factory lube on a new chain is better than anything you would put on it.  Most new chains have a sort of wax lubricant that is quite dry and picks up very little road grime.  You can put on a brand new chain and ride it immediatly.  You do not need to degrease a brand new chain.

Interesting.  I think that's actually what I've been using.  I have to go back and check the bottle now.

Grease mark on leg = not a badge of honor.

Scar on my leg from falling during race and having chain ring dig into calf = badge of honor (at least IMO)

I said to use WD-40 as a cleaner, I later said what to lube with. I usually just use my jar of paint thinner, then soap, then dry, then lube.

Every new chain I have ever had was packed in heavy thick grease. Some may like that, I don't. Nothing but a HUGE dirt magnet. As I also stated I use a dry wax lube and there is no need for the grease.... hence the cleaning. YMMV