Grease mark on leg - badge of honor? (Page 2)

I have purchased and installed dozens and dozens of chains (SRAM and Shimano) and have never seen a chain packed in grease.  They come in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box, and are dry to slighly waxy to the touch.  They all have an excellent synthetic factory lube, not a grease, on them. 

Check out Sheldon Browns most excellent commentary on chains and factory chain lube.

www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html

Quoted from your article which was pretty interesting:

Factory Lube

 New chains come pre-lubricated with a grease-type lubricant which has been installed at the factory. This is an excellentlubricant, and has been made to permeate all of the internal interstices in the chain.

After reading all the replies I feel compelled to run home and clean my chain and cassette!

As far as getting the grease off... Philosophy "Purity Made Simple" facial cleanser (+ wash cloth) works everytime.  Takes off permanent marker race numbers too!

Thanks for all your helpful suggestions.  Tonight I did an on-bike simple green clean, a toothbrush scrub and rinsed with the hose before applying trilube again, wiping with an old t-shirt whole time.  That seems to have taken care of 90% of the problem.

I live in the far outskirts of Tucson so have dry, dry weather and dust to worry about, so it seems I should be using a dry lube and not trilube.  What dry lube would you recommend, and how often do you lube?

Thanks again, from a total newbie, cat5 tat and all.

I would not mess with the facrory lube if my bike stayed in a sealed box. It would be great. Unfortunately, the real world has water and dirt which breaks down lubricants pretty quick.... and as the topic goes I prefer to not get grease all over me when I actually ride my bike.

I have explained why I like dry lube and since I am going there anyway, it might as well be from the start. But feel free to run your chain how ever you see fit.

Happy Riding!

I am also from Tucson.  I use Purple Extreme.  It collects very little dirt and makes regular cleaning quick and easy.  I found its best to lube the chain... wipe it down with a dry rag, then let dry over night.  The chain will seem almost dry to the touch, but runs smooth.  I do a quick clean and reapply about every 100 miles.  They carry it at ABE on Tucson and 5th.

Hmm, did her chain fall off?

She was obviously in the small ring.