Pedro's Chain Pig, Hands-Free cleaner with VIDEO
Regular bike maintenance will increase the life of your bikes parts. Washing, adjusting and lubricating are all must. Pedro’s makes this easy to use chain cleaner. With it being easy to use, it makes doing the maintenance less of a hassle. I have had other chain cleaners in the past. Not very good ones, that’s for sure. Not only were they terrible to use, but really didn’t do a good job. For both my road and mountain bike, I recently started using the Pedro’s Chain Pig. I am extremely satisfied with it so far. Easy to use and I think does the best job cleaning the chain over all the others I have used in the past. Of course the best way to really clean the chain, would be to fully remove it. Attach the Chain Pig to the lower part of your chain.
Then fill it with your favorite degreaser through the port on the top of the Pig, there is a “fill line” on the Pig to show you how much to fill it with. It can be used with any degreaser or bike wash. To work this cleaner your chain will be running backwards, or counter-clockwise. The Chain Pig lets you leave the chain on your bike the way it is. As your chain rotates around, the wheels inside with brushes hit your chain from all angles, scrubbing it for you inside the pig. The chain exits the Pig through a sponge, cleaning off the solution on the sides and bottom of the chain but not in between the links. A feature I love of this chain cleaner is the hands-free part. The other chain cleaners I have used in the past, you had to hold your left hand on the cleaner, keeping the cleaner in place, while rotating the chain with the pedal of your right hand.
The hands-free of this cleaner comes into play with a derailleur hook, or in this case the Pig's tail. It simply hooks around the lower bottom bracket pulley wheel on your rear derailleur. This keeps it in place, so your left hand is now free while still using your right hand to rotate the chain around. I rotate the chain around until a dirty foam has formed on the chain, then undo the Chain Pig, scrub the cassette with the included brush or other brush, then rinse off with light pressured water.
You could go back again, of course, and scrub certain links or areas that did not get the grime out. I do this simple and easy cleaning of my chain and cassette about every three or four rides, depending upon how dirty the chain gets from the dusty trails.
The chain did become cleaner, there was s few links and in between some links needed to be scrubbed a lot better. Keep in mind that the lubricant you put on the chain after cleaning will lubricate the metal on metal parts while attracting dirt from the road air.
