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Chain Wearing out?

I rode a few times over the winter, so the chain had superficial rust and needed to be cleaned. One time in particular had a lot of salt residue on the roads, but I had to go out to pick up a new battery from the store for one of our cars.

I just soaked the chain in WD40 (I'd prefer kerosene, but I didn't have any handy) and used a blue shop cloth. It seems like just letting the WD40 penetrate and dissolve the rust, then wiping it away, gets about 90% of the rust off as long as it is superficial. I did a little touch up work with a soft bristle toothbrush, but only on the faces of the plates.

I decided that seeing a few slight spots of rust on the chain and sprocket teeth was better than brushing the hell out of my brand new chain and shortening its life.
Check owners manual. I may be wrong but I was thinking that Honda advised against cleaning the chain with kerosene.

Superficial rust would not be harmful to chain function. I would just let it be, lube the chain, and go ride
 
Check owners manual. I may be wrong but I was thinking that Honda advised against cleaning the chain with kerosene.

Superficial rust would not be harmful to chain function. I would just let it be, lube the chain, and go ride
My owner and service manual say nothing about not cleaning the chain with kerosene.
They do say that if Honda's own chain lube is not available, it's recommended to use gear oil.
 
I may be wrong but I was thinking that Honda advised against cleaning the chain with kerosene.
Huh interesting. I always thought it was the other way around: WD-40, being more of a penetrating oil, is not great to use often, but a solvent like kerosene is less harmful. I definitely wouldn't remove the chain and soak it in a bucket of penetrating oil, but a little solvent to clean once a year seems ok.

I don't see anything in the operator's manual about it.
 
Huh interesting. I always thought it was the other way around: WD-40, being more of a penetrating oil, is not great to use often, but a solvent like kerosene is less harmful. I definitely wouldn't remove the chain and soak it in a bucket of penetrating oil, but a little solvent to clean once a year seems ok.

I don't see anything in the operator's manual about it.
Oh well, I don't remember exactly what or where I read about the kerosene. It might have been in a manual for a bike other than the NC. Never mind.
 
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