Chain Maintenance
Chain care is two easy steps!
I've done this for years.
I've tried all kinds of lubes and always come back to Maxima Chain Wax.
Non fling free lubes go everywhere like someone poured a quart of motor oil on your wheel when going 55.
Other brands' anti-fling lubes tend to clump and fling sticky clumps to your wheel and the left side of the tail.
WD40 is a disaster. People say they love it and so I tried it. It totally dried out my chain and caused all kind of fling.
As far as using WD40 to "clean" a chain, it works, but will promote fling subsequent the first application of Chain Wax.
I clean and lube my chain every 300 ~ 600 miles.
I typically lean closer to 300 miles, but when we ride to Laguna Seca, we go 500~600 miles each way and lube before going and then there for the return trip.
I typcially get 15,000 ~ 18,000 miles of life out of DiD VM chains.
Step one - Spray on
Here, I cup a rag behind the chain to protect the tire and wheel from overspray.
Then I hose down the exposed run of chain.
Step two - Wipe off
With the chain wet with the Chain Wax, I scrub it with the rag until the chain looks new.
If you can't scrub the chain's plates absolutely clean, you may need to repeat step 1 for this section of chain.
That's it!
Repeat steps until entire chain is clean. Obviously, life is easier with a rear stand, but you can simply roll the bike for repeating the steps.
On our race bikes, I do a similar procedure, but I quickly and lightly lube the entire chain with Maxima's Synthetic chain lube and then I wipe the entire chain.
This will yield acceptable fling but the light applicaiton only lasts about 100 miles.