2Wheeltips

I was sent by Carol and Tony (thank you both) 2 products seen at the recent bike show in NYC to evaluate, and I'll report my impressions on both in the same column as their use is related.

The soybean-based chain cleaner, Bean Clean, came in a little sample-sized plastic or polyethylene type bottle with a hard plastic top with a integral sprayer, covered by a little clear plastic screw-on cover over the sprayer (more about that later).
Fortunately for me, the bike I tried both of these on (a Kawasaki Ninja 250) made it simple, it has a centerstand so it's easy to rotate the rear wheel and get to the whole chain and rear sproket fairly easily. You do have to bend down or sit on the ground beside your bike. Those of you without a centerstand have a more difficult time, you either have to keep rolling the bike along, or use a lift or other gadjet to get the rear wheel off the ground, or able to rotate. (Perhaps one of those roller devices under the rear wheel may work - that's another topic, not for here).
Anyway, the Bean Clean works fairly well to dissolve the old oil/grease that was on my chain. This bike is a 2006 with 4100 miles on it, I bought a few months ago and I'm not sure what if any maintenance was done on the chain. Although it looked pretty clean, the cleaner removed a lot of crud off the chain, it surprised me how much. It formed little black granules the size of sand grains as the stuff dripped off the chain as it was rotated. The sprayer on the samle I had emits a small stream of liquid, not an atomized spray like you'd get from a regular spray can, and that was OK, lets you direct it where you want it to go rather than all over the place and eliminates waste. (The regular sized container for this stuff is a larger metal spray can, is pressurized, and I think it comes with a straw to attach to the can some it comes out in a stream also.) You let it soak for a short time as you rotate the chain to cover the whole length, apply it to the teeth of the sproket too, use a small brush or toothbrush on the chain, then you are supposed to rinse it off with a very gentle stream of water. When you do that, little granules of black dirt (oil/grease ?) come off, and I rubbed the rest of it off with the toothbrush and a rag under a light stream of water. (By the way, never use a heavy fast pressurized stream of water anywhere on your bike - you don't want to force debris into your chain, air cleaner, carb, or your electrics. Wash the bike with a very gentle light spray or drip the water on).
Low and behold the chain was very clean. I must say, I have never seen a really clean or new chain before. So this stuff works, It even cleans off your hands. But a word of caution here - you are using a solvent to remove oil /grease residue and dirt from your chain. When I first rinsed it off there was a sheen of oil floating on top of my concrete pad where I was working. When I was done, I thoroughly rinsed off the whole area to remove all of that (onto the grass, Geez), Maybe it cleaned up fairly well because it is water based ? But do not get the dripping on your tires, the last thing you want is oily stuff on your tires, believe me you will regret it.
And make sure you thoroughly clean up under your bike, you also don't want that residue on the bottom of your boots. So like I said, the stuff works, and as an addition, there's no odor whatsoever, not like using kerosone which lingers for a while like a skunk does.
If you go to their website, www.chaindrain.com, they also make a little device like a shield which drains into a small container for neatness and ease of cleanup. It seems just large enough to catch drips or overspray from using the Bean Clean, would not be a suitable size for containing rinse water from a hose, it's too small. If you use a water spray bottle it would work better. If you recover any drippings, I don't know if you can reuse what you've recovered, but you could try it.
A can of cleaner costs $6, 4 for $22, the Chain Drain is $36, or with a can of cleaner $40. Their site also has a link to a review from webbike world, which I read after writing this, and they liked it too. And it's biodegradable which is a plus and is supposed to be 100% safe for O-rings.
Now back to the top cover on the little spray bottle. I don't know exactly what's in that cleaner, but when I went to screw the clear plastic top back on the spray bottle, it was very loose, wouldn't screw back on. It seemed like the cleaner dissolved the screw threads on the top, and softened, melted, removed most of the thread on the plastic top of the polyethene bottle it was in. Right now it's sitting in a plastic baggie because the cover won't screw back on, Hopefully it won't dissolve the container.

Now to the Kleen Chain synthetic chain lube. It also came in a soft plastic type bottle, squeezable, 4 oz. size, with a foam applicator attached like a shoe polish applicator. The bottle is meant to be squeezed and the thick (very thick) synthetic grease comes out through a hole in the center of the foam applicator and then it is spread over the chain. The first time I tried to use this a few weeks ago, it was maybe 55-60 degress outside, and I couldn't get anything to flow out of the bottle, it wouldn't gravitiate to the business end from the bottom of the container, too cold, to thick to flow. I heated up a pan of water on the stove and let it sit in there for 10-15 min, then went outside to try again. I lubed up 3 bicycle chains with it, but it took forever to get the stuff to flow out onto the applicator. I then gave up waiting for warmer weather. As a plus, your hands stay pretty clean, the only thing that gets greasy is the applicator.
Today, because it has finally warmed up to 70, after cleaning the chain, wiping it off and allowing it to dry, I tried it on my Ninja again. This time the grease did flow when the bottle was squeezed, although it's very slow to squeeze out 1 cc. at a time, apply it by rubbing it on the chain, squeeze out a little more, wipe it on the chain again, etc. Very slow to do the whole chain, inside and out. I gave up on the applicator, took the top off and used a toothbrush which was considerably faster. Instead of that foam applicator, the product should come with a little metal handled shop brush, it would be much easier and quicker to use.
On their weebsite, www.kleanchain.com, a 4 oz. bottle costs $12 on sale, $15 regular price.
How well this grease works, how long it will last, how clean the chain will stay and not get covered with road debris, sand, dirt, etc, remains to be seen. I need to ride around a few hundred miles to determine that. When I was done, using the toothbrush, I had some grease all over my hands, and it took wiping with a rag and 10 min. with that goopy shop hand cleaner too get it off. If it stays on the chain that well, I guess that would be a plus.
The whole operation, cleaning and relubing the chain, and cleaning up everything afterwards, took at least a half hour-45 minutes, if not longer. Thankfully, my other bike is shaft driven and I don't have to do that one too.

The chain cleaner works, I have different opinions as to the lube, or what type of chain lube is best. On my previous chain driven bike, a Suzuki 250GZ, I always used Dupont Teflon spray lube. (Blue spray can, ~$8 at Walmart, Lowes, Autozone, among many other places). This was quick to apply, just spray on, dries almost instantly, left no mess, no dirty residue sticking to the chain, (nothing sticks to the chain), doesn't fling off anywhere, (one of these days take off the cover and look at your front sprocket and the chain guard at the front of that and see what's in there), and has a highly regarded following on many other biker sites. Spraying the chain takes less than 5 min. To me, one of the disadvantages of using any petroleum based product, whether it be motor oil or a thicker 90-140 wt.oil or a grease, or a chain "wax", is that they all get dirty, attracting sand, brake dust, other dirts onto the chain, ? into the O-ring area, and will eventually wear out the chain and sprockets due to the abrasive nature of all that debris. If you clean the chain regularly and re-oil or re-grease every 500 miles or so, they all do an adequate job and have been around as long as there have been chain-driven vehicles. I will have to see how the chain on my Ninja looks after a few hundred miles, but if I have enough of that Bean Clean left, I think I may go back to the Dupont Teflon spray.

Again, thanks to Carol and Tony for sending these down for a trial, I hope this was helpful to someone else.

Marc