Chain Wear - the Evil Red Stuff

I was treating my chain to a post-Xmas cleaning yesterday, and removed the countershaft cover to clean out the accumulated chain spooge, that had been dripping down the sidestand. I was surprised to see lots of brownish-red fluffy stuff in there with the black chain spooge, and wondered what it was.
Does anyone know? Is it finely shredded O-rings, fine metal filings from the countershaft sprocket that have rusted (sprocket is rusty looking), or some kinda weird fungus that lives on chain spooge?

While in there, I removed, polished and regreased the clutch pushrod, and reinserted it the other way around.

The bike rode much better this morning, and the gearchanges were better, so it was worth the hour or so it took.

The chain is kapotnik though, so I need to start saving my shekeldollarz for a new chain'n'sprockets combo.

It is rust, you live right on the salty ocean which makes salty air. When I lived near the north Atlantic I had the same problem until I started using the technique boat owners use, clean your bike often with fresh water and lube your chain all of the time. Good luck.

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It's the Red Death.
Time to R&R chain and sprockets.   :fing02:

It's magic red dust that make the chain work... If it leaks out the chain doesn't work.

[image: View Post]bipedal, on 04 January 2010 - 06:15 PM, said:

It is rust, you live right on the salty ocean which makes salty air. When I lived near the north Atlantic I had the same problem until I started using the technique boat owners use, clean your bike often with fresh water and lube your chain all of the time. Good luck.
Weird thing is, although I ride in all weathers, my chain is always lubed.
I don't like the last two chain lubes I've used: Motul and Golden Spectro Chain lube. Motul's too greasy and sticky, and the Spectro flings off too readily. My previous favourite - Spectro Chain Wax - was unavailable.

Your o-rings are shredding and all the stuff that was "in there" is now coming out.  As others have said, your chain is cashed.