FlanderFlop's Full Review: Park Chain Gang Chain Cleaning Kit
This type of chain cleaner has been around for a while, and I have been through a couple of them. My most recent was the Chain Gang.
The basic idea behind this chain scrubber is that it does the work or degreasing your chain for you. With most old style chains (Shimano / KMC), in order to clean the chain you have to spray a lot of degreaser (dilute Simple Green is the best) on the chain and then use a cloth to wipe / scrub all the dirt and grime off the chain. With the Chain Gang you can simply pour some degreaser into the device, close the top around the chain and pedal the bike so that the chain passes through a series of brushes and cleans itself. This is far easier than the old method, but is does require that you use a little more degreaser. Unless you are cleaning more than one chain at once the degreaser that you used to fill the Chain Gang will need to be disposed of.
As a matter of procedure, you should dump out the degreaser, and then refill the device with water and rinse the chain for a couple of cycles before drying and lubing the chain. If you leave degreaser on the chain it will destroy any lube that you put on your clean chain. This process will most likely get you chain cleaner faster than the old fashion “rub it with a rag” method, and as an added bonus, the new handle on the side of the Chain Gang makes holding the chain scrubber in place easier than older models.
All this is great except for two little issues. First, the Chain Gang is made out of plastic. Over the years I have broken a number of various models of Park Chain Scrubbers, either through use, or just rough handling in the shop. On the older models I had problems with the brushes holding in place, but my newer Chain Gang model met it’s demise when it came in contact with one of the larger tools in the shop that managed to crack its shell. While at $23 these things aren’t going to break the bank if you have to replace them every couple years, once you consider issue #2 the Chain Gang starts to seem like less of a deal.
Issue #2: SRAM chains- Almost anyone that knows enough about bikes to be looking at purchasing a Chain Scrubber, has also realized that if you have to replace a chain you should replace it with a SRAM chain. Once you have a SRAM Chain on your bike, you no longer need the chain scrubber. One of the biggest advantages to SRAM chains is the “PowerLink”. The Powerlink is a link is a link that you can remove without tools and without weakening the chain, and usually in less time than you would need to set up your chain scrubber. Once this link is off and the chain is removed from the bike, the chain is easy to clean simply by dropping it in a widemouth plastic bottle of degreaser, cap the bottle and shake. The widemouth bottle comes free with the purchase of a soda, and is actually more durable than the Chaingang. So it seems a natural progression with SRAM chains taking over the market, that Chain Gangs will be replaced with the more economical plastic bottle.
In short, if you still run Shimano or KMC chains, or if you are not sure how to re-string a chain onto your bike, the Chain Gang is a great product for you. Otherwise there are less expensive options that work just as well.
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