In this article I will review the CyclOn Chain Keeper that I can put on the 12 mm thru axle while cleaning the Scott Scale 925 mountain bike. A good quality chain keeper is an essential tool for every serious cyclist who needs to clean or transport his bike (no matter, road bike, mountain bike or gravel bike).
CyclOn is a respectable brand that is providing alternatives to Morgan Blue, Dynamic Bike Care, Muc-Off, Weldtite and others. So let’s have a look at the details below.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CyclOn Chain Keeper for cleaning and transport
The product description on the CyclOn Bike Care webpage of the Chain Keeper summarizes the key features well:
The CyclOn Chain Keeper has become an indispensable tool for cleaning and maintaining a road bike, mountain bike or gravel bike and should therefore not be missing in your maintenance kit. Especially if you put your bike in a work stand and remove the rear wheel. This gives you much more space to give the chain, derailleur gears and the hard-to-reach parts of the bike a freshening up while your chain is kept under tension and not touching your frame.
CyclOn Chain Keeper | Easy cleaning of the driveline | CyclOn (cyclonbikecare.com)
So let’s have a look at the two main use cases for this excellent, simple and must have tool.
Maintenance and cleaning with the CyclOn Chain Keeper
For the weekly maintenance of my chain with the Muc-Off X3 Dirty Chain Machine and high level cleaning of frame and fork with Morgan Blue Bike Wash (and the Muc-Off Nano Tech Bike Cleaner) I’m not removing the back wheel.
When conducting some more in depth cleaning I hang up the bike in my garage and remove the wheels. I put the Thru Axle Chain Keeper from CyclOn on the 12 mm. Carbon-Ti axle of the DT Swiss XM 1700 back wheel. This gives a solid guidance of the chain, and much room to clean carbon frame, chain-stays, rear derailleur, disc-brake calipers, disc brake pads in a convenient way or work on these parts.
Bike Transportation with the CyclOn Chain Keeper
While transporting my Scott Scale 925 in the back of my car, the CyclOn Chain Keeper keeps tension on the 12 speed chain (and not rubbing the carbon frame) while the Shimano Brake Pad Spacers (Y-8J709000) keep the disc-brake pads and -calipers safe and sound.
Concluding thoughts and wrap-up
A little while ago I’ve (re)published a review of the Morgan Blue Chain Keeper for Quick Release wheels. You can read the review of this tool over here. Morgan Blue release somewhere around 2018 a thru axle version, but I didn’t fully understand parts of the design. And while doing some research the CyclOn Chain Keeper seemed to be a robust alternative.
The price point of the CyclOn Chain Keeper is € 6,95, which is reasonable and a no-brainer for me to have in the toolbox. I would even advice to get a cheap extra thru axle to use just for cleaning and transportation.
At some point the anodized surface might wear out while rotating the chain for cleaning (despite I use Motorex Bike Grease 2000 on the thru axle thread and contact points. You don’t want your expensive weightweenie thru axles to loose their stealthy look.
Do you use a chain keeper and if so which one do you use ?
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