There’s brushes and sponges inside. You fill it with a cleaning solvent and move the chain through it by spinning the crank backwards. It’s designed so that you can add more cleaning solvent as you clean the chain without removing the top cover. Pretty clever design.
The chain was pretty much black with grease/dirt before cleaning, This is during cleaning with the solvent going through the chain… After using the tool, I hand cleaned the chain between the links. Then, lubed the chain and cleaned it again, just using a dry cloth.
Then, lube again & clean again. I do this three times to get rid of nearly all the dirt/grease (some of the dirt comes out after lubing). It’s usually good for about 500 miles of riding. But could be less if there’s more dirt/salty water.
Also, before the next cleaning, the chain should be lubed about every 50 to 100 miles. I use a “dry” lube to lessen the chain attracting dirt/sand. The usual “wet” lube attracts too much dirt for my riding. The dry lube really makes a big difference (the dry lube is basically a liquid carrier with particulate wax immersed in it)
This is the rear tire with some rubber delaminating on the side wall. The tread was not worn all the way down but decided to replace it...
Also used compressed air all over all the drivetrain components to blow out all the grease/dirt. It’s pretty much the only way to get rid of all the built up grease and dirt in the rear derailleur, gears, hubs, brakes etc.
This rear tire is made by Specialized (one of the largest bike manufactures in the world). Cleaning the wheels/spokes is very time consuming.
You run them with pretty high tire pressures. I put about 100 PSI but you can run them higher for lower rolling resistance.
