Knowing how much of a PITA even modern in-depth chain cleaning is with solvents... I can't read that article as anything but satire. Even with old roller designs, an overnight soak in paint thinner followed by an ethanol bath should get the whole thing close to bare metal. Maybe the disassembly is specific to getting roller grease applied properly, unlike how he mentions manufacturers just dip the chain in a homogeneous lubricant? I'm surprised Brown didn't advocate for chain waxing over using grease for performance and maintenance reasons.
I hadn't actually read the chain cleaning page before but I did read his page on chains, which to an extent is contradicting with his chain cleaning page:
"New chains come pre-lubricated with a grease-type lubricant which has been installed at the factory. This is an excellent lubricant, and has been made to permeate all of the internal interstices in the chain. The chain and this lubricant need to be warmed during application.
This factory lube is superior to any lube that you can apply after the fact -- well, unless...see below."
Hard for me to tell what is original content vs. new. It has been empirically demonstrated that factory lube and grease are considerably inferior when it comes to drivetrain efficiency (performance) compared to a wet lube, which is less efficient than either dry lube or wax (with or without additives).
I've waxed chains for a while in the past but stopped a couple years ago. I now do a "good enough" quick clean of a chain using an undiluted degreaser, rinse with water and a final rinse with isopropyl. The whole process takes 5 minutes and the chain is clean enough for new application. Not clean enough for waxing, you'd want to throw in a solvent before ethanol/isopropyl, but good enough for wet/dry lube. I've no science to back longevity of chains following above procedure, I generally swap between 2-3 chains during a season to keep wear reasonable and then start fresh in the fall before indoor.
