Last night I reintalled my 7900 chainring bolts after applying drops of blue loctite (242) on them. However I did not completely degrease the bolts nor threads on the big ring. I simply cleaned the bolts and threads with a clean rag (thoroughly) before applying blue loctite.

So how much did I compromise the strength of the loctite w/o degreasing the surface thoroughly? How about any other bad side effect?

Loctite does need to be used on clean surfaces to work as designed. Personally, I believe that chainring bolts are the wrong application for Loctite. I prefer copper anti-seize compound for chainrings.

loctite is the the correct chemical to apply to chain ring bolts as they see cyclical loading. Wait 24 hours before riding to allow time for the loctite to cure.

The one concern I have for you is that you used Loctite 242. This is weight weenies, so I'm assuming you are using aluminum alloy chain ring bolts. Aluminum is not an active metal and 242 formulation does not fully cure to full strength when both the female and male threads are inactive. Loctite 243 is the ideal formulation unless you applied primer 7471 to aid in the curing.

Regardless give it 24 hours. The fact you didn't fully clean the bolts should be ok, it's not like they were placed in a cup of motor oil before assembly...

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