Slightly facetious question here:
Spent the day riding around Peaslake area and enjoyed sitting in the sun from time to time watching other bikers, but was amazed how clean and sparkling all the works of art, sorry mtb’s were. All these full sussers with their intricate linkages etc must take an age to buff up, so are they:
(1) Being lovingly shined up by their owners for hours every week after every ride?
(2) Being lovingly buffed up and displayed in the house, then very carefully riden to the cafe to be displayed against the wall?
😉

1) here. Well, for 20mins not hours. Always put them away clean and shiny. Stuff is just too damn expensive to just lob it in the garage these days. Plus the trails weren’t muddy or even dusty today.

GB

With the sun out today I couldn’t bear to ride my bike all muddy as it’s been all winter.
First thing I did today was take a short ride to my local service station and blast it with 2 quid of jetwash.
I was a shiny bike rider today too!

I’m riding so much at the moment at stupid times of night and morning,I just wipe my chain with a rag and re-lube, check the gears are indexing and wait for a rainy road ride to give it a wash. 😆

takes me 5 mis to hose mine down after a ride (either with mobile washer or bike wash if at a centre). Looks like new in no time, and it has to be clean as its kept in my girlfriends lounge. get over it

As above too expensive just to leave to rot, clean and lube after every ride, don’t see the point in not bothering.

They WERE very beautiful. Secretly jelous of all those lovely lines. If I had one I’d polish it all the time. With work, training and making bloody half tasty pasta dishes all the time, I’m glad I’ve got a simple hardtail with a cheap, disposable drivetrain to not worry about.

To me washing your bike is like sweeping the pavement.
In 5 minutes your hard efforts are undone so why bother?
If however cleaning my bike will give it a useful time of being free of grit then I’ll do it.
As the optimist that I am I did it today thinking we’ve seen the worst of the bad weather for a little while.
I’m sure I’ll be wrong.

(3) people are far to precious about bikes. Surprise, it will not break if you have mud on the frame!

I don’t see the point them washing every ride. I think I wash mine every about 2-3 times a year.

(4) Not ridden fast enough that they splash the puddles.

living in a one bedroom flat with no outside storage means that it has to be cleaned before coming into the building(mobi jetwash that I keep in the car)

I guess I’m just really fussy about checking everything. It wouldn’t do to have a part fail mid-race that better maintenance would have spotted…

I pay my son £2 to wash my bike when it gets too dirty.

Ha ha Gee, too right. I gave mine some proper tlc before my last race and apart from loosing half a pound of oily grime from the frame I noticed the BB had about 5mm of play in it. Had to do the race with sloppy cranks. Silly boy!

Does a bike need to be clean to spot 5mm of float in a bb?

No, that was just lame of me. Can’t believe I didn’t notice it.

A hose down when the mud is wet will get them really clean it doesn’t take hours. In getting the worse off the rest gets pretty clean. I look after my full suss as it cost a lot. I’m less bothered about my singlespeed and I rarely clean it properly, normally just wipe down the chain and scrape the worst of the mud off.

I tend to clean my bikes when the rock solid mud on the front mech stops it moving.

Hosed down? Heresey! These bikes were ‘showroom’.

Legspin – just lose the front mech. Problem solved.

It was sunny yesterday. I did not clean my bike before or after the ride. I had a pint , then drove home and drank red wine instead. I don’t care if something breaks mid ride. I’ll bodge it, then fix or replace later on.

I don’t see the point them washing every ride. I think I wash mine every about 2-3 times a year.

You either don’t ride much or avoid mud…

Mine is washed when needed, which could be after every ride (5 rides last week and 3 washes) or monthly as was last summer.

Gave mine a proper clean last week, first time in ages, and found some tiny cracks starting on my rear rim. Thats the last time I give it more than a hose down 🙂

I ride every weekend and ride in Scotland. We have plenty mud. I just choose not wash them much.

I rode peaslake for the first time in ages today. Beautiful weather and proper loam.
spent a good hour or so yesterday with some foreplay which consisted of new pads, a tyre swap, some soaping then a good lube

Then I smashed her back tyre off today
Best 3 minutes of my year so far

For me it depends how dirty the bike is as to whether it gets cleaned.

Not cleaned after the race today, or yesterdays ride, Fridays ride or even the evening spin on Thursday.

If it rains it will get washed after the next ride.

More often than not I’ll give it a once over with hose and brush after every ride and lube the bits that need it.
I remember reading about one of the pro mechanics who washed the (DH) bike down after every run. He said it got him near to the bike so was able to spot if something was wrong. I thought that was a good idea..I hate having rides spoilt by stuff that could have been prevented

living in a one bedroom flat with no outside storage means that it has to be cleaned before coming into the building(mobi jetwash that I keep in the car)

This.

A lot of people in Peaslake will live in that London. I do and it’s that’s why my bike always gets the Dirtworker treatment before it goes home.

I should go to these places that are overpopulated with clean bikes, mine will restore the average instantly.