when cleaning your bike do you use hope sh*t shifter/muc-off/ on your stanchions ? i spray a bit on mine and push them up and down about 20 times to give them a good clean. now i don’t know if this is a bad thing or am i doing the right thing? just want to make sure or what other care can i use for them to save me a bundle of cash! cheers

keep the shite from the stantions bud, clean them with soapy water try them and add a silcone spray

What’s wrong with hot soapy water ?

IMO you don’t need to use any fancy cleaners just a bit of elbow grease.

A lad I know works in a chemical factory , one of the chemists there back engineered some Muc-off once ,there was about 80-100 ml of chemicals in the bottom of a litre bottle once the water was removed.

i said to use soapy water? iv seen what muc off does to folks just ask loco tuning

yea well the only good thing about muc-off is it gets all the dirt out of ur mechs, soapy water is fine for framework etc

Unless I’m washing the bike I don’t use any cleaners or water on my stanchions. Spray on some teflon lube and wipe upward with some kitchen roll, spray on some more lube and cycle the fork a few time and wipe upwards, repeat untill clean.

Noting on the stanchions. except occasional soapy water

I do it like this, although I prefer to use Fork Juice over the Finish Line nowadays.

So am I doing it wrong?

Plenty of hose to get rid of loose stuff.
Muc off all over whole bike.
Shoogle with the brush.
Plenty of hose to rinse.
Dry chain. Lube chain.

That’s it. So a) is muc off going to ruin my bike. B) should I be giving forks special treatment?

So am I doing it wrong?

You probably get water trapped in tight spots and have a chain that runs on a mix of dirt, lube and water.

So a) is muc off going to ruin my bike.

No; but it isn’t necessarily going to be good for all of it. Like water, it’ll get past seals on hubs, BB and headset, where it will start to break down the grease within (easier than water will for decent bearing grease).

B) should I be giving forks special treatment?

I think so. At the very least, you shouldn’t be hosing them down around the wipers.

Wot dazzlingboy says with the exception of compressed air to dry off prior to lubing the chain.

D.

Stanchion lube from brunox,

Bump fork up and down a few times, wipe off, repeat, if still lots of crap, repeat again.

Lube on chain.

Thow bike in shed and grab a cuppa.

Wipe excess lube off chain before next ride.

“i don’t know if this is a bad thing or am i doing the right thing?”
I think really bad

If there was anything that came out of that ‘fox failures’ threada while back it seemed muc-off was a big reason for severe stantion wear. There was a folk a two from fork servcing companies saying when there was stantion wear on a fork, there was often a distinct smell off muc off from the oils in there, or at least thats my recolection of that thread

Having never used muc-off, mostly a garden hose, occasionally some soapy water, I’ve since found a worn bushing can have a big effect on stantions too. A corner of a bushing down to the metal doesn’t mate nicely with gold stantion coating ..
I thought the stantions were fading a bit, especially that one bit when I had serviced them not long before, but hadn’t detected any play in the bushings so didn’t link up the two until too late ..

Fox’s online Owners Manual:

clean exterior of fork with mild soap and water only; wipe dry with soft towel
Note:  Do not use any solvents or de-greasers, as these products can cause serious damage to paint and anodized parts (upper tubes, knobs, steerers).

I read that as “don’t go near your stations with anything other than (soapy) water”.

In 6yrs of riding, using Fox & Rockshox forks i haven’t had one single stantion issue.

Hose off the worst of it.

Soapy water.

Once dry give a squirt of lube and a push em up and down.

I do use muc off on the drive train though… Good or bad on there?

Wipe over with water, then with silicone spray, cycle forks a few time swipe off excess silicone.
Also have been using silicone spray on frame / lower legs, light spray, wipe lightly >>>next time bike much easier to clean, just with water spray and soft brush. Used to use a lot of muc off etc but with above water alone seems to be OK for cleaning, just occasn use of muc off

cubemeup – Member

i said to use soapy water?

I started to type my reply as you entered yours

I would’nt recommend use of bike wash or jet wash on forks or shocks, I’ve seen hundreds of units damaged in this way.
Wash with water upside down and maybe a little silicon spray and cycle the forks to lift muck out the seals in addition to the maintainance schedules.

Seems muc off getting a bad write up – I’ll stick with Fairy Liquid from now on I guess.

I tend to keep my drivetrain spotless – could eat your dinner off my chain and sprockets – but don’t look after fork seals as well as I should do I guess – squirt with the garden hose although certainly no jet wash.

wash with very minimal muc-off when doing rest of bike, dry off, liberal douse with Fork Juice, bounce a few times, wipe the crud off, put away till next ride – seems to work for me !

Muc off is virtually the same as fairy liquid. To shift grease you need either a solvent (like petrol) or surfactant (like a liquid soap). Solvent disolves the grease. Surfactants interact with the grease making weaker and possiblt to remove with water. Hence, they get past the seals and start to strip the grease.

You don’t need soap to remove mud, all it does it removes oil. After really wet muddy offroad rides a gentle flow from a hose and a sponge/soft brush is usually sufficient.

AFter you’ve cleaned put some fork oil around the seals, compress a few times, wipe, repeat until the oil stays clean.

I understand what you are getting at

A lad I know works in a chemical factory , one of the chemists there back engineered some Muc-off once ,there was about 80-100 ml of chemicals in the bottom of a litre bottle once the water was removed.

But everything he started off with was a chemical too. It will be a mixture of surfactants, thickening agents, foaming additives, colour and fragrance. There aren’t that many ways to make a cleaning product. Most soapy things are essentially the same with a couple of slight variations specific to their intended purpose.

what he meant is:

a clever chemist took some muc-off, and magicked away the water.