First (albeit filthy) ride and top tube looks a little dull, it’s bound to happen, but is there a suitable polish for bike frames?

I just use halfords colour shine, stuff I bought for my car years ago.

I don’t.
Probably better off protecting it with some heli tape first if your worried about the paint/finish.

Tape is fine around the area where the rook rack goes but not all over, I’ll look for some black car polish.

mud & shit

jackal – Member
I don’t.
Probably better off protecting it with some heli tape first not riding it if your worried about the paint/finish.

FTFY

cold water and an old t-shirt.

what’s a rook rack by the way, a birds nest?

mr sheen

depends, the mtb has tape applied to the underside to minimise stone chips and to rub points.

then will use GT85, furniture polish or if i have some time, autoglym.

road bike just gets the polish, stone chips aren’t really an issue.

Rook rack, FFS. Not even been drinking yet…..

I spray a little fork juice on the frame after cleaning it. No idea if it does anything, just like the smell!

3 in 1 silicone spray smells nice

mud,sheep sheet,gravel.

Water

To paraphrase Domnic Touretto, it’s not how shiny your bike is, it’s how fast you can ride it on Strava that counts.

woburn grit moisened then brushed off

Polish it with gt85 then for the next few rides its so much quicker to clean.
Race bike gets a thorough coating of gt85 befroe a muddy race (even the tyre sidewalls sometimes and definately the rims/spokes). That way the mud falls off easier and your bike weighs less.

Mud. And occasionally, it gets a wipe with an oily cloth after I finish sorting else out, so I suppose also GT85 and chain lube.

Oh, and the ti ones get a bit of tesco scouring pad action from time to time, to unpolish bits.

When I decided to freshen up the hemlock this year, it turned out t-cut wasn’t man enough for the job, ended up removing the more persistant mudstains with wet and dry paper.

To paraphrase Domnic Touretto, it’s not how shiny your bike is, it’s how fast you can ride it on Strava that counts.

That way the mud falls off easier and your bike weighs less.

and so the bike is faster, clean bikes are faster than dirty bikes. mud doesn’t stick, frame doesn’t clog up. you go faster.

Mr Sheen. Seriously. Works well, especially on carbon.

(and doesn’t have the degreasing properties of GT85 so won’t wash out your bearings 😉 )

nothing wrong with taking a bit of pride with your expensive bit of metal/carbon and keeping it clean and tidy.

I use whatever car polish or wax i have at the time, currently using maquires cleaner wax . I wash the bike down,get a clean cloth and give it a bit of the old wax on wax off, that way i can inspect the welds for cracks ect, found a crack a few months back it the seat tube/top tube weld, took frame back to shop and got a new one under warranty. had i not cleaned the frame as i do, i may not of noticed the crack and could of ended up with a snapped frame when coming of a drop instead which could hurt.

Helitape on parts that are prone to wear is a good idea too.

backtothetop – Member

nothing wrong with taking a bit of pride with your expensive bit of metal/carbon and keeping it clean and tidy.

Absolutely. OTOH, I take a bit of perverse pride in how shagged mine looks.

mud. rain.

id actually like to own a bike that looked shagged so i didnt worry about it so much, they all end up **** eventually anyway, im just trying to delay it for a while. (or find another crack and get a new frame every 9 months)

Rhino Goo Shine

brings everything up like new

http://www.tweekscycles.com/Product.do?method=view&n=3336&p=296289&c=215&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Base&utm_campaign=Lubricants%20&%20Cleaning

Mud from the Peaks

Northern shine

Mr Sheen

Which one?

Unicorn tears.

Or, failing that, I can get a bit over zealous with the gt85 and just rub that everywhere.

I find if I use GT85 anywhere near my bike, my brakes are f’d.
Consequently, I don’t ‘polish’ my bike.

GT85. Halfords favourite. Flog it to everyone and no one knows what use it’s for and spray it everywhere, except those who have learnt it’s just WD40 with teflon stuff.

Halfords must make a mint from the stuff, not just from the sales but from the subsequent servicing as bikes are returned grinding away due to excessive GT85 use 😛

The Chilterns

deadkenny – Member

GT85. Halfords favourite. Flog it to everyone and no one knows what use it’s for and spray it everywhere, except those who have learnt it’s just WD40 with teflon stuff.

Smells nice though. But yep, I particularily like when people hit you with the “I don’t use WD40 anywhere on my bike” then spray GT85 (or TF2 spray) everywhere, when it’s all basically the same thing. No no man, it’s got teflon in it! The sea’s got teflon in it, I don’t use it to lube my chain.

Buut, they do have their uses.

Helitape critical areas, damp microfibre cloth after washing to dry/buff up to a nice shine. Doesn’t take long, no need for nasty chemicals or propellants.

Meguiars if I can be really bothered but normally spray it with gt85 to disperse water and pretend that its shedding the mud off

Wash, dry, bit of Gt85. I agree with northwind and deadkenny the stuff can be evil but I tend to take the wheels out, cover the brakes, (a shower cap is great for this) and then spray the GT 85 on the cloth and polish the frame that way. Leave it to dry the put wheels back in, remove shower caps first though.

I spray a little fork juice on the frame after cleaning it. No idea if it does anything, just like the smell!

You wanna get some ‘frame juice’ in your nostrils – smells Devine!

DrP

I always give my new frames a going over with a good quality car polish before the first ride, they’re going to get dirty anyway but the layer of polish stops the muck sticking so well and makes cleaning easier (at least for the first few rides).

Metallic T-Cut, then Autoglym SRP, then Autogylm HD wax.

I had a frame which the top tube had lost all its shine after a single muddy ride in the Peak (thanks Pace, great quality on a £1k frame), that restored it to former glory. The wax provides a little protection and shine but more importantly stops mud sticking to it, improving the laziness quotient. Bit like GT85 but (a little) more permanent.