I understand the purpose of keeping moving parts like my chain, fork stanchions, bearings and pivots clean and lubed up. But why bother washing a mountain bikes frame; downtube and rear stays, the wheel rims that sort of thing.

It’s not as if mud eats into the frame or something. Why go to such great effort of making your bike sparkling clean to only get it completly filthy after an hours ride 😕

because it cost £2k+

There isn’t, if you don’t like clean things.

Do you kiss girls with mucky faces?

because we’re not all the same?

and I object to startigjn a ride carrying half a kilo of mud on my bike when I know I’ll be adding another before I finish.

Do you kiss girls with mucky faces?

If she is good looking under the muck then yes…

It’s not as if mud eats into the frame or something.

you sure about that?

am not a fan of cleaning any of my bikes unless they are really, really bad. The drivetrains are sterile and the suspension is clean but otherwise that’s it.

By the same token I can understand why some people like shiny things and like to keep them that way

i like a clean bike but only wash it every 3 or 4 rides unless it was a proper swamp fest. plus i stick it in the back of my car a lot and i dont want sh!t everywhere

Cause that’s when you might find some of the things that are going to **** up.

It’s the first step of preventative maintenance 😉

I generalise to everything. It is not like dirt ruins the fabric of my clothes now is it.

TBH a bit of both I dont clean it after every ride – often its late and i am tired but it wont go 4 rides without a clean either

I must have OCD, as I wash the bike after every ride if even dusty. My brain tells me that if Ive spent so much on something I should take pride in what it looks like not just how well it performs 🙂 Should make it last longer if properly maintained also.

Each to their own though.

Same here, our three mountain bikes have been washed once since Christmas. Washed=warm water and car shampoo, as opposed to being blasted with a hosepipe, or my favoured method, blasting through puddles whenever the opportunity arises during a ride as its quite effective at clearing excess mud. Can be mildly amusing when everyone else plugs through the sticky mud around the edges and have to resort to poking the mud off with a stick, whilst I blast through the puddle and often exit with my bike slightly cleaner albeit wetter, than it went in.

Prevent the movement of plant and soil based disease such as the tree stuff in afan

Cos it’s my bike.
I’ll take a hammer to the top tube if I so please…..

😉

DrP

People tell me I should wash my bike, I ask them why, since from a strictly functional point of view, having a muddy bike does not reduce it’s functionality in any way other than a little bit of weight? right?

In my opinion washing a bike gets water into places you don’t want it. Oh and the muck on my downtube creates a nice stone chip resistant layer 😛

fasthaggis – Member
Cause that’s when you might find some of the things that are going to **** up.

It’s the first step of preventative maintenance + 1

It’s my bike and I want it to look nice.

bike gets stored in house; and I don’t want mud/chain oil/sheep shit/cow shit/deer shit and occasionally dog shit in my house or car

I’l also take a hammer to DezB’s top tube if I’m miffed enough….

DrP

In my opinion washing a bike gets water into places you don’t want it.

It’s not called the universal solvent for nothing 😉

I used to be all OCD about washing MTBs until I took one to bits for a rebuild and realised water had got everywhere and I mean everywhere. Corrosion and contamination on all parts no wonder it needed a rebuild 🙂

because it lives in the house & im not a scruffy tw4t

Don’t worry. I only wash my bike a few times a year (generally when it gets clogged up with mud), and it’s been going fine for more than 5 years so far.

Because:

a) My bikes have cost me a fortune
b) I’ve gone to the trouble of having anodized blue bits fitted and want to enjoy their sparkly blueness
c) So that I can check the frames for damage

Ive heard many people say we shouldnt use high pressure hoses to wash our bikes, is this truth or myth? i tend to call at the garage near my house and stick a quid in the jet wash.

DezB – Member

It’s my bike and I want it to look nice.

^^^this. (Except it’s my bike :D)

Edit: I don’t clean the ss or the crosser after every ride but the Whyte is luvverly. Someone went to great (design) lengths to make it look nice, I’m going to try to keep it that way. I try to keep it in the house when She’s not looking…

I don’t wash my jeans, why would I wash my bike?

Depends how you define ‘wash’.

They usualy get dirtworkerd after a muddy ride to remove the excess before they go in the car. Other than that they’ll just get a wash with a sponge and car shampoo and the drivetrain cleaned once a month. gives a good oppertunity to check the frame for cracks, components for wear, bearings for play, bolts for tightness etc, otherwise they’d just be left untill they came loose on a ride (either ending in the ride being curtailed, not enjoyed or in a hedge).

As someon up there said, if I’ve spend £2k on a bike, I want it to stay working like a £2k bike, otherwise it may as well be a £200 bike.

I tend to call at the garage near my house and stick a quid in the jet wash.

Most jetwashes these days have a very low pressure setting for cleaning alloy wheels, so I use this when hosing the frame directly. The foam brush is generally piping hot which does bearings and grease no favours, but I still managed to eke out five years lifespan from the bearings on my Enduro whilst using this method.

Depends how you define ‘wash’.

A hose down after a very muddy ride is one thing, but regularly washing (after each ride) to keep it in showroom condition seems somewhat pointless to me. I am not saying that a clean bike doesn’t look good, but the amount of time and effort required for me to wash my bike, only for it to be all muddy again after one ride doesn’t make sense.

Like I said other than aesthetics it’s doesn’t detract from the experience of riding a bike for me.

Do you kiss girls with mucky faces?

Do you kiss clean bikes?

Don’t like cleaning the bike but do to check for cracking/damage and to prevent further wear

I used to be all OCD about washing MTBs until I took one to bits for a rebuild and realised water had got everywhere and I mean everywhere. Corrosion and contamination on all parts no wonder it needed a rebuild

Sh*t that must have happened to me too, oh hang on I rode it in the wet…

when i see someone on a shiny shiny bike that isnt brand new, im almost always stuck behind them, while they mince down the trail and then when you stop to talk to them they usually sound like john major.
i like my bikes muddy. they look better. and the delicate bits last longer when you dont push water through the seals.

A hose down after a very muddy ride is one thing, but regularly washing (after each ride) to keep it in showroom condition seems somewhat pointless to me. I am not saying that a clean bike doesn’t look good, but the amount of time and effort required for me to wash my bike, only for it to be all muddy again after one ride doesn’t make sense.

True, but I tend to find enough stuff going wrong when I wash it that would ruin or at least interupt a ride to make it worthwhile, stuff like brake pads worn, or broken parts, or loose bolts, or fixing that slow puncture. Once the bikes in the workstand it only takes 10 minutes with a bucket, brush, sponge, chain cleaner, cassette cleaning brush doodahh and a bottle of degreaser to get it showroom clean and it’s far easier checking/fixing stuff when it’s clean. So all the monthly jobs like indexing gears and lubeing cables can all be done at once too.

My winter bike has no gears, a CK BB and hope brakes though, so gets a sum total of no maintance as appart from splittig the rear hub completely in 2 nothign has ever gone wrong!

I clean bike bikes after every ride, I’ve spotted cracks in the frame, swinging arm and other damage while cleaning that otherwise could have failed on the trail and led to me walking home or worse. I’ll stick to cleaning my bike thanks, plus dirt doesn’t stick to a clean shiny bike so it stays lighter for longer.

I ride a belt drive, hub gear, titanium and carbon fibre bike.
I’ll wash it before a race to remove any excess weight, otherwise I don’t usually bother.

plus dirt doesn’t stick to a clean shiny bike so it stays lighter for longer.

+1, I’ve found that silicone+ptfe spray lube keeps the frame near spotless! The downside is it’s harder to pick up and carry over fences!

Must be ocd as l wash my bikes after most rides and strip to frame every 6-8 weeks rebleed the brakes and change all gear cables. Why ? Because l enjoy doing it and l like my bikes to run perfect when l ride them. Most of all it keeps wear and tear costs down

I fit into a happy medium, when wet the bike gets cleaned as soon as I get home, if dry, it usually waits until its done 2 or 3 rides.

I don’t understand people who spend the whole time at Mountain mayhem cleaning their bikes after every lap even if it is – dry enough!

there was some a study someone posted a while ago on bearing life and washing from Santa Cruz. Basically suggested that you wash a bike if its wet and leave if it’s dry and that way bearings last longest.

Most jetwashes these days have a very low pressure setting for cleaning alloy wheels, so I use this when hosing the frame directly. The foam brush is generally piping hot which does bearings and grease no favours, but I still managed to eke out five years lifespan from the bearings on my Enduro whilst using this method

.

Ive got an Enduro, its just under a year old and ive been told the bearings are shot at – thought it might be something to do with the jet wash?