I've always been anal about my bikes but after building a singlespeed, its been a revelation 😀
The SS has been in dock for the last 4 weeks and I haven't washed my geared bike.
I may regret it, who knows..
I have a new procedure when I have to drive back after a ride - bike in back of car, crank the heating up, turn the air con on, bake the mud dry. Feels a bit like a sauna. Knock the lumps off the drivetrain, polish the stanchions, lube the chain.
Pressure washer & Fenwick’s caravan cleaner, rinse, lube. Got it down to under 10 mins
wouldn't say its really clean but clean enough
Drop a bucket of cold water off in the garage before I head out. Quick sponge wash the second I get in (5 mins tops), GT85 the chain/cassette. Dry quickly with a rag, lube, done. Looks a bit mucky next time out but it's only superficially dirty and the important bits are clean.
Can't believe I used to a) not wash my bike after ever ride, and b) it used to be such a ball ache all because I left it all the time... freshly dirty bikes are so easy to clean!
Decrease and rinse the chain every ride, clean forks and rear shock. The rest can look after itself.
I scrub my bike spotless as soon as I can after riding it, I hate getting a dirty bike out of the shed. Even in the summer the chain comes off for a soak in a degreasing bath and the cassette gets scrubbed.
Please help...
Winter = rigid bike with Rohloff. It gets ridden to and from work off road so no chance at all to keep it clean.
Yep. I defo need to do something with the chain. I always wipe the forks clean and lube them before I ride.
ride home throw bike in shed - next ride bounce bike on floor all dried mud falls off quick drop of chain lube and off i go
Im having cold sweats after reading fp16v's post.
You can wash bicycles?
Its just a fad miketually, dont worry.
Leave it out in the rain, let mother nature do the work.
Mine's not getting cleaned til it starts to warm/dry up a bit. Not for a while then. It's singlespeed/rigid so I don't worry about mud getting into and wearing moving parts like I do on the geared full sus 🙂
This thread is rubbish.
It's made me clean my bike and now I can't feel my fingers cos the water was so cold.
Last time this year though I reckon.
ride home throw bike in shed - next ride bounce bike on floor all dried mud falls off quick drop of chain lube and off i go
+1 although i do go crazy and use a brush if its bad
thats riding time that is!
my bike cleaning consists of a quick hose down after muddy rides, a spray of WD40 on the chain then shove it in the shead, Before the next ride i oil the chain and off i go. I have found cleaning it when the mud is still wet takes less then 5 minutes where as once the stuff has baked on it thakes ages.