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I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to this. I for one find bike cleaning a real chore and I’m sure I’m not alone.
If you’re at a trail centre you probably use the installed/provided jet wash…lots of people now have a portable jet wash in the car/van and give it a quick blast to get the worst of the shit off prior to travelling home.
If you do neither and depending on whether it’s late after returning home from a long, tiring weekend away riding or night ride, it’s left til the next day…then it’s ‘urggghhh…here we go then’. If you’re one of ‘them’, would you trust someone to come to you (or you drop it off) and give your bike a thorough clean/some love, and lube so you get it back as pristine as it can be? If so, what would you consider paying?
There are all sorts of potential issues: being precious about your pride and joy - not doing it ‘your way’; do you trust the guy not a) bugger off with your bike b) not rob you at a later date?; using different lubes etc to what you use and probably a load more reasons. What about repeated use?
I’m curious to know if there’s a potential marketplace for this type of service. My wife said if her (albeit busy, time-precious and loaded) boss had a bike he’d pay someone to clean it - I suspect he’s in a minority for a lot of the reasons listed above.
Am I right or would someone out there pay for a nice clean ready-to-ride bike without the hassle of doing it themselves?
I hate cleaning filthy bikes, buckets, hoses, sponges, brushes, mud...
So, as I'm really lazy, I worked out a routine to clean it instead. And made sure the kit was easily available.
Longest it's taken since i got everything set up is about 10-12 minutes. 15 if i blast it dry with the compressor.
Pop back and lube it after i'm showered and dressed.
So no. I'd not pay. Unless it was less than a tenner, which probably wouldn't even cover pick up and drop off.
When you say 'clean', you mean spending five minutes hosing it down when you get back and squirting GT85 on the mech, right?
I’m curious to know if there’s a potential marketplace for this type of service.
I don't think people will pay enough.
They won't wait in a queue at the end of the afternoon while you take the time to do the 5 other customers who just arrived bikes.
You will stand around doing nothing until 3pm, when upon everyone descends and also needs to be back home by 4pm...
You will find the cost of doing it is high - from insurance and payments to landowner etc, let alone van, adverts, equipment etc and you will only ever be at one trail centre.
There used to be a guy in Nottingham would do a circuit, pick up all the posh bike in one run on a Sunday evening, wash and tune them all and deliver ready for the next weekend.<br />Combined with some service work, guaranteeing it's delivered back working perfectly, and doing all the collections/drop-offs in one run seemed to make it work.<br /><br />APF
IHN - there’s obvs a sliding scale of filth. I get what you’re saying and it’s def valid but when it’s caked-on clay shite it’s not really a quick job. Interested in all viewpoints - that’s the point of the thread 😉
When you say ‘clean’, you mean spending five minutes hosing it down when you get back and squirting GT85 on the mech, right?
GT85? Fancy pants. If I ride home in the rain I consider that a proper valet job.
No. Keep seeing too many people with jet washers spraying bb's and fork seals.
Wasting water that costs money? Just wait until the vast quantity of accumulated crud is dry, and heavy, enough to fall off by itself FTW 😉
GT85? Fancy pants. If I ride home in the rain I consider that a proper valet job.
One good reason to carry the bikes outside a vehicle - free shower off on the way home. #luxurious
no, i wouldn't pay and the hassle of arranging the pick up or dropping it off would make it more of a pain than cleaning the bike in the first place. It takes less than 10 minutes to do it yourself - turn on hose, spray worst of crap off, squirt some degreaser / muc-off in appropriate places, hose again, quick rub down with manky towel and apply lube to chain. having said that, i often go for the let the mud dry and brush it off approach, unless it's proper filthy
No for me, I actually like cleaning my bike, and, shock horror, my commuter does get washed after every wet commute to get the mud and dirt off it.
Minimum of £50, to cover an hours' cleaning, consumables, water, energy, tools and fuel/vehicle costs for the pick up. And insurance; you'd want to know there's cover if it's your pride & joy.
That's if the bike is just 'fresh' dirty. If it's more grime than bike after being left for months, then it'll be way more.
I dont pay anyone to do anything to my bikes. I'm the only person who touches them.
(For reference - I dont pay anyone else to service or maintain my cars either, let alone wash them. It goes for a £45 MOT once a year because I'm not alowed to do that myself!)
No.
My commuter doesn't really get cleaned, and I'd not pay someone to do that.
My race bike gets a full strip and rebuild after every ride. That has to be done my way, and to perfection, takes me 8-9hrs usually, which would be prohibitively expensive for someone else, even if they did it right
The other bikes, less frequent than the race bike, in terms of number of rides between cleans, but still done properly, so again far too expensive for that amount of time.
Might be some mileage in 'Bike Detailing' as a side-hustle, where you'd virtually strip the bike and get it back to showroom condition. But you'd never make a living from it.
OP to answer your question, it's something that I've thought that I'd pay for if/when I win the Euromillions Jackpot, however that was when I was riding a full suspension all year round, using wet lube.
Now that I'm lucky enough to have a hardtail with mudguards fitted and a waxed chain (Squirt, not hot) the amount of maintenance after muddy rides has decreased massively. Get home, hose it off, give it a quick dry with a micro-fibre cloth, takes 10 minutes maximum. Every now and then it gets a more intense clean. Because of this it also gets ridden a lot more in dirty conditions than my old full sus used to.
No, i wouldn't pay on the basis that it's just immediately going to get filthy again at this time of year. I also don't believe in regularly washing with hose/jetwash in that it can do more harm than good so just get the worst off then focus on drivetrain/brakes/moving parts at this time of year then, when the weather improves, do a proper strip down and clean
My race bike gets a full strip and rebuild after every ride. That has to be done my way, and to perfection, takes me 8-9hrs usually,
Say what now!?! Lots of potential questions raised here starting with what cycling discipline? How often do you ride it (just races?)? Do you genuinely find its necessary?
Say what now!?!
Yeah kinda. I had the forks, shock, wheels out of the DH bike on Sunday stripped out the linkages and headset, checked all bearings, in less than 45 mins.
No, I enjoy doing it (and doing it properly!) so the idea of someone else doing their (probably half-arsed) attempt at cleaning it is not on.
However, I do have a very good LBS just 5 minutes away and he does most of my actual mechanics because I can't justify buying specific tools like bleed kits or that one weird spanner to do the PF BB and I don't have a workstand (or the space for one). I'll do the basics like change brake pads, fit a new chain and cassette and so on, anything more than that goes to him and he's a mate so I always get a good deal and in return I'm happy to support his business.
I dont pay anyone to do anything to my bikes. I’m the only person who touches them.
Yeah, I've had mixed results from letting other people work on my bikes.
OP here - TBF it’s going as I thought it might. I’m not even sure I would pay for it! Maybe only if was a good price, but that’s not going to be good enough to make a decent living from.
It was worth gauging responses to see if there was any demand - seems like an emphatic ‘non’ 🤣
OP, are you considering starting a business doing something you yourself find a chore?
It was worth gauging responses to see if there was any demand – seems like an emphatic ‘non’ 🤣
I think (as muffin man says ^^) there might be a side hustle in full on bike detailing. A complete strip and rebuild. However you'd need a full workshop of every tool imaginable to make it work properly because you could be faced with anything from a DH bike to a road bike.
And the slight problem with doing things like that is you invariably find "issues" somewhere along the way.
The bikes I see in my LBS brought in for "can you just tune the gears...?" and then he discovers that the BB is shot to bits, the cassette is worn to sharks teeth, that means a new chain.... And then you end up chasing problems around the bike.
No, but I am tight and only wash my bikes when they really* need it.
* when the dry mud cant be knocked off anymore and I cant tell if it is actually my bike.
Nah.
Might work at a busy trail centre or uplift venue, as an add-on to an existing business.
Can't see it being feasible as a local pick-up-and-return service though.
I can definitely answer this one. Unfortunately mine have to live in the house due to lack of space, and I don’t necessarily ride the same bike each time so it might sit for a while before being used again.
I like a really, really clean and well maintained bike. After almost every ride it’s wheels off, derailleur lower cage off, jockey wheels disassembled, brake pads out, chain off, saddle off, dropper out then a full degrease, clean, polish, regrease and re-lube then reassemble, all bolts checked, indexing of gears if needed. When finished the bike will look and ride like new. Probably 7-8 hours of work, 8-10 if really filthy. I do it because my philosophy on ‘things’ is that you either buy very cheap and treat it as disposable, or buy the best and look after it. Bikes are the latter!
Long winded way of saying that I’ll clean like this for family and friends occasionally if they ask and debated whether it’s worth actually setting up a bike detailing service on the side.
When I added up hours, materials and a small profit and got to a figure the cost would be so high nobody would pay it, so not worth doing.
Lots of scope for ‘it was working perfectly when I brought it to you, you’ve knackered it’ too.
After almost every ride
Probably 7-8 hours of work,
What?!
Probably 7-8 hours of work,
What?!
Where's that GIF of Jason Bateman being speechless when you need it?
Depends what the cleaning is. While I'm not as fastidious as some on here, I will spend 30-40 mins when I'm back from a ride, getting it cleaning and any service parts sorted. I'd maybe pay for a "super-detail nut and bolt looks-like-new" but I'd only do that once or twice a year maybe, and again depends on how much
What?!
Yeah, I like a clean bike but I don't have 7-8 hours free after *every* ride to give it that level of clean!!
My commuter could go without a clean for weeks, sometimes months at a time and then it'd get a proper going-over (but that was a SS road bike, nothing really to wear or gather too much crap). The MTB gets a quick jetwash if I'm using it at a trail centre then a wipe down.
Road and gravel bikes get a perfunctory wipe down (they have waxed chains so need much less care on the drivetrain front) and then a more thorough clean (which even then is really just wheels off) every couple of months.
And maybe once every 12-18 months, a strip and rebuild when I'll do bar tape, cables, brake bleed etc all in one go.
After almost every ride it’s wheels off, derailleur lower cage off, jockey wheels disassembled, brake pads out, chain off, saddle off, dropper out then a full degrease, clean, polish, regrease and re-lube then reassemble, all bolts checked, indexing of gears if needed.
So your hobby is cleaning bikes, not riding them? 😆
I don’t think mine get that much attention all year.
unlikely, I don't bother cleaning it much any way as it only gets dirty again.
@steelisideal - How often do you ride, I'd imagine that level of cleaning means you don't pop out for an hour here or there?
I've been paid to wash bikes.
All part of running a rental service. You can get pretty efficient at it. A typical day would be washing a dozen or so bikes in the morning, then doing the safety check/service in the afternoon.
Some of these "cleaning" regimes are probably doing more damage than just not cleaning it at all.
I'm sure you know my opinion on this but just in case, not a chance! 5 minute rinse after the ride with the Hydroshot, job done.
After almost every ride it’s wheels off, derailleur lower cage off, jockey wheels disassembled, brake pads out, chain off, saddle off, dropper out then a full degrease, clean, polish, regrease and re-lube then reassemble, all bolts checked, indexing of gears if needed.
Sod that, that's things that get done as and when needed!
I have regular customers who choose "the clean one"
Frame/wheel/drivetrain clean
Say what now!?! Lots of potential questions raised here starting with what cycling discipline? How often do you ride it (just races?)? Do you genuinely find its necessary?
Longer distance XC, 6-24hr races. It is just a race bike, I have others for other riding. Usually three 24hrs in a year plus some others, 6-8 races would be normal, fewer last year due to long covid. And yes, a 24 does weird things to it, especially if it's wet, a dry 6hr much less so. Worth it? I've been racing since 1998 and I've had one DNF in all that time (and one in a running race, but that was a calf injury) I see lots of other people with mechanicals, could possibly have been avoided if they'd looked after their bikes better
Yeah, I’ve had mixed results from letting other people work on my bikes.
Yeah, I’ve had mixed results from letting other people doing my own work on my bikes.
Yeah should probably add some context!
Ride usually once a week or so, probably once a fortnight in the depths of winter, but full day and BPW/Dyfi/FoD. Unfortunately there’s nothing local to ride so never get the chance to get out for an hour or so, if I did I’d just run a singlespeed Stooge and never clean it!
It wouldn’t be everyone’s way to do it but it works for me. I love riding a lot more than cleaning but I hate a bike that’s creaky, noisy, squeaky or not working as well as it should. Touch wood, I’ve literally NEVER had a single ride spoiled by a mechanical issue, and I put that down to being a bit OCD on cleaning and maintenance.
Don’t get me started on how long it takes to detail a motorbike…
No.
So, as I’m really lazy, I worked out a routine to clean it instead. And made sure the kit was easily available. Longest it’s taken since i got everything set up is about 10-12 minutes. 15 if i blast it dry with the compressor.
This is me, too! Developed a crack on and get it done attitude and a process that is <10mins for a clean enough bike. I'd find (sorry) letting someone else in (and all associated) to clean the bike actually more faff