Bike wash area in garden

Our garden is mostly clay so washing the bike out there just makes a slippery, muddy mess, so I’m looking for cheap ideas to make a small area to rinse the bike without ruining the lawn and making it look like the aftermath of a small festival.

Can’t really do gravel/pebbles as the wife’s dog likes to dig.

Any ideas or photos of what you have made?

A lawn? It’s just bare clay?

Clay soil. Takes ages to dry out and doesn’t drain well.

Plastic Shed base things with some gravel?

Grey concrete utility slabs?

Can’t really do gravel/pebbles as the wife’s dog likes to dig.

Gravel / pebble soakaway with a slatted drainage platform over it (or a lid) to stop the pooch?

Soakaway won’t work on clay soil. I’ve got the same problem in the back of my mind (also on heavy clay soil). Figured i’d get some composite decking or something and connect the drain to our land drain.

dig out a small section and use gravel grids maybe even add a bike stand / small fence post to rest the bike against whilst cleaning

edit how much water are you guys using to suggest a soakaway?! a quick hose down and if need be a bucket of water is good enough for my families bikes.

edit how much water are you guys using to suggest a soakaway?!

Maybe not the correct term in this situation – I just meant a bit of a dug out gravel trap to give the water somewhere to go (and soak away slowly) whilst reducing the mud.

Can you mix a load of sand in with your clay soil in one spot in the garden? Maybe with a layer of gravel underneath?

A bucket of water on already saturated clay soil creates a mud pool.

“ A bucket of water on already saturated clay soil creates a mud pool.”

We have the thinnest topsoil being on the downs, with chalk just an inch or two below – but even that layer of clay-based soil was enough to make our north-facing lawn a damp disappointment every winter.

I can highly recommend the “I don’t wash my bike” approach instead but most people seem to think leaving their bike muddy will cause it to self-combust or something…

i have clay soil too, gravel grids work fine for me

Depends how heavy the clay is…. if I used a hose on my lawn on winter, I’d have a mud pool for a day or two!

I use a piece of artificial grass picked up from the remnants bin at B&Q. About 2×1 m. The ‘grass’ gets laid onto the paving to trap the worst of the mud etc. I hose down the path at the end and shake out the grass periodically.

A chemical spill tray/bund would collect your mud and water.

One of the bigger ones for barrels would mean less bending down to clean the bike as well.

If you were really keen you could build a sump to filter out the water to reuse again through a Hydroshot or similar. Otherwise it’s just a case of piping it off somewhere and scraping out the sediment for the veg patch or flower beds.

You can’t really get round the fact that you have to get rid of the water somehow, which makes it difficult to come up with a cheap solution.

When I moved in to my house I discovered the “drainage grille” outside the garage was actually just a grille, connected to nothing, so everything flooded when I washed the bike or there was heavy rain. I ended up hand digging a big hole in the front garden to bury a soakaway crate, connected with drainage pipe to the grille. It works well, but it was a horrible job and taking into account time and materials, I can’t claim it was particularly cheap.

I had this issue a few years ago, and fixed it by basically recreating a bike wash like you see at most trail centres.

Luckily I’ve space etc.

Levelled off a section with (tall) walls on two sides (an ‘L’), put a drain in that connects to our soakaways, sand & cement base with (slightly angled) pavers on top and fenced the walls with treated timber (looks like a fence).  Also ensured that the majoirty of the mud etc doesn’t get in the soakaways using a ‘filter’.

I also brought water in (a bit more involved, 10 metre trench and a blue pipe from the nearest outside supply).

An Isambard* as my OH would say.

And if I knew how to post pics, I would…

* – why use a 2×2 when a 4×4 also does the job

If you drive to the trails, use one of those mini pump to wash you bike, before returning home? They are good, not so powerful it’s going to mess with your bearings, but definitely fine for washing even the muddiest bike

Otherwise as mentioned, clean your suspension and chainset and let the rest dry, then knock off the worst. This does assume you have a garage

I have one of those mini pump jobbers.

Not that exact one, but similar, Because there are a eleventy-bazillion and one of those type of things on the market. Mine is 100W instead of 65W in that link.

Broadly speaking it’ll be okay for the finer grit stone and Cwmcarn/Afan type mud, but it will really struggle with heavier clay.

In general, I much prefer washing a bike straight after a ride instead of taking the filth home with me.