After having a nightmare with a hose popping off in the kitchen I have been using buckets of water to clean the bike. Without the obvious plumbing in an outside tap the other alternative I thought about was those high pressure hand pump garden sprayers, they any good or useful for bike cleaning?

One of these will do you a treat!!

TBH BB they’re really meant for spraying chemicals and I certainly can’t imagine mine moving any mud.
Get stuck into fitting a tap, not difficult.

I’ve one of THESE but haven’t used it yet so can’t comment on its effectiveness.

Was for quick clean of muck before putting bike in car at end of trail day, etc ..

I used one for a couple of years (£7 job from Wilkos).

Worked fine provided you used a healthy amount of agitation along with it.

Since bought a Dirt Worker from ebay for about £25 and it’s great, but to be honest, not a world apart from the spray pump (certainly not worth £120 in my eyes).

Until recently Clas Ohlsen were selling that Mobi washer rebadged as “CoTech” for a lot less.

Web site says discontinued but they still had them in store last time I poked my nose in (a few weeks ago)

http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/12-V-Cordless-Pressure-Washer/Pr184407000

I’ve got one and its ace 🙂

They work really well benslow.
We use one almost the same for cleaning – as long as it’s still fairly wet you’ll have no issues.

I’ve got a jet washer but TBH I don’t use it, I’m not very precious about bearings or anything, it’s just too much faff getting it out and plugging it in Vs just using a hose and a brush.

Fitting an outside tap doesn’t take long; kit from homebase or B&Q is ~£20 tops? 12 x 400 masonry bit to put a hole through the wall is a fiver… makes watering the garden, filling paddling pools and cleaning out the Bins about a billion times easier too…

Use mine for rinsing in the car park. I also used it as a tyre seater when trying tubeless. Fine for both jobs.

I have a hand pump one which is 8 litres, it can do one bike well or it can get the worst off two bikes. If the mud has dried then a brush is useful but it’s handy as I can chuck it in the car or use it in the garden.
The electric ones look great for those who are too posh to push 😀

How do the hand pump ones work, do you need two people?

Those electric ones seem pretty weedy from what ive seen at cross races less pressure than a garden hose attachment

I had a garden spray pump to clean my bike before it went into the car but gave up as it wasn’t powerful enough to shift much mud.

Got one of the pressure washers that runs off the car 12V and it is much better. Maybe not as powerful as a mains pressure washer but that’s good news for your bike’s bearings.

It would be good being able to use the 12V washer at home when I don’t use the car but haven’t found a suitable box to convert mains to 12V at the required power. Anyone any suggestions?

That’s how I’ve been cleaning my bikes for the past couple of seasons, very tempted to one of those 12v pressure washers with it’s own reservoir, few lads at cross have them, and they look reasonable, no more pumping.

I have an older one of These Hoselock 5ltr spray. Its good for 1 bike. I take a gerry can too for additional bikes. Remove the spray nozzle end, as that blocks easy. Its not bad for £20 or so. Also used as a shower when doing particularly muddy running events 🙂

I got a 9l garden sprayer for tubeless inflating duties and the safety release valve leaks at too low a pressure. May be same for heavy duty cleaning duties. So I araldiyted up the valve and it works a treat 😆

This May or may not be a good idea!

I replaced the safety valve with a Stans tubeless valve for tubeless duties. I use a track pump to inflate it to 60 PSI.

TiRed which one do you have that mod sounds interesting

“Quality Faithful Tools” 5L pressure sprayer. In fact now I recall, I replaced the Stans valve with one I cut from an old inner tube. You can another valve and a double ended track pump tube and head to the other side. You will need to remove the fill tube from inside the sprayer too. Or…

Place the base of the track pump over the existing tube – with spray head removed (this tube sits nicely on the valve of the rim with core removed. Pump to 60PSI whilst blocking the tube. Once at pressure, remove the track pump to release the pressure. Tyre inflates instantly.

ta

Bigbloke – I have a Mobi V-15 which I bought for £70 in Jan 2012 but have never used. It’s still in it’s original box (but I seem to have mislaid the instructions). I was planning on sticking it on the classifieds for £50 collected from Manchester if that is any good for you?

Rich

If anyone else is interested, I tested the safety valve whilst pumping with my track pump and it blew off at about 35-40psi. I figured a minimum of 100% safety cover and then some – hence 60 PSI. The pump that is part of the sprayer will also blow the safety valve, but pumping to 60 PSI was too much like hard work.

haven’t found a suitable box to convert mains to 12V at the required power. Anyone any suggestions?

I bought one of these car jump starter battery things:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarke-910-Jump-Start-Compressor/dp/B004M418SS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383918524&sr=8-1&keywords=clarkes+910

(as I needed one as I don’t use my car a lot and occasionally need to jump it)

and it has a cigarette socket, so can power my portable pressure washer.