Post ride clean up. Anyone else utterly sick of it now?

I’ve decided to keep the MTB locked away now until it dries or freezes out there. I’m heartily sick of dragging filthy bikes and kit into the garage every couple of days. My car boot stinks from constantly carrying manky cycling gear about.

Also it’s shocking seeing how much damage the rain has caused to the trails already and trampling over and around it while they’re in the state they are isn’t going to help either.

Turbo/Running/Road for me for the foreseeable.

I’m quite enjoying the mud and sloop just now, it’s usually quite steep where I ride so the mud simply becomes a superb deep rut berm that flings chunks up and looks cool! The cleanup routine I have is reasonably quick, about 8 minutes in all. Clothes hang on the hedge beside where I hose the bike, everything gets blasted with the hose, bike gets taken in and I run degreaser then a thin film of oil over it, clothes hang in the drying cupboard to dry off for next time or get put in the machine if they’re stinking.

Not minding it at all, though I might not feel this way if it’s still going on in June.

Jesus – i don’t get it – we’re all keen mountain bikers yet some of us are content to wait for the nice weather to arrive???

WTF? Faff – yep – there is some- but its the UK – its hardly horrendous weather. Its mild and a bit muddy….

My fatbike – with lots of mudgaurds gets a very quick blast of the hose after a muddy ride and then straight into my shed where the oil radiator has been on for a couple of hours. Strip out of the shitty gear straight into some warm stuff

Oil the chain and straight to the shower

2 to 3 times a week and i’ll have kept my fitness for when you ‘Fair-weather’ riders hit the trails in the spring

Loving the fatbike drain pipe stand above – might just copy that! 🙂

bike was fairly clean after my ride yesterday, but driving home from the hills with it on the back of the van, it ended up white with salt.
no probs i thought, i’ll hose it off………. or maybe not as my hose is full of 20metres of ice 🙁

Hose pipes all ready for when i get home – blast all the main crap off the bike & then my clothes , take them down into the cellar to dry off .
All nice & dry for the morning , then repeat the process when i get home .

boltonjon – Member
Jesus – i don’t get it – we’re all keen mountain bikers yet some of us are content to wait for the nice weather to arrive???

WTF? Faff – yep – there is some- but its the UK – its hardly horrendous weather. Its mild and a bit muddy….

I don’t mind admitting that I much prefer riding in nice weather – give me 30+ degrees, rocks and dust over endless slop and mud any day. But then, each to their own, I suppose. I have enough of rain, wind and cold after a day spent working in it without wanting to go out and ride bikes in the evening too. I’m too old to be so masochistic and besides, it’s a hobby, not life or death, and what’s wrong with wanting to do it when you get the most pleasure from it?
The world’s not going to come to an end because I elect not to spend a couple of hours riding through a swamp while getting soaked to the skin….

Awaiting this weekend and promises of temps of -3 then will get the mtb out for the first time in months 🙂

its not so much cleaning the bike that gets me – I have a good routine that takes less than 10 minutes from arriving home with bike on roof to it being away in garage, clean, dry and lubed. It’s the manky muddy crud all over jacket, waterproof shorts, Evoc pack etc. I would rather not chuck modern fabrics with DWR coatings etc in the machine after every ride or 2, but I really don’t like going out on a ride in already manky kit !

Oooer, manky kit and hairy legs would get you laughed out of a road peloton!

i’ll have kept my fitness for when you ‘Fair-weather’ riders hit the trails in the spring

We’ll have all been putting in the road bike miles during winter and will be bringing our awesome roadie fitness to the trails 😉

I’m trying to avoid the worst of my local trails, but it’s still pretty skanky (Reading area). I have just fully uglified my bike with crudcatcher guards, mainly to save my clothes from getting too muddy. Two mains reasons for it being especially annoying:

– it’s just no fun sliding down a trail at 7mph in the dark, I don’t enjoy causing more damage. Trying to stick to more weather proof trails, but not many of those around me.
– I live on a boat in a marina, so it’s a faff to clean bikes, and it’s a bit anti social to make the pontoon soaking wet just before a night freeze. I also have to use a shared laundry, so kit can’t just be washed every time, as it’s a faff and also costs £4 a time! There’s not much room to strip out of muddy gear and then dry it on a narrowboat!

If I lived in a house with a shed it would a different story. I’m looking forward to the trails being much drier, and the only real mtb fun in the meantime is the odd trail centre trip.

Surely you just attach a rope and dunk it off the side?

If you were any kind of man you’d build a wooden kicker off the pontoon and backflip into the water after a muddy ride.
Not really thought about the drying off / lubing bike bit yet but I’ll get back to you.

🙂 I think it would be more of a style-free understeer off the end to be honest! An Inbred 29er on a rope: literally a boat-anchor!