Best way to clean my bike?

Hi everyone! I am enjoying this forum sooo much, and have learned so much already!

So, I am a newbie to road riding (been riding my whole life,...but new to it in a 'serious' capacity), and my husband and I are having a disagreement about how to clean one's bike.

It seems that the best information I have seen in many places (including the RBR newsletter) is to hose the bike down to rinse sand and and sweat off after every ride....dry completely and then lube the chain (and of course remove excess lube).

Is this far from what everyone else does? What is your daily, weekly, monthly routines? Is there a consensus on how it should be done, and which products are best? Also, what should I be careful of NOT doing? I tried doing a search on the forum about this....but didn't come up with much. I really want to keep my (new) bike as nice as possible for as long as possible. I am really looking forward to your responses!!! Thanks! :D

I rinse my bikes every year or two.

Clean the chains every 3 or 4 months. Or maybe it's every 6-8 months...

Do the lube-and-wipe-off routine to the drive train and lube all moving bits every 3 or 4 weeks.

If there's a particularly nasty booger (like a dead worm or big glob of yuck) on a bike I'll use Simple Green and a paper towel.

Once in a great while I remember to wipe the frames down with Armor-All wipes.

at the end of a ride I routinely check over and wipe down the tires, checking for nicks and scrapes, I oppen the brakes and dry wipe off the road grint, clean the surface of the rim where they touch, clean the cogwheels on the derailleliur with a dry rag, wipe off the chain thotoughly and wipe down the frame for general grime. If I have been rained on I take extra care to wipe everything dry. I lube my chain every 300 miles with a combination cleaner/ lube wiping it off thoroughly so that the lube stays in the links where it is supposed to but the chain is not gooey or sticky. At this same session I will add oil to all metal on metal contacts in the derailleur, brake cables, and brakes.

If it is extremely dirty I will hose it off gently, wipe it down with a simple green solution, rinse and dry. Do not use any power in the hose, let it dribble. If you spray forcefully, you can force water into places it doesn't belong.

About every 600 miles I clean the chain thoroughly with a clamp on chain cleaner and chain cleaner solution of simple green. I also clean the bike thoroughly and tthen let it dry and finish off with a wipe down with a rag sprayed with pledge to help it resist dirt and to make it extra pretty.

Admitedly this may seem a bit compulsive, but I will probably never be able to afford another good road bike, so I try to take care.

Just my own method.

marni

in theory i wipe my chain off after every ride and lube the chain every few rides. otherwise i clean the rest when it is dirty enough. in practice i do all of that just a bit less often.

I clean my chain (like everything else...) when I look at it and can go "Eew." Then I clean that with one of those handy chain machine things and degreaser. Then the cassette with a bit of degreaser on a rag, then the chainrings as much as I can without taking the whole thing apart. While the rear wheel's off I clean its rim and the rear brakes (consists mostly of removing the gunk. Stick wheel back on, then re-lube the chain. Then I clean the frame with a bit of lemon pledge on a rag.

I try to remember to wipe down my tires after every ride as my bike lives in my apartment, but that doesn't always happen.

Hi Owlie! I live in an apartment, too...which is why this is kind of a challenge for me. I have no out-doors source of water....and if I put together some sort of cleaning kit, it pretty much needs to be self-contained.

So, it's OK to clean the chain and cogs with degreaser to 'de-gunk' them, and then add new, clean lube? I mentioned to a friend earlier about cleaning my bike with water...and the response was like "water?!?! you don't want it to get rusty!" And it scared me....even though I can't imagine cleaning it without using water at SOME point in the routine (even just to rinse off degreaser). So I guess, I am looking for reassurance that as long as I bounce the bike to get water off, and dry it with a towel, and relube, water is OK?

Thanks so much for the responses, by the way!

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Originally Posted by esmorin

Hi Owlie! I live in an apartment, too...which is why this is kind of a challenge for me. I have no out-doors source of water.

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Is there an outdoor faucet that your apartment staff uses? That's what I use when my bike needs water. I ride a lot in winter and I just ask the staff to turn the faucet on for me. The road salt definitely needs to be washed off with water.

Water is fine. Bicycles are meant to be ridden outside! But if you must use a hose, use one of those gentle rain sprinkler attachments. It's high pressure that's a problem. If there's an opening at your seatpost, cover that so water doesn't go down your seat tube and potentially into your bottom bracket.

Your main task when cleaning your bike is getting grit out of moving parts. That's what causes wear.

Someone here suggested using one of those pump-up garden sprayers. That was the Best Bike Cleaning Tip EVAH. You get enough pressure to get crud out from between chain plates, brake caliper arms, etc., but not so much that it'll penetrate bearing seals; and you can direct the spray very precisely to keep from directing it at bearings and frame drains.

Also, you could fill it indoors and take it outside for washing. One filling of the 2-gallon sprayer is usually plenty - but you can always refill it if you need to.

I got into the habit of washing my mountain bike after every ride with this. I also dial it to fine mist and rinse off my road bike when it gets dusty or muddy. The chain gets cleaned about once a month so that I don't get gunky chain grease on me. I lube the chain about every other week.

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Originally Posted by marni

at the end of a ride I routinely check over and wipe down the tires, checking for nicks and scrapes, I oppen the brakes and dry wipe off the road grint, clean the surface of the rim where they touch, clean the cogwheels on the derailleliur with a dry rag, wipe off the chain thotoughly and wipe down the frame for general grime. If I have been rained on I take extra care to wipe everything dry.

marni

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I'm a bad bike mama! I try to rinse off once a month and relube chain. Or when I look down at my top tube and say "EEWWW!" Or after riding on the Katy which is crushed gravel. Or when the chain starts to get "chunky?!"

Armor all does work well.

While we're on the topic: How do you dispose of used degreaser? Last time I cleaned my bike it wasn't a problem because I tripped over it and spilled it all over the garage floor....

Used "Simple Green" and water I just dump down the sink.

Simple Green is great stuff. I buy it by the jug at Costco and use it for EVERYTHING.

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Originally Posted by Owlie

While we're on the topic: How do you dispose of used degreaser? Last time I cleaned my bike it wasn't a problem because I tripped over it and spilled it all over the garage floor....

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I filter it through a paper towel and reuse it. A lot evaporates or stays on the chain and gets washed off though.:(

i have become a fan of citrus cleaners over simple green. If you google enough, you'll find that some classes of simple green users won't use it because there are components in it that will destroy certain metals if you use enough of it for long enough. I know I didn't beleive it either but aircraft mechanics won't use it.

Plus, Sheldon Brown loves ( loved?) citrus cleaners. ;)

At the moment I am living on the 20th floor of an apartment.
We started washing our bikes in the car wash area of the carpark, but it was a push tap so we had to keep on filling buckets plus it was often very hot weather wise.

The other day we decided to take the bikes into the bathroom. It's totally tiled with a floor drain and the shower only has a tiled raised lip. Putting it on an angle and slightly turning the wheel we could fit a signle bike and gently hose it off.

Now we decided to try the tandem. We cleared the floor off and just showered away, not worrying that the water was all over the floor- it drained into the floor drain fine.

I think our bikes have got spoiled!

Carwash with wax included is great and coats the frame with a protective wax.

We wash our bikes monthly, but use a wet towel if we sweated quite a bit on the frame.

FWIW, I don't have access to an outdoor faucet at my apartment. Okay, we have one, but my building doesn't allow moving bikes in and out of the front door. (But she's not dirty! Or, not that dirty.) It's also difficult because the stairs are so steep. So I clean her up as described

I don't do much riding in winter save the unsalted trail back home. (Cleveland winters are nasty and wet, and they're not great about salting roads because they want to save money...therefore it's icy.) If I did, I'd see about getting one of those sprayers to "hose" down the bike after a ride.

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Originally Posted by Irulan

i have become a fan of citrus cleaners over simple green. If you google enough, you'll find that some classes of simple green users won't use it because there are components in it that will destroy certain metals if you use enough of it for long enough. I know I didn't beleive it either but aircraft mechanics won't use it.

Plus, Sheldon Brown loves ( loved?) citrus cleaners. ;)

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I use Park Tool's citrus degreaser. I can't find disposal instructions for it, though.

After a ride in the rain, mine got real nasty so I brought her into the house, put her in the tub and gave her a "shower" using the handheld shower attachment and a little citrus degreaser on the extra dirty parts. Then I dried her off with a towel and re-lubed the chain. She looked so purdy.:p

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Originally Posted by sundial

I got into the habit of washing my mountain bike after every ride with this. I also dial it to fine mist and rinse off my road bike when it gets dusty or muddy. The chain gets cleaned about once a month so that I don't get gunky chain grease on me. I lube the chain about every other week.

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You are a rockstar! I have seen people using those but has no clue what it was. DH is THE WORST about bring home a dirty bike from racing then letting it sit for a a few days and he wonders why parts wear out so quick. I want to pick up the bike and hit him on the head with it (while he still has his helmet on naturally). Drives me batty!

I use the mist setting on my garden hose every week on my mountain bike. We rarely ride muddy trails in Texas (except said races) so it is usually just dusty mudd making things squeak. Rock 'n Roll Gold Lube which cleans and lubes every week, full strip down to clean every nook and cranny about twice a year. Sometimes clean the rotors on the brakes to reduce noise.

For the roadie, same thing mist setting then dry with a microfiber towel my in-laws thought we would use for cars. :p I spray Pedro's Bike Lust on a separate towel and wipe the fork, top tube and down tube for extra spiffy shine. Rock n' Roll the chain about once a month, thorough clean including running the chain through the Park Tool Chain cleaner, tooth brush scrubbing the cassette, etc about twice a year.

The biggest key is no high pressure and be careful with things like bottom brackets, seat posts and such where water can creep in. My LBS uses a fine mist to clean bikes, if they think it is okay then I am okay with it.

I always thought Simple Green was a weak acid, but it turns out it's a weak base.

On bicycles and motorcycles, it won't hurt anything that won't wear out from other causes long before any chemical reaction from Simple Green caused any damage. Rinse it off, just as you would with any solvent or detergent.

I can see where you'd be especially careful about what you'd put on aircraft... lots of riveted plates and nooks and crannies, and just generally an enormous surface area that would take an inordinate amount of time to clean individually. AFAIK it's high pressure hose and maybe sponges or scrub brushes with aircraft. Not the toothbrushes and pipe cleaners we use on bicycles...


ETA: I use the Park Tool degreaser as well. It seems to be one of the least toxic ones out there. That's a relative term, though. :(