Washing Your Bike
Keeping you bike clean and free of grit and grime will not only improve the riding quality and the look of the bike but will also increase the lifetime of the bikes components.
Tools:
• Bucket full of warm soapy water
• Brushes / Sponge
• Cleaner / Degreaser e.g. Muc-Off • TF2 / GT85 / WD40 Water disperser / Lubricant
• Disposable gloves (not essential)
Firstly ensure that you’ve got everything that you need prepared and close to hand, there’s nothing worse that having to scrape around the bottom of your toolbox or shed looking for that brush or sponge, with cold wet hands whilst the light is dimming and the prospect of just putting the bike back in the shed is looking more and more appealing.
Warm soapy water is always best for removing mud, whilst stronger more concentrated cleaners and degreasers are best used for removing built up chain oil, grease and packed on brake dust and road grime. Remember, it can pay to use disposable gloves when cleaning you bike due to the strength of the cleaners, hot water and old grime can damage your skin. Also if you have some barrier cream to hand it can also be worth using some of this as an additional protection layer. Both of these products can easily be found at you local hard wear store.
Begin Cleaning Firstly wet the bike lightly with a hose (if available) to loosen any dirt and then, if using a cleaner (Muc-Off), spray the bike all over with a cleaning product.
When cleaning the bike pay particular attention to areas of high grime such as brakes and brake blocks, derailleurs and cable ends. Scrub the frame, forks, wheels, handlebars, grips, saddle and all the other parts of the bike that are dirty. Sometimes even when parts of the bike don’t seem dirty, they can look much better once they’ve had a going over with a brush!
Pay extra attention to the drive chain area (chain, front and rear cogs and gear changers) because these can often need deeper cleaning, calling for the use of stronger cleaners/degreasers to remove the built up grime. Once the bike has been sprayed, the cleaner needs to be left alone for 2-3 minutes in order for it to loosen the dirt. Then begin washing the bike with your brush/sponge and soapy water. Don’t be shy, really get in there and give it really good scrubbing!
If the chain needs degreasing you can buy specific cleaners that contain rotating brushes that clean the chain from all directions and bring the chain back to looking like new. If you don’t have a chain cleaner then an old toothbrush or and old small brush and some solvent cleaner e.g. White Spirit, Methylated Spirits or Muc-Off chain cleaner aerosol, will do the job nicely (this is where your disposable gloves will come in handy). Then just rinse the chain with clean water.
It can often help if you remove the wheels to clean the frame, forks and wheels, but you must make sure that you don’t rest the bike on the rear gear derailleur. Because any slight damage will throw your gears out and could potentially cause irreparable damage.
Never use a Jet Wash! Jet washing bikes removes all of the grease and oils that are held within the bike and are essential to the bike running smoothly. Without these greases and oils the bearings and other components will be running dry and the wear rate will increase exponentially.
After the bike has been rinsed you can spray it with a water dispersant/lube that will drive out any remaining water from the frame, cables and any other hard to reach places where any moisture will cause rust and damage.
An old cloth can be used to wipe the bike down afterwards to bring back the shine of your paintwork and if any post-wash mechanical maintenance is required, it is always easier to perform on clean dry bikes and components.
