Looking after bike in rainy conditions
Totalnewbie
Posts: 932
I don't mind the rain myself; it's my bike I'm worried about, seeing as I've only had it four months and it's been soaked a fair few times during that time, thinking about it.
When I get back in the evenings and it's been raining, I try to wipe it down/dry it off, esp around bearings etc, but was wondering what to lube moving parts (eg, brake pivots) with to stop them getting rusty? Something like teflon spray maybe?
And what about bearings like the hubs? Don't want to risk putting something on them that might affect the grease, but equally want to protect them.
It has hub gears. The chain gets cleaned and lubed with Phil Wood tenacious oil while it's rainy like this, and I plan to use a lighter one in the summer, if we have one that is...
When I get back in the evenings and it's been raining, I try to wipe it down/dry it off, esp around bearings etc, but was wondering what to lube moving parts (eg, brake pivots) with to stop them getting rusty? Something like teflon spray maybe?
And what about bearings like the hubs? Don't want to risk putting something on them that might affect the grease, but equally want to protect them.
It has hub gears. The chain gets cleaned and lubed with Phil Wood tenacious oil while it's rainy like this, and I plan to use a lighter one in the summer, if we have one that is...
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My commute bike gets chucked in the shed without a second glance each night. Will clean & oil the chain occasionally and GT85 the brake pivots and other moving bits occasionally also
Good bike gets washed, dried, full chain clean and relube and GT85 all pivots after pretty much each ride<a>road</a>0 -
There isn't a lot you can do really. Apart from looking after the chain and gears. The wheel and bottom bracket bearings should be sealed and therefore protected to some degree from the elements. The worst I find is getting everything covered in grey brake swedge! I'm sure brakes blocks wear quicker when wet.It's all good.0
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I guess this is my 'good bike' as the elderly Peugeot has been pensioned off to live by the seaside.
Don't remind me of the rims, they need a good scrub with a green scourer and I'm trying to decide whether to put it in the bath and mess up my bathroom, or wash it in the garden and freeze (if I get a day it's not raining anyway).0 -
Glad to see this raised! I've just been giving all the pivots in the brakes and mechs a spray with WD40 (waiting until that runs out to get some GT-85 - hope the wife doesn't notice!!)
I also have to agree with Adamskii, one of the worst things with rain is the brake "sludge" it just seems to get on everything! Not great as I dearly love my new bike and just hate seeing it with dirty rims, even my mate commented the other day as i didn't have the "sexy" silver chain anymore :-) I cleaned it over the weekend, only to take it out in rain 2 days this week!!! Roll on the summer :P0 -
It cheeses me off too. Especially as my garage - where I keep my bikes - floods every time it rains heavily and so is always damp.
On my new bike (which I love but use everyday for my commute) I follow Zinn's advice and ry and wipe the chain and sprockets down with a rag after every time I've been out in the rain. I give everything a good clean (though do not use degreaser) at the weekend; lube each link in the chain; leave it over night to soak into the links; then wipe the chain down again in the morning to get rid of any excess lube (to which cr*p will stick). If it's really rainy I might lube the chain twice or even more times in a week. About once every month or two I clean everything up with degreaser, though because I've been cleaning every day pretty much this generally isn't a massive job.
Having said all that, I recently dismantled my old roadie for a single-speed conversion. This had done thousands of miles (6? 7?) in all conditions over the years and I had NEVER cleaned it properly - an occasional generous spray of WD40 but that was it. I thought the group set was knackered as a consequence - it was certainly covered in tonnes of black gunk - but in fact once I stripped it all down and cleaned it up properly (to gleaming point in fact) it really wasn't too bad at all.
Moral of the story: bike components can take a lot of punishment, neglect and abuse. I'm still not taking any risks with the Ultegra groupset on my new bike though!0 -
I tend to clean my winter bike / daily commute every Saturday morning. Full wash, chain re- lubed, GT85 applied to pivots etc.... A week is about the longest I can leave it before it starts looking a real mess, although the full mudguards do help keep it moderately muck free....
Roll on the Summer / Dry weather......0 -
I just keep adding small quantities of oil to the chain until I get around to giving the bike a full 40-minute clean every couple of weeks or so. At least once a week I also give the brake pads a wipe to make sure there are no bits of embedded grit or metal to scour away the rims. Apart from that, the bike can pretty much look after itself. Fortunately, decent quality modern components seem to have well-sealed bearings and rarely, if ever, need dismantling and there is also a greater choice of decent-quality, "sticky" lubricants that don't wash off in the rain as quickly as the old 3-in-1 oil.0
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Wet rides, I'll wash the bike - takes less than 10 mins, wipe down chain and chainset with a rag then re-lube with a dry lube. Squirt GT85 type teflon lube on pivots/rear mech etc.
Tip - Car alloy wheel cleaner (like wonder wheels) is brill for getting stubborn brake crap off the rims/tyres.0 -
Well I haven't washed my bike since I got it in August. Keep meaning to clean and reoil the chain but haven't got round to it yet. A bit of dirt adds character anyway, at least it stops people saying "new bike eh?" when i'd had it for months.Bianchi Via Nirone Veloce/Centaur 20100
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Ta for the tips guys. Got another soaking last night!
I'm trying to walk the line between letting it look slightly grubby (and hence less of a thief magnet) and keeping the bits that matter clean (and so keeping servicing/maintenance costs down).
At the moment I still think it looks new and on the relatively few occasions I lock it up I am very paranoid. Mind you the bike I had stolen was ancient and distinctly unflashy so its not like it makes that much of a difference in reality.0 -
I spray our bikes off (ride ten miles every day) with the hose after every ride, then spray the moving metal parts (NOT the disk brakes though!) with Muc Off Bike Spray.
Once a month (ish) I fully clean them (got a four piece bike brush set), GT85 some parts including fork stanchions and I dry lube the chains - they stay fresh and seem to keep on going fine.
Not sure how I coped before we had a house with an outdoor tap!0 -
It's a work bike, so if it get's a full clean once a year it'll be grateful, and at the same time I'll service it from the ground up. In the interim the only thing I'll make an effort with is the chain, but as its a fixed, theres not a lot of that to do either.0
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>>I cleaned it over the weekend, only to take it out in rain 2 days this week!!! Roll on the summer
And you think English summer will be any better? BOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Totalnewbie wrote:I guess this is my 'good bike' as the elderly Peugeot has been pensioned off to live by the seaside.
Don't remind me of the rims, they need a good scrub with a green scourer and I'm trying to decide whether to put it in the bath and mess up my bathroom, or wash it in the garden and freeze (if I get a day it's not raining anyway).
It's easy enough, although tiresome, to clean brake dust off the bath and tiles after giving it a shower, but I find oil and other bikeish greasey goo can be rather tenacious. I've taken to getting cold and/or wet and washing the bike outside (sometime bringing it into the bathroom for that final polish and fettle where I can do any more delicate work with warm fingers).
My bike is currently really dirty and horrible. I've looked at the weather forecast and I'm not going to waste time washing it. 2 minutes of chain maintenance with rag and oil is what it's getting today.0 -
I only have one bike (space in the house and cost) so it has to cope with whatever the weather throws at it.
And, the minute I'm in then I have to take over the kids and that means that my bike gets cleaned about once every two months, if that.
Terrible really. I wish I had more discipline in looking after it.0
