Bike Cleaning Advice Wanted:

roverthehill

Hey, pretty new to the sport and just purchased a half decent bike.

What advice would you guys give in terms of cleaning? Hot soapy water, degreaser and a bit of chain lube? Any advice on products would be very welcome!! And what parts of the bike should I focus on and what should I leave alone?

Apologies for such a basic question but hopefully your answers wil help other folk out too!

reevie25

Soapy Water to clean
GT85 to de-grease and can be good for polishing the frame.
Finish Line Wet Lube for the chain
Fork Juice for front/rear suspension
Rock N Roll Super Web grease for installing/servicing parts such as a headset

I tend to clean everything other than the brakes. Also, try to avoid flooding the suspension with water when cleaning as this can damage it.

This is what I have been using for the past few years and it seems like a good formula so I'll stick to it. At the end of the day, it's whatever works for you.

cooldad

Absolutely no need to 'degrease' everything regularly. Grease in the right place is good. Random GT85/WD40 use will just get in where it shouldn't.

delcol

rinse with water
mucoff or feniwicks.
sponge/brush
rinse clean
chamois down
then pedros bike lust (silicone polish) dont get it near the brakes though.
i use it on my fork seals to.
wipe chain with rag
then lube..

i only degrease the chain when it needs doing....
personally i wouldnt put gt85 near any of my bikes....

nicklouse

At the bottom of every page there is a link to a guide to how to clean and lube your bike.

Scroll down.

roverthehill

cheers guys - one other thing - my brakes sound a bit gritty after the clean - is there an easy way to sort this out?

bonezy

A few hard, progressive stops should dry everything off and get the brakes sorted

cooldad

Rinse with a bit of fresh water.

delcol

i just rinse them with the hosepipe when i clean the bike...

.blitz

My advice is not to clean it all. Use dry lube on the drivetrain all year round so it doesn't attract dirt and a little wet lube on the fork stanchions/shock. If you need to fix something, just clean the section you're working on.

Water will kill your bike - guaranteed.

jakestanworth

i hand wash my bike with hot soupy water because if u jet wash the water can get into ur forks etc. i also use muc off which i find very helpfull. next i dry my bike and lubricate the chain with wet chain lube net i use wd40 and pray all the moveing joints. DONT SPAY THE BRAKES AND HEADSET WITH WD40 i hav had my bike now for 4 years and evrything is still in gud working order so it must work

cooldad

jakestanworth wrote:

i hand wash my bike with hot soupy water because if u jet wash the water can get into ur forks etc. i also use muc off which i find very helpfull. next i dry my bike and lubricate the chain with wet chain lube net i use wd40 and pray all the moveing joints. DONT SPAY THE BRAKES AND HEADSET WITH WD40 i hav had my bike now for 4 years and evrything is still in gud working order so it must work

I need to know more.
What sort of soup do you use on the bike? I like a nice bowl of chicken soup with croutons myself.
What vet do you use to spay the brakes?
Personally I only pray when I'm crashing in anticipation of the pain to follow.



ps WD40 on bearings etc is not a good idea.


pps a spellcheck and a proofread is.

delcol

cooldad cooldad cooldad.. theeres noooooo stping u is threre. :roll: :P

now were si that sepll chaeck butotn...

BigLee1

Don`t use washing up liquid either, pop to Halfords or the like and get some car shampoo. I use Turtle wax wash and shine and a 5 litre tub lasts years!