Are pressure washers actually the great Satan?

Greg T

So I watched the "Road to victory" or "Path to Winning" or "Route to leathering the French" or whatever the team Sky Documentary was called..

It was good.

What i did see however was the sky mechanics just hosing down the bikes with pressure washers . . .

Now it may be that they just have so many and strip them down so much that if the bearings fail or they melt in contact with water - they just throw them away or fix them quick enough...

or - and this is my point . .

maybe they think that modern sealed bearings can hack a bit of pressure washing.

Now with winter coming up I'm interested in the hive minds opinion... Bikes will now be crudded up with a weeks use and cleaning a bike in the cold is such a PITA - how many times have I skinned my knuckles on chain rings?

Does anyone actually pressure wash their bikes? Has this lead to immediate gear failure and drama? Or can we (for sealed bearings etc) drop this into the "stuff that isn't true" bin like "factory grease is the best magic grease and never clean your chain" and "don't use detergent it's got salt in it"

UndercoverElephant

My name's Undercover, and I use a pressure washer on my bike.

Have done since I bought one off a mate, works well, but I do avoid going too close to the bearings.

Greg T

UndercoverElephant wrote:

My name's Undercover, and I use a pressure washer on my bike.

Has it ever melted or in any other way been compromised do you think?

UndercoverElephant

Greg T wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

My name's Undercover, and I use a pressure washer on my bike.

Has it ever melted or in any other way been compromised do you think?

Up until yesterday I'd have said no, but having seen the state of the bottom bracket on the snow bike, and having snapped a 1/2 inch drive wrench trying to remove the bugger, I'm no so sure.

Greg T

How long has it been in? I look at BB replacement as a 50/50 chance anyway... The patient will often die on the table anyway . . more than a couple of years and few salty winters and who's to say . .

arthur_scrimshaw

Greg T wrote:

Now it may be that they just have so many and strip them down so much that if the bearings fail or they melt in contact with water - they just throw them away or fix them quick enough...

"

^ this

lc1981

Please don't establish that pressure washers are OK, because then I might have to buy one and I spend enough on cycling already!

UndercoverElephant

Greg T wrote:

How long has it been in? I look at BB replacement as a 50/50 chance anyway... The patient will often die on the table anyway . . more than a couple of years and few salty winters and who's to say . .

I'm actually blaming the bike shop I got it from for not treating the frame internally. A couple of winters, and ridden through the worst bits only. My other bikes are fine, though. Much faster.

First.Aspect

[uneducated beardy mechanic]A pressure washer will disolve carbon. The tubing on a steel bike is only a micron thick in places, and it will punch a hole right through. It is literally impossible to re-grease a chain after it has been washed with a pressure washer.[/uneducated beardy mechanic]

Careful use of a pressure washer is fine. Clean the whole bike from something of a distance, avoiding bearings. 2-3ft from the nozzle to the bike.

Up close, keep it away from plastics such as lever hoods, tyre sidewalls, saddle and so on.

Its relatively good for cleaning the chain when its on the big ring, or just as its coming off. If you have bushings on your rear mech, its fine to blast the crud off the jockey wheels and re-lube afterwards. If have sealed bearings, don't do this. Avoid the area of the main bolt holding the mech to the hanger. Flushing crap off the front mech is fine. Clearing the crap off and between the chain rings is fine.

Its less good for cleaning the cassette. You can, sorta, but water gets flushed into the rear hub and freewheel mechanism very easily.

Irritating side effects can include water in your rim. Squeezing past your nipples. Oo-err.

greg66_tri_v2.0

Hmm. So if you milk your nipples can you make water dribble out of your rim?

mtb-idle

Pressure washers, don't do it folks :evil:

meanredspider

TBH, though I have one, I've never felt the need to use it on the bike. General crud rinses off with a normal hose and oil needs degreaser. In fact, given the choice again, I don't think I'd bother buying a pressure washer for anything.

notsoblue

Do you ever really need to use it on a bike though? I've got a bunch of muc off brushes of various sizes and that does the jump perfectly.

Pressure washers seem to be overkill to me.

supersonic

If you are careful with them, they are fine. On MTBs, where the whole thing is caked in mud, they are a god send.

UndercoverElephant

notsoblue wrote:

Do you ever really need to use it on a bike though?

Probably not with the roadie, but on the mountain bike? Oh hell yes!

jeepie1999

I never feel the need to let it near my road bike, but careful use on mtb is fair game.

I use the vari wand from Karcher to turn down the pressure. So long as your careful its fine.

bails87

supersonic wrote:

If you are careful with them, they are fine. On MTBs, where the whole thing is caked in mud, they are a god send.

+1 but given how far away I am with it, a normal hose would do just as good a job.

itboffin

I have on the MTB & CX but until today not on a road bike ...what's the worst that could happen?

iclestu

UndercoverElephant wrote:

My name's Undercover, and I use a pressure washer on my bike.

UndercoverElephant wrote:

My beautiful Orbea is dead...

:?

<sratches head and decides to stick to skint knuckles and cold hands>

itboffin

Yeh not impressed with the results tbh I ended up blasting off the weeks caked in grime then resorting to my usual method

Scalps soaked in the tears of fallen foe, buffed with their pride.

mudcow007

my name is mudcow007 an i too use a power washer, well actually i use compressed steam from our boiler in work

you should see how fast it gets oil an crude off a chain

my bike hasn't melted yet, i just dont get really close to the paint/ bearings when im cleaning it

iPete

Yesterday I had to use a spanner to scrape the London grime off my crankset and depsite half an hours scrubbing, dirt was still hanging out in the hard to reach spots of my chain... give me a pressure washer any day!