How do you NOT clean your bike?

rapid_donkey

So, I have a 2011 Trance X3, and my usual post ride cleaning is as follows:

Get rid of any big clumps of mud around the frame with a poking stick
Clean fork and shock stanchions with baby wipes
Wipe down chain with GT85 and lube with Finish Line Dry Teflon lube every 5ish rides
And thats it!

With winter setting in and the few night rides Ive been on so far, the bike is getting increasingly minging. If I was to wash it after every few rides though, I would be forever washing it. And I dont have a hose!

I think it looks better really dirty and muddy though. Its a mountain bike, its designed for it, and if any components do fail then I will just have an excuse to buy replacements!

The bike is also kept in a warm cosy cupboard in the house so I dont have to worry about rust or corrosion.

Does anyone else let their bike get minging? Pictures?

sharky1029

At the moment my bike is pretty filthy.
I normally clean it after a muddy ride with a hose and a car cleaning brush head but during the hosepipe ban due to the extremely dry summer I had to use muck off and a watering can
The bike is a hardtail though so fewer moving parts to worry about getting clogged.
I only don't clean my bike (after a muddy ride)if it is raining too heavily for me to bother or after a night ride.

However, if it is kept inside the house, surly you would want to stop the bike getting the house too dirty. You should get it its own bedroom with en suite shower for cleaning.

El zilcho

I give mine a quick hose down but only to get the muck off the drive train. I don't worry too much about getting it off the frame. What I also like to do is hose down the chain then forget to oil it. I find that having to break the rust is the ideal start to the next ride.

Rigga

I went to cannock on Monday and got bike completely shitted up in mud....... it's still in my car!

Really need to clean it tomorrow!

Carl170

I also keep mine in the house as I have nowhere else secure to keep it.

I used to wipe it down with a damp sponge and soapy water in the kitchen, then clean the floRo around it and let it dry, then carry it upstairs later on.

On Sunday, I tried one of those gardening sprayers that you fill with water and then pump up to pressurise. Spraying this on the bike combined with a sponge worked a treat. There was enough pressure to shift most of the dirt off. Then the bike was put back on the bike rack and was pretty much dry when I got home.

The sprayer was 8.98 from B&Q and only holds just over a litre. I had previously tried one of the ones that is used for spraying fence panels, but it did not have any useful pressure.

Hope this helps!

Regards

Carl

EDIT: I just realised you are not interested in cleaning your bike. Ignore my advice!

ilovedirt

I keep mine in my bedroom (student) and unless it's REALLY mucky, I tend to not bother cleaning it, partly because it's getting dark so early now.

Northwind

If I'm not cleaning it properly, I don't clean it at all, not at the time anyway. Chain can get a bit of surface rust but tbh once it's travelled home it's usually fairly dry anyway. Once it's dry I'll give it a quick flail with the £1 tesco dishwashing brush to get rid of the worst mud. If the chain feels gummed, I'll either give it a brush and then relube with spray lube (knocks a fair amount of dirt out when you spray) or take it off and give it the paraffin-and-jamjar treatment then relube. Likewise suspension, clean and lube.

This could explain why, when I last decided to give my white Hemlock a proper clean, it took wet and dry paper and tcut to get some of the brown stains off

Plyphon

I have a poking stick and an industrial sized roll of thin tissue paper that I use for the stanchions.

That's pretty much it!

EggBanj0

Ride past a hand car wash, bung the Lithuanian bloke with the power hose a quid and get him to blast the bike. From filthy to sparkling in about 5 seconds with zero effort!

spongtastic

At the moment the 456 gets a quick go with a chain cleaner filled with fenwicks followed by gt85/3in1/Proper chain oil/whatever, fork stanchions get a wipe over with clean paper towel. That's it. You can't see much of the glow in the dark paint.

milfredo

EggBanj0 wrote:

Ride past a hand car wash, bung the Lithuanian bloke with the power hose a quid and get him to blast the bike. From filthy to sparkling in about 5 seconds with zero effort!

This is certainly a great example on how not to clean your bike. A sure fire way to ruin your forks / shocks and bearings in no time at all.

popstar

Man, if you don't clean your bike that equates to no passion.
If you happen to have various different ways to make your bike shiny then get eager and ride it in even more anger then ... oh yeah baby, that's the way.

cooldad

popstar wrote:

Man, if you don't clean your bike that equates to no passion.
If you happen to have various different ways to make your bike shiny then get eager and ride it in even more anger then ... oh yeah baby, that's the way.

You have to actually ride it to make cleaning it worthwhile.

Vegman

Best way to NOT clean your bike...... After wet muddy filthy ride stick a sun lamp,along with the bike in the cupboard/ bedroom/wherever that you store it ... turn on and, 20 mins later hey presto .....dust, simples innit. just blow and the dirt is gone.

mac_man

milfredo wrote:

EggBanj0 wrote:

Ride past a hand car wash, bung the Lithuanian bloke with the power hose a quid and get him to blast the bike. From filthy to sparkling in about 5 seconds with zero effort!

This is certainly a great example on how not to clean your bike. A sure fire way to ruin your forks / shocks and bearings in no time at all.

Has this ever been really proved? I mean, unless you stick the nozzle right up against your bearings etc. what's the worse that can happen using a power washer? The trails around my way are so cruddy at the moment I figure that a bit of excess water is likely to do less damage than the mud that would be left on the bike if I didn't clean it properly.

I tend blast the frame, tyres, wheels, cassette and chain rings and then more gently hose any bearing/seal type stuff from a distance. Our local carwash does 5 mins for a quid at the moment. Beats hand washing any day.

I give it a quick dry down once I get home and re-lube the chain. Job done.

Northwind

TBH it depends on your components. Badly sealed stuff will definately suffer- those cheap OEM-spec Formula hubs won't stand for it, or many headsets. Better stuff may well be OK. Forks ought to be OK but there's no reason to jetwash them anyway so why find out?

spongtastic

popstar wrote:

Man, if you don't clean your bike that equates to no passion.

Bullsh*t.

I ride my bikes rather than worrying whether or not they're clean. Well maintained doesn't equate to being able to read the name on the frame.

Dannyboy95

I always like to give mine a good scrub down!

Rushmore

I usually clean my bike after every ride.. ( un;less it's summer and dusty )

I use a Low powered pressure washer... been using it for a year now and had no problems at all... ( but it need to be a low pressure one! )

scale20

Just done mine with a soft floor brush. Rode the Marin Trail Sunday and it got caked. Its been in the shed until today where it dried up, just dragged it out, brushed it down with said brush and lubed the chain.

Its so simple with rigids, nothing to worry about!

Daz555

After a muddy ride I just give the bike a very quick squirt with the hose to get the crud off the gears/chain/shocks etc and drop some oil on the chain. If the bike looks cleanish after a ride though then I just leave it.

My commuter though gets cleaned about once a year at most. Although when the grinding paste builds up too much around the jockey wheels I do scrape it out with a stick from time to time.

pilch

mac man wrote:

Has this ever been really proved? I mean, unless you stick the nozzle right up against your bearings etc. what's the worse that can happen using a power washer? The trails around my way are so cruddy at the moment I figure that a bit of excess water is likely to do less damage than the mud that would be left on the bike if I didn't clean it properly.

Mud on your bike doesn't do any (more) damage, mud, shit & water forced into sensitive areas by a pressure washer on the other hand...the important area is your drivetrain, but you don't need to be anal about cleaning it, just get the worst off & lube it