Bike wash?

leemolyneux

Not long had my new carbon road bike and my 1st with internal cabling. Just wandering what is the best products to use for a bike clean/wash as I've heard good and bad :?:

step83

I used car shampoo on mine, didn't have any problems. Sometimes a bit of polish.

pilot_pete

I use car wash or washing up liquid in a tub with water and a paint brush to clean my bikes. Never had an issue with either. Drivetrain is different though, I use Jizer degreaser to get it sparkling. The whole thing is rinsed with a hose pipe and I’m careful about not spraying directly into bearing seals and at the fork crown area.

What I find most important is drying the bike afterwards. I use a pet dryer which blows high pressure warm air out of the nozzle. I can drive all the water out of every nook and cranny including the cassette and chain so the bike is bone dry before being put away. I use car spray detailer on a micro fibre towel on my gloss lacquered bikes and on the carbon deep section rims which brings everything up lovely. Just need to be careful with contaminating brake discs etc when spraying anything - sometimes best to apply it to the cloth and then put on the frame/ fork legs etc.

On the summer bikes, between dry rides I just use spray detailer as a light cleaner which gets the dust and odd bits of mud/ dead flies off the downtube and cleans the sweat off the rest of the frame/ stem/ bars etc.

PP

keef66

I used warm water with washing up liquid for years. Same on the car. Now we're not quite so poverty stricken I use car shampoo for both. But as it's shampoo with wax I rinse the brake tracks well and then wipe them down with a bit of white spirit or brake cleaner to be sure. Occasionally I'll actually wax / polish the gloss painted frame. The matt carbon one I've given up on.

There'll be some zealot along in a minute to warn you of the perils of salt in washing up liquid, but in reality the amount is tiny compared with what you'll pick up from the road especially riding in the winter.

imposter2.0

Just to be clear - you're not washing 'carbon', you're washing whatever the carbon is covered with. So in other words, a laquered or painted surface, just like any other frame material.

gethinceri

Engine degreaser from Screwfix.

Matthewfalle

jizer in huuuuuuuge cans from the motor factor and car shampoo, hose off, compressor dried.

oil, lube, off you go.

if feeling posh then spray whole thing with gt85 and polish.

darkhairedlord

Ffs don't get it wet.

StillGoing

Carbon finish frameset, warm water with either car shampoo or washing up liquid. Low pressure hose off, dry with mircofibre towel and cover in WD40.

navrig2

Baby wipes, as cheap as you can find just don't flush down the bog.

pilot_pete

Navrig2 wrote:

Baby wipes, as cheap as you can find just don't flush down the bog.

hmm, but an environmental disaster, not just drain blockers. And they may work for a light clean of a dusty bike, but full on crap from a winter ride in wet weather?

PP

step83

philthy3 wrote:

Carbon finish frameset, warm water with either car shampoo or washing up liquid. Low pressure hose off, dry with mircofibre towel and cover in WD40.

Titanium frameset, car shampoo, then furniture polish, or as I found out recently a dash or Morgan Blue race oil, stops sticky fingerprints a treat.

fenix

After a wet/cruddy ride.

Hose down to get the worst of the crap off.
Spray on Mucoff on the oily dirty bits.
Go make cup of tea. Drink it whilst the Mucoff is working.
Fill bowl with warm water and car shampoo.
Hose off the Mucoff. Marvel at the shiny bits.
Start at the top of the bike with a sponge and hot soapy water.
Hose off.
Go back and do the bits you've clearly missed.
Hose off again.
Leave to dry.
Put away and use Mr Sheen on the frame and relube the chain.

When it needs it - get the chain bath and citrus degreaser out to give the chain a jolly good clean. Then rinse and relube.

slowbike

After a dirty ride I put the winter bike back in the garage ready for the next one - if it's a nice day I'll get the better bike out which won't need such a clean ....

Oh - hose ... with water ... perhaps a sponge or brush to agitate the worst of the bits off and polish afterwards ... that's all.

Matthewfalle

Fenix wrote:

After a wet/cruddy ride.

Hose down to get the worst of the crap off.
Spray on Mucoff on the oily dirty bits.
Go make cup of tea. Drink it whilst the Mucoff is working.
Fill bowl with warm water and car shampoo.
Hose off the Mucoff. Marvel at the shiny bits.
Start at the top of the bike with a sponge and hot soapy water.
Hose off.
Go back and do the bits you've clearly missed.
Hose off again.
Leave to dry.
Put away and use Mr Sheen on the frame and relube the chain.

When it needs it - get the chain bath and citrus degreaser out to give the chain a jolly good clean. Then rinse and relube.

this is cool but no need for muc-off: just use jizer as it does exactly the same job but a tenth of the price.

fenix

But I've already got Muc Off.

I'll look for that Jizer stuff when I'm out of Muc Off - ta.

Actually - any links - I can only see industrial size stuff - I don't clean the bike THAT much !

Matthewfalle

i must admit that i only buy it in 5 litre cans from the local motor factor - lasts about a year.

should cost you around £25.

pilot_pete

I’m with MF on this. Jizer is an industrial degreaser, a bit like Gunk, but in my opinion better. 5ltrs is worth the investment, it doesn’t ‘go off’ and will last you years if you don’t clean that often.

As for Muc Off, I’ve used it but don’t really rate it. It doesn’t really loosen any heavy soiling on the frame (such as down tube splattered with mud/ cow shit etc) and doesn’t touch the grime on the transmission. I’ve sprayed it, left it, agitated it and rinsed it, then had to do it again as it hasn’t removed everything. I reckon Muc Off is more akin to a car wash than a degreaser.

PP

navrig2

Pilot Pete wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

Baby wipes, as cheap as you can find just don't flush down the bog.

hmm, but an environmental disaster, not just drain blockers. And they may work for a light clean of a dusty bike, but full on crap from a winter ride in wet weather?

PP

Compared to the chemicals being suggested in other posts the wipes are not that bad. Use the wipes for the non-oily bits and reduce the amount of degreaser used.

pilot_pete

Navrig2 wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

Baby wipes, as cheap as you can find just don't flush down the bog.

hmm, but an environmental disaster, not just drain blockers. And they may work for a light clean of a dusty bike, but full on crap from a winter ride in wet weather?

PP

Compared to the chemicals being suggested in other posts the wipes are not that bad. Use the wipes for the non-oily bits and reduce the amount of degreaser used.

There are bio versions of degreaser such as Jizer available. The plastics in baby wipes will last for decades if not more and pollute our seas or landfill sites for hundreds of years. Completely unnecessary to use a baby wipe. What is wrong with a bucket of suds and a brush/ sponge? And who would use a full on degreaser on anything other than their drivetrain anyway?

PP

navrig2

Pilot Pete wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

Navrig2 wrote:

Baby wipes, as cheap as you can find just don't flush down the bog.

hmm, but an environmental disaster, not just drain blockers. And they may work for a light clean of a dusty bike, but full on crap from a winter ride in wet weather?

PP

Compared to the chemicals being suggested in other posts the wipes are not that bad. Use the wipes for the non-oily bits and reduce the amount of degreaser used.

There are bio versions of degreaser such as Jizer available. The plastics in baby wipes will last for decades if not more and pollute our seas or landfill sites for hundreds of years. Completely unnecessary to use a baby wipe. What is wrong with a bucket of suds and a brush/ sponge? And who would use a full on degreaser on anything other than their drivetrain anyway?

PP

You are correct about the wipes but at least when disposed in the bin they are effectively encapsulated and will be captured either in landfill which is reducing in use or will be incinerated.

Bio versions of anything are generally marginally better than the full on versions but still likely to contain surfactants, be bioaccumulative and damaging to aquaculture.

Using a degreaser on your driveway means it WILL make its way into water courses and eventually the sea. Rain will wash it into the surface water drainage system which normally discharges to a watercourse not that far away. The sewerage system will discharge to to a treatment works where it will be treated. Some of the nasties in the degreaser will be captured within the sludge produced and some will pass through the works an into the sea ultimately.

Sponges and car wash or detergent offer a better solution as the landfill waste is reduced but the detergents are still not good.

Wipes offer convenience.

There is no right answer and it's not as clear as you seem to think.

crescent

Screwfix degreaser for me - about £8 for 5 litres. I like Muc-Off and often receive it as a present for Father's Day etc but when it runs out I top up the bottle with a mixture of degreaser, water and car wash. Soak the bike with water, spray the mixture all over (drive train gets a brush with degreaser), leave for 10 mins, rinse off with a hose and wipe over with a wet microfibre cloth and dry with another microfibre cloth. Dewater the drivetrain and then lube all moving parts. The whole thing takes about 20 mins and 10 of them are drinking coffee waiting for the degreaser to do its thing. In summer if it doesn't need much cleaning I will run the chain through a handful of baby wipes as a minimum.
A few guys in my club often comment on how clean my bike is while their bikes rattle and squeak and display the same poor maintenance issues every week. It really is quite simple and I cannot understand someone spending £££s on a bike and not looking after it.

New_Old_Stock

Must admit I don't clean my bike with religious fervour. I oil the chain very carefully link-by-link then wipe all excess oil off (there isn't much) with a blue industrial tissue which I bin. The bike is cleaned with just water and then dried off with a cloth.

I have this theory that if I have set up my bike right it shouldn't need a lot of maintenance in between service intervals, just regular checks to make sure everything is done up and not worn out.

One of my bikes I have had from new and done a lot of miles on. The only replacement parts it has had are tyres, cables, brake pads and bar tape. It is 16 years old and has mixed Campag componentry. Admittedly it has never been commuted on or used over winter. It's still a thing of beauty!