Go grab a beer. Once you’re done, give everything another good rinse with fresh water. The water, oil and other foreign substances on the road can leave some pretty gross residue on... 2. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/how-to-clean-a-bike.html As a wet lube, it more viscous and will cling to the chain tenaciously, even in the pouring rain. Go over the chain and gears with a stiffer brush to try and get any lingering grime off. Remove mud and other grime on the same day when possible, and do the general clean once a week if you’re riding routinely. A regular schedule of maintenance (monthly, weekly or more often depending on your type of riding) is important. Buy now: Muc-Off Nano Tech Bike Cleaner at Wiggle for £6.99. 4Marvel in the Clean: 20 minutes later and your bike is a gleaming monument to human achievement. Finish Line Speed Degreaser, $12 Gear Patrol participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Buy now: Proper Cleaner by Guy Martin General Cleaner at Tredz from £5. Just make sure you can bear to fit mudguards for club runs or risk being very unpopular. So get out there, and don’t scrimp on that bit under the bottom bracket like you normally do. If you do nothing else, make sure to give your bike a weekly all-over clean and wipe down. It will get everything looking very shiny. Steps to Cleaning a Mountain Bike After a Ride Step 1 – Find A Washing Location. When you ride your bike in the wet (as at some stage we all do), it will pay to spend a little time looking after your treasured steed post-ride. So long as you’re not using an industrial-grade power washer you won’t do any damage to your bearings, frame or anything else (bikes these days are really well made). Though you’ll want to take your bike to the shop for a deeper cleaning at the end of the season (they should tear the whole thing apart, clean it and put it back together) the options below are perfect for keeping your bike in working order throughout the season (and most importantly, making sure you don’t look like a dork). For more information on chain lube check out: wet or dry: which chain lube should I use? Leaving your bike dirty has all sorts of bad consequences aside from looking like a total dork (rule #1 in the admittedly vain world of cycling: don’t look like a dork). Lance Armstrong famously wrote that “It’s All About the Bike”, and the same goes for the importance of your ride-cleaning gear. WD-40 Foaming Bike Wash, $14 Once the bike is squeaky clean, rinse off any remaining soap and dry off the bike (be sure to use a separate rag for the drivetrain). Start out by cleaning your bike chain and frame. Particularly, what can be done (in the field) between races to keep the bike clean and ready to ride again? Congratulations, this is going to be a breeze. Each day sees something small being tackled resulting in … Buy now: Finish Line Teflon Plus Dry Lubricant at Tweeks Cycles for £5.99. It leaves a waxy film after application which repels the dirt, but it won’t get washed off in the rain. 2Hose ‘er down: Just like washing your car you want to hose down the bike, apply soapy water with a brush and scrub away all the grit and grime from the frame, wheels and drivetrain. Make sure to use bike cleaner to avoid damaging any surfaces or the finish, and grease and lube all moving parts after washing. Buy now: Finish Line Brush Set at Wiggle for £13. Here's the lowdown on how to keep your bike road bike clean and running smoothly for years to come, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Best road bikes under £2000, or $2500, for 2021, Cycling training zones: power and heart rate zones explained, LifeLine Pro Chain Cleaner at Wiggle for £19.99, Muc-Off Nano Tech Bike Cleaner at Wiggle for £6.99, Fenwick’s Concentrated Bike Cleaner at Wiggle for £8.50, Proper Cleaner by Guy Martin General Cleaner at Tredz from £5, Muc-Off Chain Cleaner at Wiggle for £4.99, Proper Cleaner By Guy Martin Degreaser at Tredz for £10, Green Oil Wet Chain Lube at Tredz for £6.99, Finish Line Teflon Plus Dry Lubricant at Tweeks Cycles for £5.99, Microfibre Cleaning Cloths at Amazon for £5.99, Faithfull General Purpose Bucket at Amazon for £5.28, Dirtwash Cleaning Bucket Bike Cleaning Kit at Amazon for £49.89. Spray or wipe it on, leave it to soak in, and then wipe off with a rag. 3Focus on the Drivetrain: Now that your bike’s nice and dirt-free it’s time to do a deep clean on the chain and re-lubricate it. The best thing to do is clean the bicycle entirely with some cleaner without grease. Sponge or soft bristled brush (no kitchen scourers! For many people who own homes, this is easy: just haul out the garden hose and get washing. Washing your bike is the first step before performing any motorcycle maintenance. To cut through the grime of the chain, a dedicated degreaser is often needed. Coming in a liquid form, it will also work nicely with a chain cleaning tool. I use my bicycle for about 95 % of all trips, so it would be really annoying to clean it after every ride. Do NOT use any solvents or degreasers as these can damage exterior finish and anodized parts. If you spend a lot of time riding in wet, muddy conditions, or if you ride hard, fast and often, plan to clean your bike more frequently. A lot of riders like to have a winter bike set up for trudging through the driving rain and general muck involved in logging off-season miles. Use a sponge and a bucket of water – don’t be tempted to blast it with a pressure washer as this will force water into the bearings. Wash bike down by hand, with soapy water and a cloth. If you have a large number of bikes to clean, this concentrated cleaner will keep you going. If I ride the same bike the next day, after the hosing I might clean the rims and brake pads or fix the bar tape etc. Completely clean your fork and rear shock after each and every ride. So long as you pour carefully – so as not to disturb the sediment – you should be able to reuse the degreaser next time you clean your bike. Cleaning your road bike regularly will keep it in great condition, and it doesn’t take very long at all. No scrubbing is necessary as your bike looks completely new after you rinse it off. Dumonde Tech Chain Lubricant, $9 : wet or dry: which chain lube should I use? (Probably also applicable to mountain biking.) Give the rims on your wheels a good wash and wipe, and (if you’re using rim, not disc, brakes) wipe the pads to make sure there’s no crud on there that could erode the braking surface. Dry it down properly after its wash, and apply chain lube. Spray-on bike cleaners are dismissed by some as snake oil, but in reality they do make a big difference. That being said, if you want the bike to be ride-ready right after cleaning it’s best to avoid hitting the handlebars or saddle with water. Take the hose again and use a light spray of water to rinse off the bike. Clean the wheels and brakes.. With the wheels removed, use the same sponge to clean the wheels … Using a gear brush really helps you to get into the cassette cogs. Cleaning your bike is about more than just looking good — it helps expensive components last longer and keeps everything running smooth. Either use a bike cleaning spray to cover your bike and then work away the dirt or use a sponge and some hot water to remove as much as you can. Buy now: Muc-Off Chain Cleaner at Wiggle for £4.99. If you wash your bike after every ride, you’ll keep it running smoothly and looking great. The most obvious thing to do is wash your bike regularly – but it needn’t take hours of elbow grease at the end of a hard ride when you’re more concerned about downing a cup of coffee and slice of cake. Avoid squirting water directly into any bearings. However, in the dry it will have a greater tendency to attract dust. Dip a stiff-bristled brush into one of your pre-filled buckets and scrub the chainrings. The good news is that with modern bikes and modern tools it’s a total breeze. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, What You Need to Know About Watch Crystals, How to Get the Best Audio Quality from Spotify, Sonos Is Selling Refurbished Speakers for Just $99, How to Significantly Improve Your Complexion, 5 Tips for Getting by Without Your Barber, Yes, You Should Still Be Buying CDs, Here’s Why, How to Significantly Improve Your Hair in 90 Days. Hose entire bike down, and use a moderate pressure on the chain itself to ensure you get all the dirt out. To really clean out all the nooks and crannies specialist brushes are needed. Don’t ever be tempted to substitute the bike cleaning product and soft brush with washing up liquid and a kitchen sponge – this can result in a scratched or even colour faded frame. If you don’t dry your bike after cleaning, you risk leaving streaky water marks all over it. We’ve already made a cleaning guidefor quick and thorough scrub-downs. One of the reasons people end up doing more damage than good while washing their... 2. This cleaner is safe to use on all parts of your bike and effectively removes all the muck you end up collecting. “The only way to get full access to the chain, derailleur, and chainrings is to take the wheels off.” Even your tires are clean of any mud residue and I guarantee you will be asked at the trail head if you bought a new bike. It can be a pain sometimes to clean off your bike after a ride, but the effort is worth it. Now the hard part is out of the way, and we can get the bike ready to ride again. Buy now: Microfibre Cleaning Cloths at Amazon for £5.99. 1Put your bike in the stand: A Euro-style stand works best here (because you can spin the bike) but a seatpost stand or leaning the bike against a wall works fine too. If you have rim brakes, make sure you clean your brake pads and rims thoroughly. When applied to the chain, the solution will evaporate and leave a waxy film, thus lubricating the chain. Spray the bike with a bike cleaning product, and leave it for a couple of minutes (see the back of the bottle for the optimum length of time). I give it a really through cleaning to get salt out of all the little nooks and crannies after the winter. This set from Finish Line has everything you need to sort out those jockey wheels, get at the inside of the driveside crankarm, as well as all those other hard to reach places. Understanding how to clean a bike after a dirty ride is an absolute needed. Cleaning your bike is an easy thing to put off — it’s mostly superficial and it’s just going to get dirty again anyway, right? https://www.cyclingweekly.com/video/how-to-clean-your-bike-221294 You should aim to clean your bike about once a month, or at the very least twice a year. This certainly shouldn’t be the case: the long suffering mile-munchers are often experiencing twice as much hardship each week than the thoroughbred race machines will come across all year. False. How To Clean Your Mountain Bike in 10 Easy Steps 1. It isn’t a lubricant, so you do need to use a chain lube after use and you shouldn’t get them near your rims or brakes. The longer you leave cleaning your bike after a ride, the less likely you are to do it. A microfibre cleaning towel will avoid this and not leave any lint on your pride and joy. Although bike cleaning after riding is little uncomfortable, it is important to do regularly to keep it better working status. Or if you’re a City Dweller… The good news about living in a city: you’re in hub of civilization and can probably get really good Ethiopian food. Step 2: Drivetrain Regardless of which you choose, your chain should be grit- and grease-free afterwards. Note: Degreaser such as Simple Green comes in handy for cleaning rims and brake pads, too. As important as it is to clean your bike after a filthy wet ride, it remains key after dry, dusty ones too. It is also very effective at repelling dirt, making it a good choice for dry and dusty riding. If there is still dirt, repeat steps 3-4. Dish soap is okay, although it can contribute to corrosion on alloy parts due to the high salt content of some dish soaps. If you’re cleaning a road bike, go easy on the water pressure. Buy now: LifeLine Pro Chain Cleaner at Wiggle for £19.99. Based on silicon for instance. But it’s rarely an ideal world and often you return far too late to bother cleaning your scoot. Spray it on the bicycle, and clean the bicycle with an old cloth. The easiest way to clean the chain is with a powerful degreaser like Finish Line’s Speed Degreaser or a less-messy, apartment-friendly solution like Park Tools’ Chain Gang. >>> Five best  bike cleaning kits for a sparkling finish. >>> Eight simple ways to make your bike faster for free. Park Tool Chain Cleaning Kit, $24 Lubing the chain is absolutely critical to extend the life of your drivetrain and keep your bike as quiet and smooth as possible. However, without regular cleaning, the drivetrain will become mucky, parts can begin to corrode, and you’re a lot more likely to find you’re struggling with seized components, un-cooperative gears and squeaky brakes. The sad truth is that very often these hard working winter bikes receive half as much maintenance attention as our summer-ready race bikes. >>> Dr. Hutch: The impossibility of bike cleaning, A traditional winter road bike wears mudguards and is often made of aluminium or steel. I clean it about once a month, depending on the weather conditions. But what makes this stand out is that no water is shipped, coming with a capsule you pop into the bottle and you fill it with water yourself. Finish Line Easy Pro Brush Set, $19 Use mild soapy water, rinse with a very light pressure water spray (taking care not to spray water directly at the seal/upper tube junction), and wipe dry with a clean soft cloth. Every product is carefully selected by our editors. Overall, when servicing your bike after you ride in the rain be aware of the corrosion and wear rain can cause. Use a bucket with water to clean your bike, not a hose. They won’t get deep into built up oil as a proper degreaser will so baby-wipe washes shouldn’t replace the proper treatment. This offers the same environmental benefits as the general-purpose cleaner by obviating the need to transport water in lorries. Buy now: Faithfull General Purpose Bucket at Amazon for £5.28. Portable cleaners like the Kärcher OC3 make the job easy. Buy now: Proper Cleaner By Guy Martin Degreaser at Tredz for £10. If the chain still looks grimy, use a chain cleaner: simply fill the unit with a degreaser, snap it on and rotate the pedal backwards to feed the chain through. If you’re missing most of the items on this list and just want what you need without any fuss, you can get a whole cleaning kit with the products you need all included. Next, spray the derailleurs and chainset with a degreasing agent and give them a good (but gentle) scrub. How to Clean and Maintain Your Car Interior, How to Clean Your Kicks and Keep Them Fresh. Step 2 – Acquire the Proper Equipment. ), Chain cleaning tool if the chain is very dirty. You should be able t… Sure, cleaning your bike takes time and sometimes you’ll need to make sure you have a wash area that’s out of the elements like when it’s This lube has been specifically designed to be biodegradable so will not harm the environment when it comes to scrub the chain down and reapply. Dry everything with a … Wet the bike. As outlined in the ten steps above, the chain needs to be cleaned with a good degreaser. Spray it on, leave for a couple of minutes then wash off. When you return home from a tough old slog over the hills, often the last thing you want to do when you get in is clean your bike. Soap the bike. Get your bike clean in a hurry with our car park bike wash.Subscribe to GMBN: http://gmbn.eu/SubscribeFinished a muddy ride? To clean your bike right, you need to do a “wheels-off wash,” says Roy. etc. A dedicated chain cleaner makes the job so much easier and less wasteful. Developed and licensed by the Boeing company, this aviation grade lube combines the best points of both wet and dry lube. Buy now: Fenwick’s Concentrated Bike Cleaner at Wiggle for £8.50. How to Clean Your Bike in 10 Minutes After a Ride in the Rain 1. Ian take a copious amount of degreaser alongside some serious elbow grease to make your chain sparkling clean. The final step is to apply a quality chain lube like Dumonde Tech or WD-40 Bike (if you’re anal-retentive use a dry lube when it’s dry out and a wet lube when it’s wet; if you’re not, just use an all-purpose lube). All you have to do is rinse off the mud, spray on the wash and then rinse off your bike. >>> Can bike degreaser ever be environmentally friendly? It may be easier to take the chain off the chainring to do this. Get in everywhere, and use plenty of the soapy water. Find a place to wash it. No matter what you ride, you need to keep your bicycle in top shape with a regular cleaning. Also, what am I missing due to the quick ~ How to clean a bike after muddy/sandy cyclocross race (or mountain bike ride) The chemicals themselves are also equally environmentally friendly and vegan-friendly. This will likely be on your tyres and wheels, and around the brakes. Rinse off the cassette, chain, chainrings, and derailleur pulleys with a low-pressure stream of water. These choice examples should be reason enough to break out the soap and shammy. Once you’re happy that the chain is clean you can dry it with a clean rag and apply a thin layer of chain lube. Wet and dry lubes refer to the conditions they should be used in, rather than the consistency of the lubricant itself. You should be cleaning your bike after every few rides and definitely after any ride when you get caught in the rain. Start the cleaning by wetting the bike with light spray from a hose, or wet a sponge and wipe down the frame to get everything wet. Move on to removing the wheels so you can clean your whole bike more thoroughly. The aerosol can makes it easier to get it in those hard to reach places – just make sure not to be overly enthusiastic when spraying and get it in your bearings. WD40 and GT85 are both degreasers. In an ideal world, you go out riding at the weekend, get seriously dirty, come back and wash the bike. Spray more degreaser over the chain and cassette and give them a scrub. The cleaner is also safe for use on anodized part, disc brakes and rubber seals. Then, with more clean water, use a soft bristled brush to give the bike a scrub. Focus on getting the bike clean and re-lubricated, ready for your next ride. Baby wipes are very mild and therefore won’t do your bike any harm. It's not always easy to know what to do - especially with so many products to choose from. If it’s wet – the wet weather means that all the mud, salt and other debris from the roads will find its place to hide on your bike. Use a degreaser and turn the cranks backward so that it gets on every link. Bicycles: What do I need to be concerned with when cleaning my bike after a typical muddy and sandy cyclocross race? As a dry lube, this works by suspending wax in a watery solution. It comes in a litre bottle and dilutes with ten parts water, so you’ll be good for 11 litres of cleaning fluid. The jet will get dirt off the bike, but it’ll also push water into the bearings and cause them to age more quickly. What Running Gear Should You Spend Your Money On? They’re great for giving your frame a quick wipe down between proper washes, especially if you don’t have easy access to outside space. Unless you’re after the ‘train heavy, race light’ effect or simply want a more comfortable set up for the winter, with a proper cleaning routine in place you could skimp on a winter bike, leaving more cash for buying upgrades and more space for bike storage. “Some people completely strip and clean the bike after every ride, some go for a quick hose and re-lube and some just put more lube on ride again,” says McCreedie. Annoying to clean, this is perhaps the best points of both wet and dry lubes refer to chain! Replace the seat and post 4marvel in the clean: 20 minutes later and bike! Although it can contribute to corrosion on alloy parts due to the chain, a hose job so much and... Ride again cleaning guidefor quick and thorough scrub-downs receive half as much maintenance attention as our summer-ready race.... Prevent rust from building up and will also work nicely with a … the longer you cleaning! 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