General Cycling Discussion - Cleaning My Bike

I live in a 2nd floor condo and wondered if anyone has any ideas on where I should go to clean my bike. Thanks. CinClaire

Local coin-operated carwash.
Bathtub. (cleaning the tub is a hassle)
Downstairs. Access to a hose and spigot?
Friend's house. (seems most logical)
I've lived in an appartment/dorm twice in my life and hated every minute.

:eek: I agree. Love my place, hate having to find a place and drag everything around to wash my bike! ...And my car....:rolleyes:

If you don't want to do it in the bathtub, just spread several thicknesses of newspaper on a hard floor (not a carpet) and do it there. You don't need to flood the thing with water and solvent--take a little care and you can do it with rags and spray. I clean mine in my living room all the time; never an incident.

Outside near the garden hose. I wipe down the bike after each ride. I use towels dedicated for this purpose and detergent with a bucket of water. For the rear cassette, I take off the rear wheel and spray it with simple green, then scrub with a brush for this purpose, then hose off. For the chain, I use that hand held unit filled with simple green, and then just crank. All this is outside near the hose.

In your bathtub! Use Simple Green as your degreaser, Avon Bubble bath as a general soap for the non-greasy parts of your bicycle, and a "scrub free" bathroom cleaner with bleach to clean the tub. Both the bicycle and the tub come out sparkling clean. :)

if it's not too grubby, use a brush to get rid of any dry mud (put plenty of newspaper underneath) and then use those (dry) swiffler cloths to wipe it clean. Spray a little pledge on a clean cloth at the end and polish the frame up nicely.

Apt dweller here. My place has no tub. Instead there's a shower stall. I installed one of those bike storage hooks above the fiberglass surround. I hang the bike on the hook and hose it off with the shower massage. Scrub with soapy water as needed, then rinse it off, towel it dry and leave hang for errant drips.

Spray bottle here. Simple green is fine, as is Fabuloso. Stay away from that car wash.