General Cycling Discussion - Help spread the word, CLEAN YOUR BIKE.

I love BF and this rant probably doesn't apply to the people who visit this site, but I ask you to ask or help your fair weather bicycle friends and family to please clean and maintain the precision machines that are my passion. I work in an LBS and it is spring time and all those people who are bursting to get on a bike drag in all manner of filth and look astonished when we give them an estimate for a tune up, or ask how long has this been left outside. Ive seen two year old bikes come in that could have given many years of reliable service reduced to a maintenance nightmare that is not worth the price of the repair bill. Bikes should not be considered disposable so please help the environment and save your friends some money through the most simple maintenance procedures and cleaning. Thanks Tom
P.S. Tires really should get air more than once a year.

Word up to that!

Oil your freakin chains while you are at it.

P.S. Tires really should get air more than once a year.

I aired up my tires yesterday and rode to a meeting. Brought my bike inside since they're cool with that. Halfway through the meeting....POP, front tube just exploded. Still don't know why that happened. Could have been an old tube that just failed from the high pressure?

I finally talked my friends into washing, lubing, and waxing their 1 year old bikes. He (husband) was under the impression that a dirty bike is cool - it looks like it's been ridden. When I explained the theory behind lubing the chain on a regular basis, he agreed that would be good. When I explained the benefit of waxing to her, she totally got it and did so that weekend. Shame to see decent bikes treated like that. Oh the HORROR!:eek:

I squirted one of my bikes off with a garden hose Sunday. Does that count?:D

I squirted one of my bikes off with a garden hose Sunday. Does that count?:D

I squirted my garden hose on some roadies and fixie hipsters who were on my lawn last Sunday. Their jabbering about cleaning bikes was disturbing my equilibrium. :)

mike bike is 4 years old and never been washed, but maybe once. ain't nothing wrong with a dirty bike s'long as the **** runs smooth.

It's this simple. People who like nice equipment that works properly, clean, lube and maintain their bikes. They are rewarded with stuff that works very nicely. People who don't care, don't do any of this until something breaks. Their reward; so-so stuff that fails regularly. bk

A clean bike is a happy bike, and a happy bike is a reliable bike :)

what do you clean oil and grime off your frame with?

I recently did a little side work for a custom cabinet maker. I helped him move about 3,000+lbs of cabinets in to a rich families house. At one point a work shop was left open and I saw about a dozen C'Dale's, Specialized, Trek, and probably some other quality MTB's sitting caked with dried mud and dust. I'm guessing that they hadn't been cleaned or even touched for that matter in at least a year or two. I would love to have 'liberated' these poorly miss-treated machines. Must be nice to be a multi-millionaire.

I guess there is always the 'screw it I'll just buy a new one this summer' attitude.

I aired up my tires yesterday and rode to a meeting. Brought my bike inside since they're cool with that. Halfway through the meeting....POP, front tube just exploded. Still don't know why that happened. Could have been an old tube that just failed from the high pressure?

That's what happened to my old bike, the tube just popped. ust have been coz it's old. 15 years old.

I keep my chains and cables lubed, but only occasionaly clean my bikes and then it's a only quick spray off and wipe dry. I ride almost every day and if I obsessed over my bikes being perfectly clean I'd never have time for anything else.

Rust is not a lubricant. But it will grease the palms $$$ of your LBS mechanics eventually.
If you don't have time to clean your bike alone, just shower with it like I do...

Oil your freakin chains while you are at it.

Just remember to wipe them off.


I sometimes wonder if these people with these crude covered bikes wash their butt that infrequently.

Btw, why wax a bike other than to make it all shiny? I can't imagine that a non-waxed bike would be that less aerodynamic than a waxed bike.

I go one step further and give my bike a brazilian wax job.

Btw, why wax a bike other than to make it all shiny? I can't imagine that a non-waxed bike would be that less aerodynamic than a waxed bike.

Dirt doesn't stick. Oil and tar don't stick. Bugs don't stick. Water beads up and rolls off (great if you ride a steel frame). Protects the paint from UV, road salt, gatorade, and GU.

Cleaning the bike after a ride consists of wiping it down with a soft cloth. Sometimes, if it's really dirty, a little bit of water. You only need to wax the bike once a year, twice if you ride in the wet in winter.

Dirt doesn't stick. Oil and tar don't stick. Bugs don't stick. Water beads up and rolls off (great if you ride a steel frame). Protects the paint from UV, road salt, gatorade, and GU.

Cleaning the bike after a ride consists of wiping it down with a soft cloth. Sometimes, if it's really dirty, a little bit of water. You only need to wax the bike once a year, twice if you ride in the wet in winter.

Gotta agree with you... in fact I wipe my bike down with a bit of liquid wax and water... this acts like a gentle solvent and removes anything that might be clinging to the bike... I then give it a few minutes and wipe it dry (buff it). I do this periodically depending on how dirty the bike is... Kinda goes hand in hand with oiling the chain.

i understand the benefits of properly cleaning and maintaining a bike, but there's just something about a bike encrusted with mud and a rider covered in dirt that makes me think they're "intense"

those guys on their nice bikes that sparkle just don't do it for me. true, they may be absolutely brilliant riders, but first impression is someone who putters around on a nice bike - not a hardcore mountaineer.

i suppose all i'm saying is it's good to clean + maintain, but also to hit the trail quick afterwards.

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what is "adequate" cleaning after a "dirty" ride? is hosing off enough?

Hose off the whole bike,the re-lube the chain.

I feel your profitable pain, er lament. I've been spending a lot of time on the Boulder CO's CU campus lately and I am horrified daily by the bikes I see ridden and parked on campus. Granted many college students do not have space to store indoors but come on, give the trusted steeds a little love!! This is a bike fanatical town for goodness sakes. I'm developing a neurotic desire to wrestle bike abusers off their bikes in order to stage at least a drivetain intervention.

...i think you're a nut.

Ah yes... the anal retentive bicycle mechanic. Wasn't that a skit on SNL?