Commuting - When is it time to wash your bike?

I've had my bike for six months and I think I last washed it about three months ago. I'm home all this week on a "stay-cation", and I guess I need to get off my lazy butt and wash it. I should start the New Year commute on a nice clean bike...

I used to mount my bike on a bike rack on the back of my car, drive it to a DIY car wash, and use the hi-power pressure washer to clean it. As you can imagine, this goes against manufacturer recommendations, and I eventually paid the price by having my bottom bracket replaced because the high pressure blows the lubricant right out of your bearings. It was a great technique for about six months...

Now I just use liberal amounts of dish detergent (to cut the grease), a brush, a bucket, a rag, and a garden hose in the back yard. After the final rinse I use an old towel for drying and wiping off any remaining grease spots.

When I wash my bike I spend a good hour or more cleaning it, and it looks like new when it is finished. This is probably why I don't wash it more often - too much work! How often do you clean your bike and how long does it take you. Any good techniques to share?

I wipe down the frame with hot wet rags, degrease, clean and lube the drivetrain (on the bike) once a week in rainy season, once a month or less in summer. Takes 30-45 minutes. Doesn't get it spotless, but close enough.

I usually wash it after riding in the snow or heavy rain. I don't use soap, though. Just a damp towel, then dry it. I spend the most time cleaning the rims, followed by the frame. For the drivetrain, I just wipe with a rag and apply a little lube. It takes about 10 minutes in all and I do it roughly once/week in the winter and once/month in the summer.

I do it roughly once/week in the winter and once/month in the summer.


I'm with him on this one. More frequently in the summer if I ride in rain/slop.

Once a week or so in winter, Once a month in summer.

I can't remember when I last washed my bike (seriously, I remember doing it, but can't remember when). Had to have been at least 6 months ago.

But then, not much slop to ride through out in the desert.
I do clean/lube my chain every month or so...

I clean the drivetrain weekly. Everything else MAYBE every 6 months. I am considering giving it its first wash this season. The road grit is getting a bit much, even for me.

When you guys say clean the drive train, do you mean removing the chain, soaking it in degreaser, and running a brush over the front chain rings and through rear cluster?

I have full fenders and not a whole lot of gunk is getting kicked up into my drivetrain (at least not more than usual), and I haven't washed it yet this winter.

I don't think I've ever washed my bike. I clean and lube the drivetrain, but that's it. Rain usually takes care of the rest. Might occasionally wipe off some parts with a rag, but I've never taken soapy water to the frame.

my commute i only clean the drivetrain once every 2 weeks, or once a month if i'm lazy. my road bike i wipe down frame and drivetrain every 100-200miles.

by cleaning drivetrain i mean. filling up a chain cleaner halfway with simple green, and rest water. run the chain threw for a miniute or so. use a tooth brush to clean the cassette, jockey pullys and chain ring. rise out the chain cleaner and use water. run threw again, then wipe dry with a rag. after that i add chain lube and wipe it down once more with a dry rag.
http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/maint_clean_drivetrain_3_p.jpg
http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007/5/24/simple-green-clean-f001.jpg
http://www.slipperybrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/toothbrush.jpg
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Jt0fMwYpL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

my commute bike i don't care as much about, so long as the wheels roll and the chain works i am happy. my road bike i am a bit more anal about keeping nice. i hear babywipes are good for wiping down frame and other parts. make sure you wear plastic gloves and clothes you don't mind getting grease on.

http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/cleandrivetrain.htm

I will use a spray stainless polish/cleaner to clean and lube my chain; about 3-4 times a year, I'll take a brush to the dirt. Never have washed this bike. Or the one before it, for that matter.

I have never really properly washed my bike. I don't really see the point. I blast the thing with a power washer in the summer, and I do clean the chain and the rest of the drivetrain, but I ride on 8 miles of gravel road a day; I could head out with a brand new bike and it would be covered with dust (or mud if it's wet out) within a mile, so there's really no point.

The drivetrain DOES need service though - again with the clay binding in the gravel road, if I don't clean and lube after a rainy ride, the next morning the chain will not bend. I'll have to go down the chain one link at a time and force each link to break loose, then do a rather laborious clean and lube. In the summer I can often go a few weeks without a lube but in the wet fall and spring, I'm often servicing the chain 2 or even more times a week.

It gets way dirtier in the winter, but I also can't do much about it in the winter - how am I going to wash the bike when it never gets above freezing?

I haven't washed my car in probably 8 years either. Again, why would I? I don't drive that on the gravel road so much, but I don't really care if it's clean or not.

I blast the thing with a power washer in the summer

:eek:

I hope you are careful to avoid bearings.

how am I going to wash the bike when it never gets above freezing?

Mine gets a rinse in the shower after every slushy or wet ride. Once a month it gets a soap and water scrubbing.

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-1.jpg

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-2.jpg

Of course, I understand that females seem to dislike the idea intensely...

Mine gets a rinse in the shower after every slushy or wet ride. Once a month it gets a soap and water scrubbing.

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-1.jpg

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-2.jpg

Of course, I understand that females seem to dislike the idea intensely...


I don't understand why they would have an issue showering with a bike in there with them. Its clean afterall :)

Hey! It's only weird if you make it weird ;)

Idea!

The bike has such a convenient seat to sit down on while showering if you put it down normally. Ahh, bike love.

Is there nothing the bike can't help us with?

TSL: take a pic of your bike in bed. The wife never has to know. :thumb:

Mine gets rinsed off by the occasional rain shower. That's the extent of the cleaning.

Well my old hybrid trek beater isn't going to get washed again until it warms up some...perhaps in March. :lol: My C&Vs stay fluffy. :p

Mine gets a rinse in the shower after every slushy or wet ride. Once a month it gets a soap and water scrubbing.

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-1.jpg

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/hanging-in-bath-2.jpg

Of course, I understand that females seem to dislike the idea intensely...

I doubt my wife would find enough value in my riding a clean bike to find this sort of thing acceptable.

Edit: I'm not sure I find enough value in riding a clean bike to find this sort of thing acceptable ;-)

I clean and maintain the drivetrain as necessary. The bikes get a good cleaning once or twice a year. Maybe an occasional wipe down at other times.

Mine gets a rinse in the shower after every slushy or wet ride. Once a month it gets a soap and water scrubbing.

Of course, I understand that females seem to dislike the idea intensely...

Yes, my wife threatened me with violence :cry: I'm only allowed to wash wheels in the tub... and small parts in the kitchen sink. I'm lucky I live in a house where I can use the space outside and the hose, otherwise my marriage would be in serious trouble :lol:

On a serious note, I wipe my bike regularly with a soft cotton cloth and clean the drivetrain after each messy ride with a brush, or at least once a week so I can go months between washes. As long as moving parts are clean I can tolerate a dirty bike.

Adam

Hell, *I* wouldn't bring that nasty thing through my house. Seriously, if I wanted to keep my bike clean, I'd have to do that at both ends of my commute, pretty much every ride.

I don't even want to think about what my wife would think of the whole idea.

If I used "soft cotton cloths" to clean my bike, I'd need a 3 foot stack of them twice a day. Here's what my drivetrain and chainstay/wheel look like after a ride in a light rain, even if the bike is clean before that one ride. BTW, this is an example of a chain that does not bend; I didn't clean/lube it after that ride, this is the next day.
http://www.hauntedfrog.com/gallery2/d/10145-2/20091031-171828-a.jpg

I clean and maintain the drivetrain as necessary. The bikes get a good cleaning once or twice a year. Maybe an occasional wipe down at other times.

I just think it's hilarious that he has a bike hook in his shower. I'm allowed to make all the mess I want in our garage (a.k.a. my bike shop), but there's no way I could ever bring a bike in our bathroom. His bike does look very clean, though.

Hell, *I* wouldn't bring that nasty thing through my house. Seriously, if I wanted to keep my bike clean, I'd have to do that at both ends of my commute, pretty much every ride.

I don't even want to think about what my wife would think of the whole idea.

If I used "soft cotton cloths" to clean my bike, I'd need a 3 foot stack of them twice a day. Here's what my drivetrain and chainstay/wheel look like after a ride in a light rain, even if the bike is clean before that one ride. BTW, this is an example of a chain that does not bend; I didn't clean/lube it after that ride, this is the next day.

Added Michigan to the list of "places I don't want to move to" :eek:

Adam

I just think it's hilarious that he has a bike hook in his shower. I'm allowed to make all the mess I want in our garage (a.k.a. my bike shop), but there's no way I could ever bring a bike in our bathroom. His bike does look very clean, though.I'll occasionally bring my bike in to the kitchen to work on it, when my wife's not there. The bathroom...that's too ugly to contemplate

Added Michigan to the list of "places I don't want to move to" :eek:

Adam

That's OK, I feel the same way about any place with more than a couple thousand people per square mile; ideally less than that.

Actually it's just the very specific spot where I am, it's several miles out of the way to avoid gravel road. If I lived almost anywhere else in Michigan, I'd be on pavement all the time and I wouldn't have these problems.

It's generally too cold outside to wash my bike during the winter and bringing it indoors to clean isn't really an option. There is a car wash about 6 blocks from my house. I've given it some serious consideration when my bike gets really filthy. I wouldn't blast any part of the drivetrain with a full spray but it would be nice to rinse the salt off.

I'm not really that concerned about it looking bad, but rust can interfere with proper operation. I sold my first winter bike last spring and it was a chore just getting some of the parts off to replace.

I wash my bike when I get time to wash it. But at the very least I'll make sure the mechanicals are reasonably clean/lubricated. I either like my frames real clean, or real dirty. I dont like all this half-assed business. In summer I'll wash and wax the bike with plenty of car wax, I love the smell of that stuff.

Like "wash" i.e. "bath?" I've had my bike almost two years now and I've really washed it like that once. It's actually due for another true cleaning this spring after the winter weather clears up a bit. I do however wipe it and chain down after a muddy rain/ride and clean it/safety/lube/tire/rims check once a week. But a "real" wash would be futile.

WHen people mistake you for a swamp thing, it's time for a cleaning.

One of my tasks for this week-end is to buy a $200 bike, throw some fenders on, use it when the roads might be messy, and clean it 3 times a year.

My other bikes will stay cleaner, longer, since they will see dry roads only.

http://www.p1sseezee.com/reviews/pics/BikeWash3.jpg

When the debris throws your chain, grasshopper........

When is it time to wash your bike?

When the reflective tape starts to get dirty enough to inhibit performance :D

I work at the LBS, so I have the luxury of having a good place to do this stuff indoors. In the winter, maybe once or twice a week I'll lube the chain and wipe it down, especially after a wet commute, and wash the frame and rims with Dawn dish liquid in super-hot water, using Finish Line's top-notch brush set (http://aebike.com/product/finish-line-easy-pro-brush-set-sku-tl2575-qc30.htm) and a big Sterilite under-bed storage bin as a catch pan. If I were doing this at home, instead of at work, I'd want a lightweight home-duty repair stand so I could do my cleaning out in the parking lot of the apartment.

If the cassette is getting fairly grimy, I'll take the rear wheel over to the washtub and soak the cassette with Simple Green Foaming Degreaser, let it sit for a minute or two, then scrub it with a stiff brush and gently rinse it with hot sudsy water using the biggest brush from the Finish Line kit. While I'm letting it soak, I can throw a dummy hub into the bike's rear triangle, and either lube & wipe the chain, or get out the Park Tool Cyclone if I want to do a deluxe job*. But in the winter, it can be an exercise in futility to go for that last 20% :P


*first run: Finish Line Citrus Degreaser (powerful, use gloves and eye protection). Rinse cycles: super-hot water with Dawn dish liquid. Then blow out the chain with compressed air and re-lube immediately.

Once it starts to snow & the roads get salted the roads are varying degrees of slush & wet sand til spring. Then the winter bike makes its debut. By the time I get to the main road the slop has flown everywhere. The drivetrain gets gone over regularly & if its been really wet I'll tear down the BB or wheels & repack things.

The summer commute bike is from C&V land & gets pampered. A mere drizzle & its on the stand.

That's OK, I feel the same way about any place with more than a couple thousand people per square mile; ideally less than that.

Hmmm.... valid point indeed. NYC/NYS is not fun in this respect :(

Adam

Hell, *I* wouldn't bring that nasty thing through my house. Seriously, if I wanted to keep my bike clean, I'd have to do that at both ends of my commute, pretty much every ride.

I don't even want to think about what my wife would think of the whole idea.

If I used "soft cotton cloths" to clean my bike, I'd need a 3 foot stack of them twice a day. Here's what my drivetrain and chainstay/wheel look like after a ride in a light rain, even if the bike is clean before that one ride. BTW, this is an example of a chain that does not bend; I didn't clean/lube it after that ride, this is the next day.
http://www.hauntedfrog.com/gallery2/d/10145-2/20091031-171828-a.jpg

This is what I am up against. For the most part I just spray some lube on and keep riding. Though using this method my chains don't get maybe 2000 miles before needing to be replaced. I think I may have caused a premature chain failure due to not cleaning this time (maybe 1200 miles - 1500 miles). I got a stuck link which I had to remove because the link also somehow got bent, probably from jumping around the drivetrain while I limped home.

Fortunately I am still using 9 speed so I can afford to trash a chain or 2.

my rear derailleur tells me when to clean my bike. If it starts to not shift good it is time for a clean. It is wide variety of times between each cleaning.

...when the hose thaws.

my rear derailleur tells me when to clean my bike. If it starts to not shift good it is time for a clean. It is wide variety of times between each cleaning.

The only time my derailler hasn't shifted well was when it was completely encased in ice. I bought a cheap-assed derailler ($25), set it up, and it's shifted fast and accurately for 10,000 miles now, even when caked with mud. Never a grind or a mis-shift. One time I thought it was off but it turned out that my cable had gotten stretched over the pump mounting bracket somehow. I've never even adjusted it. I do squirt some teflon+wax lube into it once in a while, and after last winter I had a hell of a time getting the rear tire off, and I found that the mounting post didn't swivel anymore, so I had to remove it, disassemble the post and clean and relube it. That wasn't its fault though, it just got soaked in salt water.

Asok: I have to replace my chains every 1800 miles. About every 3 chains, even with replacing them when the Park chain gauge says to, I start to get skipping, because the cassette is too worn. When a new chain skips, I find the least worn chain out of the 12 or so hanging on nails in my garage, clean and lube it, and put it on the bike. The cassette is shot anyway, so I put the old chain on and ride it another couple thousand miles then replace everything.

The chainring I just flip over (instant new wear surface) unless I'm already on the 2nd side, then I replace it. I really only use the middle chainring anyway. Sometimes I replace the whole crank, like a couple of years ago I got a whole crankset for $6 on clearance at Nashbar.

I use Meguiars Quick Detailer on the bike after every ride.

I just spray down the frame and the fork after a ride, then wipe it down. It takes maybe 10 minutes tops. Most of the time it is about 5 minutes unless it was a little muddy (I don't hit mud that much). I clean the wheels only when I run through mud. I clean up the brake surface once a week (if I ride a lot).

Between once a week and once a month I clean the drivetrain. Some weeks I'm out quite a bit, others I rarely get out.

Aside from cleaning and lubing the drive train when needed, my commuters & mountain bike never seems to get washed. However, my road bikes and fixed gear are always spotless.

It's generally too cold outside to wash my bike during the winter and bringing it indoors to clean isn't really an option. There is a car wash about 6 blocks from my house. I've given it some serious consideration when my bike gets really filthy. I wouldn't blast any part of the drivetrain with a full spray but it would be nice to rinse the salt off.

I'm not really that concerned about it looking bad, but rust can interfere with proper operation. I sold my first winter bike last spring and it was a chore just getting some of the parts off to replace.

I wash mine in the garage and it's not insulated in there. Hot water and a spray bottle to get most of the snow and dirt off and then just wipe off the
water. I like to clean my bike after each commute now cause it's nice to make sure it works for tomorrow's ride.

I use Meguiars Quick Detailer on the bike after every ride.

I just spray down the frame and the fork after a ride, then wipe it down. It takes maybe 10 minutes tops. Most of the time it is about 5 minutes unless it was a little muddy (I don't hit mud that much).

Say an average of 7 minutes? That's 28 hours a year. Screw that. Besides, I don't give a damn what my bike looks like, and neither does anyone else (not that anyone else even ever looks at it). This is a good thing, given the mud I ride through daily (see pic above).

...when the hose thaws.

OMG:) When is that? Late April?

Adam

Aside from cleaning and lubing the drive train when needed, my commuters & mountain bike never seems to get washed. However, my road bikes and fixed gear are always spotless.

I'm the same way, my road bike and mountain bikes are always clean and shinned after a dirty ride. My cross bike can stay dirty for a while without me loosing my sanity. My SS winter beater gets cleaned in the spring. :) Here in Saskaberia we don't have to deal with salty wet conditions until around March, everything is frozen solid until then.

I use the same rule of thumb for bikes as people. A bath once a year, whether it needs it or not.

Most of you here, who say that they wash there bike regularly have an open chain and derailleurs. I guess washing isn't that necessary is you don't have derailleurs and a good chain. Am I right about that?

I wash my bike whenever it is on the bike rack on my car and I am washing the car at a self-serve high pressure place. Works like a charm.

Most of you here, who say that they wash there bike regularly have an open chain and derailleurs. I guess washing isn't that necessary is you don't have derailleurs and a good chain. Am I right about that?

I don't wash my bike regularly, I ride in very dirty conditions, and I have an open derailer and chain. See photo above. I do have to lube my chain very frequently, sometimes every day if it's wet. If it gets cold, then not so much. If I don't lube my chain after a wet ride, it won't bend in the morning.

The only time my derailler hasn't shifted well was when it was completely encased in ice. I bought a cheap-assed derailler ($25), set it up, and it's shifted fast and accurately for 10,000 miles now, even when caked with mud. Never a grind or a mis-shift. One time I thought it was off but it turned out that my cable had gotten stretched over the pump mounting bracket somehow. I've never even adjusted it. I do squirt some teflon+wax lube into it once in a while, and after last winter I had a hell of a time getting the rear tire off, and I found that the mounting post didn't swivel anymore, so I had to remove it, disassemble the post and clean and relube it. That wasn't its fault though, it just got soaked in salt water.

Asok: I have to replace my chains every 1800 miles. About every 3 chains, even with replacing them when the Park chain gauge says to, I start to get skipping, because the cassette is too worn. When a new chain skips, I find the least worn chain out of the 12 or so hanging on nails in my garage, clean and lube it, and put it on the bike. The cassette is shot anyway, so I put the old chain on and ride it another couple thousand miles then replace everything.

The chainring I just flip over (instant new wear surface) unless I'm already on the 2nd side, then I replace it. I really only use the middle chainring anyway. Sometimes I replace the whole crank, like a couple of years ago I got a whole crankset for $6 on clearance at Nashbar.


Ya' normally it is not the derailleur that is the problem but the chain. I just lube the chain and I am fine. But I don't even clean or inspect it I just wait for poor shifting and then fix the chain. But it is the derailleur not shifting right because the chain not bending right that tells me to clean her up. It is at that point I normally just wipe down the whole bike. The only time I do a total cleaning is when I do a total tear down. Which is normally only when I first buy the bike.