ItsJustMe

I power washed my previous bike quite a lot. It has 29,000 miles on it. I have not yet had to replace anything due to a bearing failure. I have replaced hubs and bottom brackets, but I did so because some other part of them failed.

What is this "soap" of which you speak?

ItsJustMe

You wash your car? I wait for it to rain to get most of the mud to run off.

spivonious

I try to do most of the work on my car myself, and things are much easier to if things are clean. Road salt causes bolts to seize up, makes things rust faster, and just generally causes trouble. I won't wash it much in the summer since a little dust isn't going to do much.

MikeRides

I haven't washed my bike yet this year, but I do wipe the bike down well after riding through loose gravel trails (which one path I ride is known for). One way of protecting your investment. I wash my car every month whether it looks filthy or not.

calyth

I live in a bachelor's apartment, so after a rainy ride, I'll have to wipe the thing down. Otherwise the dirt would just fall onto the floor anyways.

I'd clean the chains and cassettes after a particularly wet ride, like this saturday when I got hit with a nasty rain/thunderstorm trying to climb up to Pink Lake at Gatineau Park.

The chain and cassette was a shade darker because of a lot of fine grime. I guess that's worth the cleaning job.

GeneO 

I commute mostly on limestone and gravel trails so my bike is either muddy white paste or white powder. So I wash it and lube almost every ride to get the grinding paste off.

xuwol7

I am in the minority here, I wash my bikes' approx every 100 miles, which could mean 1 day or 1 week.
Frequent cleaning prolongs the life and makes it easier to work on and I found using lemon pledge on the frame makes it easier to clean each time.
I like my bikes clean even though my newest one is 25 years old.

sebnukem

Never... but I should, for easthetic reasons.

UberGeek

For mechanical reasons too. As I posted earlier: Grime hides moisture. Moisture corrodes.

J.C. Koto

Heh, maybe in the minority but not alone. I too like to keep my bike clean with a similar schedule, especially since I ride a lot on gravel roads and that fine dust will work its way in everywhere if given a chance.

Rick@OCRR

No power-wash for me, just a wipe down every two weeks or so. Thankfully there's no snow grime here, very little rain, so it really stays clean most of the time.

Rick / OCRR

RubeRad

every month or two I'll give it a wipe down with the old T-shirt reserved for that duty. It's fairly new, and the paint's still in good shape, so it's nice to see it shine. And in San Diego we get basically no rain, so I don't have to worry about cleaning mud off.

Usually the time it gets cleaned is if I go on a longer group ride, I'll want to have it looking good so I can show it off.

Bike Gremlin

Make sure to keep chain, sprockets and rear derailleur clean and lubricated.
Also make sure to keep brake pads and rims in decent condition.

Everything else - NEVER! It's an aluminium frame so shouldn't rust. It's also parked outside often, so should look as ugly as possible in order not to get stollen.

kookaburra1701

I left mine locked outside in a rainstorm last week...does that count?

I wash my road bike every six months or so, but I haven't actually washed my commuter ever. I should probably do that sometime soon, or at least wash/lube the chain. But I don't have access to a hose/spigot here, so I have to cart down all of the buckets of water from my upstairs apartment. Such a drag. I do wipe down the reflective stripes on my tires with alcohol wipes every so often. Seems to keep them sort of bright.

ETA: I couldn't resist. This isn't my commuter, but I did just spend 3 hours getting all the metal bits shiny and all the white bits WHITE. I want to show it off.

mattgmann

I basically never wash my bike other than cleaning components when servicing. My ride now has a steel frame though, and I'm wondering what I need to do to keep it healthy from rust. I ride it every day, rain or shine. So it gets ridden hard and put away wet often.

Zedoo

Every time I ride through a flood.

BezO

Clean & lube the drive train weekly, but that's it.

jyl

About every 1-2 months, depending on season - more in winter when it gets really dirty.

I spray it with Simple Green, then power wash, but not hitting the hubs, bottom bracket, headset, etc with any pressure. Some Simple green on the the chain and cluster, then power wash those again. Takes about 10 minutes. Put bike back in the garage with a fan on it. Later, lube chain and brake pivots etc.

AusTexMurf

Not exactly sure what, if any, in your case, exactly.......
But....soap additives in pressure washer or soap cycle at quarter car wash.....
Anyway, I was and still am operating under the assumption that the fine spray under high pressure can get in loose bearing hubs and bottom brackets if hit directly.....

tergal

the drive chain gets a clean at least once week, everything else... when i can't read the brand name then it is too muddy and needs a clean.


Being a black and bright orange trek, this does not happen often !

DJ Shaun

Ditto.

And I'll re-lube the chain after some heavy rain.

ItsJustMe

Ah, car washes. No, I have my own pressure washer. It just sits in the back yard plugged in next to the faucet. I don't add anything to it. I don't spray at the hubs, only really at the frame. I do spray at the sprockets and chain if they're really dirty.

hyhuu

If my memory serves me correctly, my bike color is supposed to be white.

RidingMatthew

i cleaned and relubed Mountain bike after it sat outside in the rain saturday over sunday while I was camping this weekend. I don't usually spray the dirt off it. It looks tougher with mud on it.


I clean my commuter every couple weeks depending on how much rain/ muck is showing on the yellow frame. I should probably check the chain more. I think i had too much lube on it since I found my shiny spokes greasy one time i was cleaning it up.

RaleighSport

After a rain ride any bike gets a wipe down and relube... other than that.. only as absolutely necessary aka never.