Cookiemonsta

Its almost November, and where I live there is a lot of rain.

Generally, I am pretty succesfull at avoiding riding in heavy showers, but even when it is not raining, my bike gets incredibly dirty from the wet roads.

In the past, I used to clean my bike after every single ride. Now, I just cant be bothered. It feels so pointless to clean it if it is going to be caked in mud again in less than 24 hours. I really only clean and maintenance the necessary components, while leaving the rest dirty. Only at the end of the week do I bother to actually clean properly. The result is that modt of the time I ride on a bike caked in mud. When I look at other people riding in these weather conditions, their bikes are usually clean, while mine looks like I just went offroad...

Is there any real harm in this? (other than the fact that it looks bad?) Am I committing some kind of roadie sin here? How often do you clean your bike under these conditions?

PatrickGSR94

Some people drive their cars incredibly dirty sometimes, actually probably most of the time. No big deal. As long as you take care of the exposed moving parts you should be good. It's just up to you whether you want to clean the bike or not. It's not like the racing rally trucks I saw on Fifth Gear the other day that can actually get 200+ pounds of mud caked all over the underside after a rally course.

Me personally, I rode the Felt in dry conditions yesterday, but went through a spot on the MUP with water all over it from a nearby building's irrigation system. Grass all around was wet and muddy, too. Had a few spots on the bike, which I wiped right off as soon as I got home.

My KHS, on the other hand, I hardly ever clean. I bought it second hand anyway and it has grease, paint chips, scratches, you name it, all over the bike. Don't really care.

Nachoman

I clean my bike about once every week or two.
But I'm talking about a less than five minute clean job, which includes lightly wiping down the chain and re-lubing.

banerjek

Seems like practically every time I go out -- the rain cleans it off. It looks like crap, but hey....

Drag

Sounds about right. I lube after every rain ride. I'll bother with the whole bike before it starts getting gross. By that I mean mounting it to the stand and wiping it down. I'll break it down during the winter for a thorough cleaning and rehab.

pdxtex

i rinse (not high pressure) my bike down with a garden hose after every wet commute day...especially now with the all of the leaves and extra junk on the road and just let it drip dry in the basement. changing a flat on tires with 3 weeks of caked on city #$%^ sucks....

bigbadwullf

My bike doesn't see rain unless it just happens to rain when I'm out. Not good for the road bike. The mountain bike sees mud all the time though.

carpediemracing 

At minimum wash the chain, cassette, rings, brake pads, and rims. The grit acts as sand paper - you wouldn't intentionally put sand in your chain lube but that's the effect that grit has on the chain/cassette/rims. Usually the bearings are okay, either sealed or easily replaceable or both.

I rinse my drivetrain and brakes/rims after a rainy ride. I'm already wet, it takes maybe 3-5 minutes (because the drivetrain was basically clean when I started), and I use whatever water I didn't drink to rinse off (maybe a couple bottles more than that).

The post below was after one such ride. It took 10 minutes primarily because I was paranoid about the camera - dropping it, getting it dirty, splashing the lens with water, etc.

https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...ike-quick.html

I bounce the bike a few times to shake the chain off (in the big ring and one of the bigger cogs so you don't slap the chain too hard on the stay), spray some light lube on the chain, wipe the bike and chain quickly, and bring the bike indoors. Done.

Having said all that I usually avoid training in the rain.

wheelreason

What is this bike cleaning you speak of?

Cookiemonsta

Some good suggestions in this thread. I do actually clean/grease the bear necessities to prevent the more vulnerable components from deteriorating. However, I never thought of rinsing of the grit on my drivetrain (To be honest, the drivetrain is one of those things I only clean once a week unless especially dirty).

Not training in the rain/wet is not an option for me. As much as I love my bikes, to me they are tools to be used. If things wear out or break they will be replaced or repaired. We probably have around 25+ weeks with a high chance of rain over here. Not training in the wet would mean I should be looking for a new sport. Id rather wear out a new bike completely every 5 years than not ride for the largest part of the year.

gregf83 

After wet rides I take it to the side of my house and house off the grit. If you do it when it's wet most of the gunk comes off easily. I don't bother wiping or brushing so it only takes a minute. I then bring it inside and dry the chain off with a shop towel and then spray the chain with WD40 and wipe off again with shop towel. Then I lube the chain and it's ready to go for the next ride.