Mr. Beanz

Just cleaned our bikes. Gina's Pilot 5.2 has 14,700 miles and still looking good. Mine is the Madone 4.7, new frame with old components (26,000 miles). Although they are always pretty clean, I polished them today. Sadly, it's raining outside and rain in the forecast for Sunday, bummer!

OK, now go clean your bike!

Just messing around with the bikes showing them some love! We can't be riding dirty bikes!

chefisaac

Took the tranny off the bike and completely cleaned it, new lube and cleaned the frame. I did the yesterday.

But you know what Mr. B: my back rim... I found 6.... YES 6 cracks in it. Took it back to a bike shop and it is on warrenty so the owner is going to try to get me a 36 spoke rim. The orginal shop I got it from was supposed to change the 28 spoke to a 36 spoke but never did. I am glad Giant is coming through. I do love their bikes.

chefisaac

but I do agree.... a clean is looks amazing.

Mr. Beanz

Whoah! Like Bontager & Trek had problems with crack...Glad they are taking car of you. Yeah, Giant Co. has done well.

What rim brand is that?

chefisaac

Dont know. I will have to look. What sorta pisses me off is that, when I orginally bought the bike, the owner of the shop said they switched it to a 36 spoke rim. I should have counted them. Now I have a 36 spoke rim in the back and a 28 up front. Now I can see the visual difference.

Do they have rims with more spokes then 36?

chefisaac

mr. B: You got any suggestions on tips or advice on tandoms? My will be moving out here soon and we will be looking for one.

b_young

Its funny, I feel like a clean bike just rides better. I remember having a discussion with my uncle (a mechanic) in the 80's. We were talking about how after you clean or change the spark plugs, clean the engine... it just runs better.

goldfinch

Hey, I was hoping for an instructional video on how to clean bikes! They look sharp. What do you use to clean your chain and other gunky things?

Also, how do you remove those safety stickers from your bike?

caphits

Lol. Have fun riding your nice shiny bikes in the rain! I hate it when that happens.

Those are some good looking bikes. I just love the white red combo.

Mr. Beanz

I haven't looked at tendems sinc e we bought ours in 98(?)...But they are expensive. Maybe look at KHS. We had one $700 ($200 upgrades) and it didn't give up much to our $2300 current tandem. KHS had 26 inch wheels (mtb size slicks) and the Burley 700 wheels. For the money, KHS was a great value.

Mr. Beanz

An old ride partner used to wax his spokes cause he said they sliced the air better resulting in more speed.

Mr. Beanz

Some chains have the removable link, makes it easy to soak. I also have a chain cleaner for the others.

I have the budget version of this

https://www.performancebike.com/bikes...8_20000_400141

Safety stickers...I soak them with alcohol, peel if possible. If not, heat with blow dryer, then peel little by little, repeat and rinse.

Wd 40 types remove the final glue residue fairly easy.

Mr. Beanz

Thanks! I've always loved the black an white but the red is growing on me.

bradtx

I had a Santana Arriva that was just brilliant. Tandems East is selling NOS Burleys at attractive prices. The Tandems East is also a good site to stare and compare.

Brad

dcrowell

A dirty bike is a loved bike. I do clean the drivetrain regularly though.

billydonn

Dear Adrian Monk:
Clean bikes are for sissies! Dirty white bar tape is a thing of beauty to me.

Mr. Beanz

I've been called the Martha Stewart of bikes.

chefisaac

brad: I want to go and check it out. Heard great things about the shop. Scared to to actually because I know I will want one and when I see it, I want it. Its is a generation thing I think

bradtx

I think I know what you mean.

As a single parent I sold mine when the kids moved out, it was difficult to see it go; tandems are just a ton of fun.

Brad

RichardGlover

Rain is no reason to stay inside.

Humans are waterproof.

Bikes have fenders for a reason.

Ride.

Mr. Beanz

Can't get myself to do it to my bikes. As mentioned, I'm a martha Stewart of bikes.

If I lived in a place where I didn't have a choice, then yes, I would have a dirty beater bike. Here in SoCal, it's easy to sit out one or two days of rain when the rest of the year is fine for riding.

If I ride in the one day of rain, it makes no sense, I have to clean my drivetrain, worry about my camera, my recorder, my wet shoes for one day when the next will be fine.

Heck, I've gone looking for rain before, I'm waterproof no problems there. I did ride an old MTB in the rain several times a few years back. Nice, exhilirating but I had a bike for it.

Avoiding rain is more about my bikes than my body.

Heck, we've taken the MTB's up GMR looking for rain.

CliftonGK1

I'll have to snap some pix of my CX bike. It's been sitting, caked in mud, since my last race. This evening or tomorrow I'll smack some of the mud off of it, wipe down the brake track on the rims and the pad surfaces, and re-lube the drivetrain. I'll take extra care to clean off the "Ride a <expletive> Bike" sticker, and then I'll race it this weekend and get more mud on it.

It's lucky race mud. I did really well, and I don't want to jinx it by washing off all the good mojo.

Nightshade

A clean bike ,or a clean motor vehicle, makes them seem "new" longer thus holding back the want to always trade or upgrade.

Besides, there is a sense of pride one gets from riding/driving clean rides.

Mr. Beanz

So true!

CliftonGK1

I guess I'm the other end of the spectrum from that. I don't wash my Jeep unless I've taken it out mudding, and even then I just hose out the engine compartment, brakes and clean the windows so I can see properly.

My bikes get a similar treatment. Keep the drivetrain clean, wipe down the braking surfaces, knock the big mud chunks off the rest with a couple of bunnyhops.

I take pride in how dirty I can get my vehicles while managing to keep them functional.