Winter and spring maintenance
 

Winter and spring bring wet and grimy conditions, curious to hear what folks do to keep up on maintenance in those conditions. Or not. Wiping down the frame and keeping moisture off leather saddles, mitigating against drivetrains and braking surfaces eating themselves, etc. Most is probably self explanatory.

Any special chain lubes, cleaning regimens, etc. I suppose most of it is going to be just a matter of keeping things clean, but maybe there’s a tip or two that’ll help speed things up or make ‘em more effective.

Speaking for myself I definitely could be better about keeping up, but the biggies are wiping down the chain thoroughly, cleaning the road grime out of the freewheel/cassette and off the chainrings and jockey wheels. Wipe down the braking surface of the rims with a clean shop rag and hit the brake pads with a clean cloth and maybe file as needed. I’ve been using Chain L chain lube for a few years now and love that it’s pretty much a set it and forget it kinda lube versus other stuff I’ve used in the past. T-9 was nice, but I found I needed to apply it every ride or two in the best conditions let alone winter in New England.

So, what do?

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I took the plunge (of sorts) and waded into the deep waters of chain waxing. Very happy with the results so far! As is also likely true in the nutmeg state, they salt the crap out of the roads around here, so every ride is pretty much a brining experience. In the past, I've put my bikes away wet and just figured I'd replace the chain come March, but this year I decided to a more preventative stance.

Ditto with chain waxing. I use Molten Speed Wax and a crockpot. This combined with using Wipperman Connex quicklinks to easily get the chain on and off makes it easy to have an always pristine chain. The downsides: 1) initial chain prep when changing over to wax takes a while; 2) no chain tattoos.

Good to see the old lady still out and about!

I'm a wimp so don't ride in the gucky weather if I can help it, but if I get caught out there I do a deep clean that very evening. My deep clean is similar to the OP's in that I remove the wheels, put the bike in the stand and then deep-clean the drivetrain with degreaser, old toothbrushes and rags. If it was really bad? Sounds stupid, but I remove both tires and clean the sidewalls with a scouring pad. That way the sidewalls don't turn gray/black too soon and they live that bit longer. If the bike in question has a cutout in the BB shell, I'll remove the NDS cup and see if any gunk got shoved up into the stays, but usually that's not an issue. I'll shine a flashlight up the fork steerer to see if anything got sprayed up there, too. Don't forget to use an old toothbrush on both brake fixing bolts if they're recessed because they gunk up quickly, too (of course, if you're running fenders the last couple don't apply).

Last thing I do before putting everything back together is eyeball each brake pad and use a dental pick to remove those tiny chips of rock which always seem to become more easily picked up and embedded in wet weather. These little guys act like sandpaper and score sidewalls, wearing them out before their time.

The time involved in clean up afterwards, plus the increased wear of braking surfaces and contaminated tire sidewalls are major factors in my personal decision to refrain from riding in the wet. Others are much more hardy and worry less about their equipment, and I get that. I only end up having to do these things to re-animate my bike if I get unlucky and the skies open up while I'm far from home :)

A very rare photo indeed:

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DD

Chain waxing is interesting...the roads here in nutmeg land are heavily salted and leave a nasty mess on the bikes. I got out for an hour yesterday during lunch and the drivetrain was much nosier than I had expected or would really call acceptable. Granted, the previous ride was a night time rain and slush ride with a good helping of sand and small rocks in the mix. All I did from above was give the chain a good wipe, no other cleaning to speak of. That works with my current chain lube much of the year with very infrequent lube reapplication, but I guess it’s about time for a thorough cleaning and reapplication. Might be a good excuse to get the small jewelry ultrasonic cleaner out and give the chain a bath with some Dawn. Or maybe just strip and wax a fresh chain from the stash.

Good point on picking rocks out of the brake pads, DD. I need to get a dental pick, I’ll typically use the corner of an x-acto knife blade for that job. It was the sound of sandy pads on the rims that prompted this thread. The nice anodized tubular wheels don’t get ridden in this stuff...! Same with nicer vintage chains for that matter.

I’ll add that early this winter I picked up a waxed canvas saddle cover from Randi Jo Fabrications, along with a wool cap, and definitely recommend their stuff.

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This one gets the most miles by far, love it!

+1 to Randi Jo goods. Top stuff.

I recommend starting with a new chain with the waxing regime. I’ve cleaned a couple of used chains so far, and it took many steps in the ultrasonic and then in mineral spirits to get them clean. They looked clean coming out of the ultrasonic (with hot water and Dawn), but immersion in mineral spirits revealed lots of dirt/grease still there.

Interesting despite my avoidance of riding in bad weather. "Molten Speed Wax" was easy to find online. My wife uses her nice digital crockpot constantly, but her late mother's old one is kept as a spare in the back of a kitchen cabinet. Hmm, it might get repurposed...;)

I recommend getting a small (1.5 qt) crockpot so that the wax is deep enough to easily immerse the chain. Also, they're cheaper (i.e. $10-15).

This is the one I got: $20 on Amazon

https://www.crock-pot.com/slow-cooke...P_2135591.html

Cool, and I've bookmarked one at Amazon. I presume you can leave the "unused" wax stored in the crockpot and just heat it up when it's time to treat a chain?

Yup. Unless of course you also want to use it for soup or whatnot, but I don't recommend it!

Clorox wipes clean gunk from skinwall tires. It's like magic. These tires are 4 months old with 5 rain rides. They don't look it though.

Funny you should mention that. Back when I was a teenager (probably 1973), one friend I rode with had even less money than me, I mean lower-lower-LOWER middle class. Anyway, one winter night we were rehabbing his bike at his house, I got to the point I could repack bearings and grease cables pretty quick. By the wee hours of the morning, the bike was ready except the chain; no money for a new one. So he wiped it off with a rag soaked in whatever solvent was laying around, and he located a quart of oil from his father's automotive supplies. It was thick (gear lube???) so he simply heated it in a skillet on the kitchen range to thin the oil, let it cool, and removed the chain and poured off the excess. Well, we were both hungry by this point, he just wiped the skillet clean with a paper towel and made us pancakes! There might not have been dishwashing liquid in the house? :eek:

(offered in the topic "Winter and Spring maintenance" as an example of what NOT to do)