removing winter road grime
 

Is there any magic solutions?
This is my first winter commuting and I've had a week straight of rain or yesterday sleet/freezing rain.
I want to clean and re-lubricate. I'm wondering if there's any degreasers or cleaning products that you've found to be exceptional?

Rainwater is a pretty good cleaning agent, if you remember to wipe everything down as soon as you get home. Relube moving things (chain, brakes, cables) with your favorite lube. Wet oils like Chain-L, Phil's Tenacious, or plain bar oil hang on pretty well in the rain, but wipe everything down before you leave the next day to minimize the dirt/oil crud.

Next .. magic housecleaning ..

make it convenient to wash the bike off when you get home, so you do it.


adding an aircompressor to the garage tool kit, will do a reasonable Blow dry

I like the air compressor idea. Normally I just liberally apply lube in the winter right over top whatever (good or bad) is already on the drivetrains of my commuting bikes. T-9 has been my preferred winter lube since it is so easy to apply wherever I think the bike needs it. I take the chains off a couple times over the winter and give the drivetrains a good cleaning.

I wipe down the chain every night when I get home, and then do a more thorough cleaning and lube on the weekend.

Perhaps I'm the exception on this issue - I think winter is a losing battle. I wet lube the chain. That's it. Then the springtime ritual is a through tear down and cleaning. If you see a bit of surface oxidation, don't panic. I'd be more concerned about internal corrosion. Even so, 5 months of muck isn't really going to kill your bike.

My degreaser (citrus) is frozen solid at the moment, so I have just been dry-wiping the chain and lightly oiling it about once every 2 weeks.

I bought this stuff on Amazon called Finish Line Super Bike Wash. It was the best degreaser I've ever used for spray on, rinse off application. I thought it worked pretty well, and it won't hurt your paint.

The same.
Also I discovered something last week end when I ran out of my favorite synthetic spray lub : I took the only spray lub I had left and it did a very good job, I think I'll keep to it for a few week to see if it's really that good. The product is.... Remington gun oil! I figured that if it's suppose to protect the metal of my hunting rifle it should be good to protect the metal of my bike.

Wait... People clean their commuter bikes?

+1 If you can get it off without a chisel, it doesn't really need to be cleaned.

I haven't yet.. but I've only had it since May.

Might seem over the top, but if there's clean snow around, it'll do a decent job of cleaning salt debris off the bike. Little dab of WD40 for the derailleurs and top up the chain lube...

I'm firmly in the "if it isn't making noise I can't stand, it doesn't need cleaned/lubed" camp. I am proud of the quantity and consistency of the tar-like substance that I scrape out of my cassette and off the chainrings with my putty knife.

I used to be in that camp, until I broke a chain that was gummed up so it wouldn't shift. Plus braking through 1/8" of accumulated grime isn't always as crisp as I'd like.

I don't like disposing of more things than necessary, but replacing a chain is so much easier than cleaning it. A worn chain wears out cogs in the cassette, and it's hard to know just how worn a chain is. Erring on the side of too soon ensures that I'm not endangering my cogs.

I generally buy KMC chains because they seem good and they're less expensive than other brands. So far, so good. SRAM chains were on sale a while back, so I bought about three of them.

The chain collects more dirt than anything else, so preventing it from getting too dirty prevents grime everywhere else.

My winter riding sometimes covers the bike with slush/snow and road salt so I generally blow all the crud off with an air compressor and then on weekends hose it down well and blow off the water afterwards. I relube the chain with chain lube and may relube the derailer if needed too as these tend to stop shifting in below 0F temps.

At the begining of winter,prep your bike with a coating of oil/grease.Do nothing except maintain:thumb: the chain,and adjustments till spring:thumb:.Some even call the grime a "protective layer"

The only time I have evidence of corrosion on the chain is before my "protective layer" has developed.

But seriously, the grime might protect the metal from rust, but that's less important than the grinding that goes on inside the chain as a result of small particles being in there under tension while you pedal. I don't think it's wise to see grime as a good thing. If your chain is free of grime, it's particularly easy to lubricate the chain, so you can't argue that grime saves trouble.

I only deal with drive train cleaning and lubing through the year. I think I wash my commuter maybe 2 times a year.

Chains and cassettes are expensive items to replace regularly. I have found that cleaning and lubricating my drive train saves me significant amounts of money. Of course if you are riding some beater or a single speed your chain-cassette mileage may very.

I also strongly recommend KMC chains. The 10 speed variety is about as light as midrange Shimano at one third the price (on sale).

So far there's only been one suggestion for a cleaning solution/product.
I'm still wondering what product to use to clean the chain ring/housing and chain itself prior to re-lubricating.

I'm considering a trip to an auto-parts store for an engine degreaser or similar product. Again, any suggestions?

It depends on how extreme your conditions are.
Here in MN, in the summer, I degrease the chain with undiluted "simple green" then use a teflon lube.
In the winter, degreasing then lubing is a useless process. I apply finish line wet lube to help displace the existing grime.

I'm in Nashville, so the conditions aren't extreme. My bike was purchased new in May, so the amount of grime is not extreme either. I was hoping for something that was spray on/rinse off. The thought of the engine degreaser came to mind. I need to clean my rear wheel as well so an aluminum wheel cleaning product may do the trick.
I have a couple of lubricants that I bought at the LBS, I'm set there. I just was looking for suggestions on the cleaning side.

Ahh. Finish Line also sells a "Bike Wash Spray" that some people swear by. Personally, for general cleaning / de-greasing I tend to stay away from the expensive LBS products and visit the local Home Depot.

I keep thinking that it would be good to wax my bike to protect it from sand and salt, but I'm too lazy.

WD40 is a cleaner/degreaser. . . I usually don't put it on anything that moves and needs to be lubricated unless I'm re-greasing/lubricating it afterwords.

To each their own though.

That's really good stuff, and it makes the work easy, but it's expensive.

I've used mineral spirits to clean chains. Those quick-attach chain cleaners with the internal brushes make the job easier, and more importantly, they seem to do a better job than not using one. I've read criticisms of them, but I like them.

Don't use gasoline. It's too dangerous, and cheap alternatives are safer.

I found that using degreasers and cleaning agents on my chain significantly reduced the mileage I would get out of it. Now all I do to clean the chain is add more lube (one drop per roller) and wipe off the excess. If I need to clean the cassette or cranksets, I remove the chain and use basic orange degreaser. You can get a big bottle of it for $4 at the hardware store.

Living in an area where there isn't much extreme winter weather, your cleaning regimen shouldn't be much different from the rest of the year.