Ok I have a confession to make. Over the last few years I thought I was getting to be a pretty hard core cyclist. I would take my MTB out and get dirty just because some of us wanted to go out and get dirty. I started doing centuries, double centuries, and some short 30+ road races and have even toyed with organized TTs. I ride group rides 3 or 4 days a week. Yesterday we started our group ride as an easy recovery ride with a bit smaller group because there was a chance of rain. Once we had gone about 12 miles it started to mist slightly and the group decided to stop at a small market under an awning and discuss the route we would be taking. Everyone decided to make a run for home and the ride turned into a fast 12 mile race back the way we had come.

After I got home I had to laugh at myself. We didn’t run from the rain because we were worried about getting soaked, or that it would be too cold. We ran because no one wanted to have to spend hours cleaning their bike of all the dirt and grit that develops on a rain soaked street. I realized I was more spoiled than I thought and that my attitude about my road bike had changed over the years.

+1 Thats why I would rather not ride in the rain...

Come to the UK and learn how to clean bikes quickly. Practice makes perfect and we do get plenty of practice on cleaning bikes.

Speak for yourself. Personally I make sure the drivetrain and brakes are cleaned up. The frame etc. can stay filthy until the spring. Bikes are for riding, who cares what they look like?

I realise I am eccentric about this. When I had a car, I never washed that, either.

Hi Mobile 155,

I'm in SoCal as well and I got caught in the rain yesterday too; a little on the ride to work and quite a lot more on the way home.

No biggie though, I just wheeled the bike into the garage when I got home, up on the bike stand, half an hour later all clean and ready to go for this morning's ride.

Cleaning bikes: Just part of life, and far from the worst part!

Rick / OCRR

do you take baths, or just wash your face?

I might have to do that. With the MTB a bit of soap and water a hose and leave it outside to dry is all I ever do. I clean the chain and re-oil about every 300 miles. With my Aluminum road bike it took a bit longer and I did dry it off.
What I didn’t realize was how persnickety I had become with my CF bike. Half of the reason I have so many extra parts sitting around in my parts boxes is because I have tried different sized cranks to see what I like best. I have different bar stems simply because I like how they look or fit. I bought some Dura Ace brakes the other day not because they will work better than my old 105s but because they looked better.
The thing is I never saw it coming. It was like one day I treated my bike like daily flatware and then the next thing I know I am treating it like the family silver.

You are in SoCal. I am surprised you guys did not get your hair done along with a mani pedi.

I know but I had my hair done with a short fade two weeks ago and I am not due for anothe two. But you have to cut us some slack because we have a harder time getting Herb than you Bay boys do. We aren't as laid back.

Function over form, my man. The odors come from the neck down, so the only part that doesn't get washed is the face.

Uh, OK

I have a CF that is filthy on the leading edge of the downtube. The bike's been washed once in around 12 months (although the drive train has been switched a couple of times between double and triple and back to double).

I looked at the tandem the other day -- same deal. And my old commuter that used to do 4km a day on a rough gravel road -- well, the only time a hose went near that in around 6,000km was after that road turned to mush because of rain.

I'm with you, chasm, bikes are for riding. Not fussing around washing after every ride.

Disclaimers: I had a small fleet of hire MTBs that required washing after just about every outing. I got over the novelty very quickly. And I do live in a place that has reasonable road surfaces so that when it rains, there isn't much gunk thrown up by the tyres. And when I did randonnees regularly, I was assiduous in cleaning the bike before each long event (300km +)..

When I was mountain biking- the wash down of the bike and myself was the recovery part of the ride.Even if the bike did not look bad- the drivetrain had to be cleaned after every trip. Now on the road bikes and the bike never looks bad except around the chainstays. Too much lube on the chain and it does splatter a bit and this is made worse by having a white bike. I might do 200 miles before the Chain get cleaned and then it is clean time.

But one "Wet" ride and that bike will pick up road dirt and look filthy. It has to be cleaned.

There is one group of riders that surprise me though and that is commuters. Come the winter weather and all the muck- salt and rain on the roads and those bikes look filthy. The drive chain is so clogged with dirt- I am surprised that it will still work. But when will they have the time to clean and lube a bike once it gets dirty? They do it at the weekend and they jhave a terrific job. We have a commuter at work that does 100 miles a week. Friday pm and his bike is stripped and steam cleaned. Chain and cassete and sometimes deraillers go into the chemical bath to get the crud off them. That trip home on friday night is on an immaculate bike that looks as though it has just come out of the showroom.

It just surprises me that these commuter bikes never fail on the riders. I know they are maintained to a higher standard than their cars- but I rarely see a commuter at the side of the road with even so much as a puncture.

I commuted 150 miles per week for several years. 300 miles per week one year, I've never been so fit. I cleaned the chain once a week, rain or shine, and kept the brakes and cabling in good order. Apart from that I did no maintenance beyond a full service once a year and replacement chains when needed. I never had a significant breakdown. Once I'd switched to schwalbe marathon plus tyres I never even had a puncture. The bike used was, mostly, a Raleigh tourer.

I don't think I am unusual. Bikes tend to keep working.

Commuting is a completely different animal to road cycling, in my opinion.

It is very much utility cycling, but the interesting thing is that commuters over a year probably ride their bikes much further than the normal sports cyclist... they ride everyday... in fact, twice a day.

And commuting cyclists get to know their bikes extremely well. The bikes usually are built for reliability. The riders can tolerate little changes to the point of not noticing them. So, for me for example, I would think nothing of riding a commuter bike until the chain, cogset and chainrings all needed changing because they were worn out. Heck, I've ridden a commuter with a broken spoke (actually, removed) for several months because I knew the bike could handle it.

The toughest little bike I had for this purpose was an Australian Apollo MTB with Hi-Ten steel frame and seven-speed freewheel cassette. It was retrieved from the local rubbish dump, and as I said in a previous post, it did over 6,000km of hard commuting. The weakness was in its wheels, which were single-wall, cheap ones, but even so, I only had to go to the dump and get another one when either gave up. The chain was lubed, but not routinely cleaned (only after rain), with bog-standard motor oil, and it lasted a long, long time.

My other long-term commuter was my touring and randonneuring bike, but the roads on my commutes then were all sealed, and as also mentioned above, it got a good once-over prior to major events (and tours). It, in fact, was the reason why the old Apollo took over the commuting gig -- I didn't want to destroy the Velocity Aerohead rims on the tourer on the rough gravel road.

I guess this thread shows how different we are as people as well as cyclists. Even when I commuted my bike got wiped down after I got home. Not to the degree I now clean the road bike but with a damp rag over the frame and I wiped off the excess grit from the chain. But then I clean my tools after I use them as well. I change the oil in my truck every 3000 miles and clean the air filter every 6000 miles. I wipe down my bike tires after I get home while I check them for cuts and thorns. I guess I am a bit OCD with servicing. even my utility bike gets cleaned at least once a week. Just not every nook and cranny.

Well, you *did* ask...

This is an important point, most commuters do pay attention to their bikes and notice the small changes, and for most, it's only a few miles ride till they can access their entire tool set. It's not like they are 50 miles out when a breakdown occurs.

So they can pretty much get by till they get home usually. Though I can remember once when the bearings of my bottom bracket wore out on the way to work. The side of one bearing race popped out. Unable to pedal further, I ended up using the bike as a scooter, pushing it with one foot, the other foot on the pedal. And by a miracle, I made it to work on time. It's good I always left myself that extra 15 minutes to get there. I got a ride home in a co-worker's pickup.

This is so true. I have ridden on flat tyres the remaining two or three kilometres to the end of commutes.

One of the most dramatic failures for me was stripping the threads on a fixed gear hub so I had no drive. The ride was actually a century, but I combined those sorts of rides then with a supermarket visit, still 25km from home, so it sort of was a commute.

The hub stripped about 15km from home. Of course, by this time I could scoot, but there was a lot of walking and pushing with full panniers. I was pretty sore the next day... much sorer than any century of randonnee I had ever done.