Hi all,
Not too sure if this is the right place to put this so apologies if not.
I've recently bought a road bike and wondered how best to clean it, what cleaning products to use, etc? Is there any advice or do's and don'ts that you guys adhere to please? I've bought a couple of Muc-Off products for the MTB, wondering if they'd be ok for the road bike too?
Sorry, may seem like a silly question but worried about damaging the road bike

You've opened a previously opened can of worms. Do a search on the topic and you'll find more information...and differing opinions...then there are bicycles.

Bottom line: Use whatever you like. Bikes aren't delicate. I use a car wash for those occasions were I want the bikes look spiffy. I don't use oily lubricants on the chain so I never have to clean the drivetrain. YMMV.

I believe all the Greats wash their bikes in the bathtub

The You tube video by Park Tools is one of the best I have seen on bicycle washing, check it out.

Thanks everyone, shall look at the YouTube vids and look at buying a microfibre cloth too

Well, I have some Dollar Store "car wash & wax" stuff I was going to try because I'm a cheapskate. Is it too much too hope for something like that to be any good? Or is it not a big deal?

People clean their bikes? Why?

^^^ yeah, this pretty much covers it. I use dish washing soap.

Because this is how your bike looks after a week of Winter commuting in the NW.

To answer the OP, I use Turtle Wax "Zip Wax", a combination wash/wax product. Applied with a soft, auto wheel brush and a gentle spray rinse, being careful around the wheel hubs, bottom bracket and headset areas. A friend's pressure washer gave him sparkling results, but accelerated hub wear. Don

2000 to 3000 psi pressure washer.

Just make sure u don't point the spray nozzle at any greased bearings.

A lot of videos show cleaning bikes on grass. Good luck getting any grass to grow in these areas.

By hand. Pledge or Windex Multi Surface (with vinegar, NOT ammonia). Spray a microfiber towel and wipe it down, top-to-bottom inch by inch. No need to rinse. It will bring you up close and personal with your bike and you will know the current condition intimately. Anything loose, bent, or out of adjustment will be obvious. After several uses of the towel for bike cleaning, it gets demoted to chain wiping duty then eventually to the trash.


-Kedosto

Pretty much sparkling if you ask me.

Mind you, I cleaned the Bianchi once, because I was thinking of selling it. Waste of time, a couple of weeks later it looked exactly as it had before. Generally my bikes get a clean only if I have to work on them, but the advent of latex gloves has rendered even that mostly unnecessary.

I guess I can use pretty much anything I like on a bare Ti frame, no? Even windex with Ammonia.

To those who have "never washed a bike," please tell me where to find these roads that are so clean the bike never gets dirty. It seldom rains here (less than 12" a year) so when it does, it mixes with months of built up road grime into a wonderful soup. Spot cleaning isn't gonna do it.

I never wash my bike. I live in Albuquerque now, used to live in Pasadena & Santa Monica, used to ride in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains. I'll wipe it with a paper towel if it gets dirty. If it gets greasy-dirty I'll add a bit of 100% citrus oil cleaner (just 'cause I don't want to breathe other solvents. Greasy dirt never washes out of cloth, so I use all-paper towels (the cheaper and flimsier kind), then put them down the garbage disposal.

Dang! I never thought of this. I'll have to give it a try. My wife is already jealous of my bikes so this might push her over the edge.

Lately i have been using cheap wd40 type lube it makes the drive train shine . then dish soap the frame and wheels rinse it all down hand dry it and wipe it .

I've never hose or pressure wash my bike either. I'll either use a blue shop towel or a microfiber towel to remove dirt from the frame. For the derailleurs, I'll use heavy duty cleaning wipes which I'll sometime use on the frame if the paints looks dull. I once used those cleaning wipes on the rims and that was a bad idea. For several kilometres, I couldn't brake without the brake pad skipping and squealing. Made it hard to stop.

Why? If you have bearings from the 1980s, I can see why. They weren't sealed at all. But most modern bearings are well sealed against dirt, dust and water. This looks at using a pressure washer on bicycles and their conclusions align fairly well with my experience of using car washes for cleaning bikes for decades. It won't hurt them.