Cycling Reviews

Cleaning your bike is not just about appearances. It’s about keeping your bike in good working order. Bike mechanics the world over claim that most bike repairs are the result of poor maintenance. And on a bike, maintenance begins with keeping it clean.

Even if you’re not a mountain biker, sludging through kilometers of mud, the dirt and grime of an ordinary city street can easily wear your bike down. Abrasive residue gets on your tires, then works its way into your drive train and cables as you ride. The longer it stays on your bike, the more trouble it can cause for any moving parts.

Future nightmare scenarios are easily avoided by just washing off the bike. So what are you waiting for? Plan on a minimum of 10 minutes cleaning for every 2 hours on the bike.

To do the job right, you need about an hour to clean it and fully lubricate the chain. But you can save that work for once every week or so, depending on where and how often you ride.

What You Need:
Cleaning liquid
Water-dispersing lube
Spray degreaser
Brush-on degreaser
Brushes: scrub brush, old toothbrush
Sponges: regular sponge, old sponge for the chain
Bucket
Chamois

In a perfect world, you’ll have a work stand too. It makes it easier to remove the wheels before you do the more serious weekly wash. When you clean the bike, you do want to keep it upright. But if you don’t have a work stand, just lean it securely against a post or wall.

10 Steps in 10 Minutes
1. Fill the bucket halfway with water. Squirt in plenty of cleaning liquid.
2. Use the regular sponge to suds up the whole bike, then let it soak.
3. Wash the whole bike down again with the soapy sponge to get off most of the dirt.
4. Take the toothbrush to it, cleaning out all the tight places.
5. Use the degreaser on the parts that don’t wash clean with the suds.
6. Clean the chain with the degreaser, old sponge and scrub brush.
7. Fill the bucket with clean, warm water and rinse off the bike.
8. Dry the bike thoroughly with the chamois.
9. Use the spray lube on the gears, headset and hubs.
10. Use the brush-on lube on the chain.

What NOT To Do:
DO NOT wash your bike in the sun. The sun will dry it the soap on, leaving you with a streaked finish.
DO NOT use high-pressure sprayers on the bike. The bearings are sealed, but they’re not waterproof. Protect them. Don’t even use high pressure spray from your hose.

In the Tour de France, all team bikes are washed – the long way – every single day. And it’s not just too look good on the cameras. It’s so important that it’s the first thing the mechanics do after a race. Scott Parr, a former team mechanic for Motorola, used to say that a pro mechanic was really a “glorified bike washer.” He was kidding. And not.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.