# pressure washer or hand wash?



## bainy16 (27 Feb 2013)

as the title state do you wash off the muck with pressure washer or good old fashioned bucket and soupy water?


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## Herr-B (27 Feb 2013)

I'm supposed to wash it?


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## Mr Haematocrit (27 Feb 2013)

Never ever ever pressure wash a bike, it washes the grease from the bearings


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## Mallory (27 Feb 2013)

^^^^^ wot he said

Just use some muc off spray and a brush/sponge. Even be careful using muc off around your headset as if you do not rinse properly all the grease will disperse


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## G3CWI (27 Feb 2013)

bainy16 said:


> good old fashioned bucket and soupy water?


 
Soupy water sounds like a bad idea.


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## ColinJ (27 Feb 2013)

I use a compromise - a 5 litre manually pumped garden spray. I never spray directly into bearings, but the pressure is much lower anyway. It works well and is convenient for me because I don't have a water outlet near where I wash my bikes.


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## bainy16 (27 Feb 2013)

looks like the pressure washer is out of the question looks like elbow grease then was just thinking of a little time saying way as i hate hand washing the bike lol .......may be a business opportunity here for a hand bike wash just like the car ones .....anybody fancy washing it for a fiver


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## Lee_M (27 Feb 2013)

i use a pressure washer, always have

maybe I 'm a better aim than everyone else


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## Boris Bajic (27 Feb 2013)

I used to work for a UN agency that was a bit weird about having clean vehicles. They were white (of course) and we had guys in the garage who pressure-washed* them constantly at the first sign of settling dust or splatter marks. That put me off pressure washers for life.

Bucket of warm water, a sponge, a rag and a brush. Pure heaven.

ven for MTBs or trail bikes, a good dousing with a hose at low pressure will ease the most concrete-like mud.

Also, you get to see developing faults if you're running a cloth or a sponge over a bike, motorcycle or car.

I'm not in the_ 'it screws your bearings'_ school, because I think you can be careful with aim. I just think it's another piece of technology that we don't need and which has very little effect in terms of making an already fairly easy job less unpleasant.

_* We lost three Karcher machines in a few months. A year or two later I was back with a different employer and one of our former mechanics had opened a Car Wash in the next town. _


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## Peteaud (27 Feb 2013)

Wash mit, large dodo bucket of warm water, car shampoo. gently rinse via hose, dry off, Zainno Z8, done.


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## addictfreak (27 Feb 2013)

Lee_M said:


> i use a pressure washer, always have
> 
> maybe I 'm a better aim than everyone else



A I said in a similar thread earlier today, I have also always used a pressure washer on my MTB and Road Bikes and its never caused me any issues whatsoever.


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## ianrauk (27 Feb 2013)

never use pressure water for reason's given above.


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## Shut Up Legs (27 Feb 2013)

G3CWI said:


> Soupy water sounds like a bad idea.


 I prefer to drink soup, not use it to wash my bikes .


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## bainy16 (27 Feb 2013)

SOAPY not soupy water sorry for the typo lol


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## The Brewer (27 Feb 2013)

Never had any problems with a pressure washer, I back up when doing around bearings and movable parts, you don't have to be really close. It also helps to let the detergent have time to work before washing off


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## fossyant (28 Feb 2013)

If the MTB is covered in heavy mud, I'll rinse the stuff off with a hose from tyres and frame, but not near bearings (hubs, BB, headset). Then hand wash. If chain is caked, then I'll hose the chain away from the hub, then re-lube.

Pressure washers are way too powerful.


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## threebikesmcginty (28 Feb 2013)

Post ride simply wheel your bike back into the shed/garage/front room until next required.


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## Gary E (28 Feb 2013)

Pressure washing is for tractors not for anything you want to keep looking good


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## Arsen Gere (28 Feb 2013)

Pressure washers can remove the decals from wheels and bikes.


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## akb (28 Feb 2013)

MTB - Hose pipe to get the mud off and then a wet rag/ Muc Off to remove stubborn dirt. Then a dry rag to dry and buff.

With the Commuter - Rag and Muc off / and then dry rag to dry and buff.


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## screenman (28 Feb 2013)

So AG please explain how a pressure washer used properly will strip the decals off?

Do you lot never take your bikes out in the rain? same as using a jet washer just the rain lasts longer and is less controllable.

TFR and jet wash is the way for me and always has been, well since they were invented that is.


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## Deleted member 23692 (28 Feb 2013)

If I'm out on my MTB and it gets caked in crud I'll stop at the garage on the way home and pressure wash it. I've never had a problem and used correctly I very much doubt I ever will.

It's all in the aim and the distance


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## redcard (28 Feb 2013)

I don't get the whole removing grease thing either. It'll be pretty hard to get a direct hit, and even then you'd probably have to be firing water continuously at the exact spot.


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## 400bhp (28 Feb 2013)

screenman said:


> Do you lot never take your bikes out in the rain? *same as using a jet washer just the rain lasts longer and is less controllable.*


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## Moodyman (28 Feb 2013)

Pressure washers are sh1t.

I see folk using them on their driveways without thinking what it does to the cement in between the flags / bricks.


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## guitarpete247 (28 Feb 2013)

I used to work (as a student, in the summer hols) at a food factory. I had to use a pressure washer and it would strip hammerite off equipment.


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## TheDoctor (28 Feb 2013)

screenman said:


> So AG please explain how a pressure washer used properly will strip the decals off?
> 
> Do you lot never take your bikes out in the rain? same as using a jet washer just the rain lasts longer and is less controllable.
> 
> TFR and jet wash is the way for me and always has been, well since they were invented that is.


Rain doesn't normally come in at 100 bar.
The word 'pressure' is the crucial one here. A decent pressure washer will take paint off, never mind decals. Get the spray at an angle on an edge of a decal, and it'll just peel off. Well, fly off really.


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## The Brewer (1 Mar 2013)

It's tool, use it with respect and care. 
Sounds like some people are riding around on bikes made of cheese


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## screenman (1 Mar 2013)

To all you scare mongers, how much pressure hitting the bike when the pressure washer is held 3foot from the bike? or 5 foot.

As I said earlier it is the tool holding the tool.


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## GrumpyGregry (1 Mar 2013)

If my bikes were made of glass and eggshells and their bearings were lubed with extra virgin olive oil, and I was a cack-handed numpty with the mechanical sympathy of the average house brick, I'd steer well clear of pressure washers.

But they're not and I'm not. So I've been using one for donkeys. In that time one decal, SRAM X0 on a rear mech since you ask, and one bike shop label, Rayments of Brighton, has come off. Other than that no ill effects.


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## Boris Bajic (1 Mar 2013)

I despise decals.

Bicycles these days look like footballer's t-shirts, with names and brands emblazoned on every surface.

This new-fangled zest for making everything a brand is hateful and wicked and wrong and against the word of God, Allah and several other deities known to me personally.

If it would guarantee the removal of decals from every surface, I would use a pressure washer daily.

Not on my own bicycle, of course... Proper bicycles are made of steel and do not have graffiti on them.


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## DWiggy (1 Mar 2013)

I wet the bike down with a garden hose, cover in muck off leave for 5-10mins then agitate the stubborn dirt with a sponge, rinse off with the hose! works every time!


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## fatalbert (1 Mar 2013)

It'd be great if there was a bike wash shop, and someone could do it for you.


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## rockyraccoon (1 Mar 2013)

Pressure washer..

That's what the professionals do!


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## screenman (2 Mar 2013)

No wonder they did not win the Tour last year, they were riding without any grease in the bearings. Even worse no stickers


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## thegravestoneman (2 Mar 2013)

I once used the industrial washer at our bakery meant for cleaning the racks, it melted the mud guards but the bike looked great no bearing or sticker problems after. Our black forest gateaux did taste a bit erm? earthy that year


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## raleighnut (29 Jun 2015)

This may be an old thread resurrected but for my tuppence any decent Karcher pressure washer comes with 2 'lances', one is a 'take no prisoners' full on jet that'll strip paint and the other is an adjustable nozzle version that can be controlled by turning the restriction down to allow more flow at less pressure.


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## Jimidh (29 Jun 2015)

My 12 year old son washes my bikes for pocket money - us proper riders get the hired help to do the dirty jobs .


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## Scotchlovingcylist (29 Jun 2015)

If the wife's in - hosepipe and sponge to get the main off
If the wife's out - bathtub and shower head


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## Gravity Aided (30 Jun 2015)

Bucket, auto soap, and sponge, and some wax thereafter if necessary. But most of my bikes are quite old.


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## markharry66 (30 Jun 2015)

Never on the chain but wd40 works wonders with rag. Simple easy and cleans the muck off.


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