Bike Wash!

[l4dva]

Washed my bike for the first time today! Its hard work! lol

The bike itself wasn't very dirty ive only done about 130 miles on it so far. Used the car shampoo and hose. That was prity straight forward.

The chain/gears were very dirty. Hose them down, then I used the muc-off degreaser that the bike shop sold me, think this was a bad idea though. As soon as I sprayed it on the gears where the pedals are I saw a white substance come from the screws holding the hole thing together, im guessing this was grease? So I used hot water from a kettle, as this was wat the guy in the shop said to do, to remove all the degreaser. Made sure the whole chain and all gears etc were completely de-greaser free, well as de-grease free as I could get them and then re-lubed. They look a lot cleaner now! But I think from now on I will use the miclke method!!

Should I open up all the nuts and re-grease them? and should a use a spray lube for the cassets and the gear mechs? And what kind is best, GT85 any good?

Also as scraped one of the forks on a small wall in my garden, is it safe to use a bit of T-cut to buff the scratch out??

 

[Black Sheep]

T-cutting the scratch should be ok provided its not carbon i guess.

water under pressure is a bad plan on a bike, as you may have found spraying it can force water into places it normally doesn't go

dribbleing it over the bike is fine as this is about the same as rain, taking the gears etc off by the pedals requires special tools to get in so i'd not bother doing it yourself but it could well have been grease.

best way of washing a bike (i'm a mountain biker mainly so have to deal with mud) is poke any large amounts of muck away with a wooden kabab skewer or similar and then get in with some warm soapy water and a cassette cleaning brush all over the gears etc then a spritz of muck off and then warm soapy water again before wiping down the frame with a cloth


last time the mountain bike got washed? about 5 years ago - some people give up after a while since it drops off when its dried just by riding down some steps

 

[l4dva]

Hi,

I didn't use a great deal of pressure on the hose, just sprinkled some waster over it really so that shouldn't have been a problem.

What's your stance on sprayable lube? I no WD40 is a big no, what else is there that can be sprayed?

 

[Black Sheep]

a bit of WD40 after washing it on the sprockets and chain to get water out of the joints is a good idea, its intended to disperse water, Water Dispersant 40(number of tries to get the formula correct apparently)

some people prefer GT85, not sure if thats more of a lube or not

personally i don't spray lube onto my bikes, just a couple of drops of finishline wet lube on the mountain bike and dry lube onto the road bike and run it through each gear it has to spread it about

keep all the above away from disk brakes (if you have them) and wipe the rim if you get any on there as it'll affect breaking

 

[l4dva]

ok fair enough, maybe im just over complicating things then. i've applied the chain lube and a few drops around the gear mechs so im guessing that should do the trick.

 

[ianrauk]

I spend over an hour cleaning each of my bikes.

Up on the stand.
Both Wheels off
Chain off
Rear Cassette off,
(Pedals and cranks off if really mucky)
I use a bucket of water with a tiny amount of washing up liquid and a lot of elbow grease and a good thin cleaning brush to get in all the nooks and crannies. Rinse down with water from watering can, not hose.
Rag down, polish with mr sheen.
For the wheels, wash down, including tyres, rag down (checking tyres for any foreign objects. Buff up rims, hubs and spokes with dry cloth.
(Not forgetting to take out QR's levers clean and apply small amount of grease)
On to the cassette and cranks, into a bowl of white spirit and scrub away. Shake off, rinse with slightly soapy water, rinse with clean water. Make sure they are dry, apply small amount of wd40 and wipe off.
Chain. White spirit bowl again, rinse, dry and apply small amount of wd40 & wipe off.
Put all back together. And relube the chain using the mickle method. Making sure wet lube penetrates in either side of the link of the chain.
Then out with the polish cloth again, get in all the nooks and crannies. Not forgetting the gear and brake cables.

Result, one clean bike (or 2), one satisfied bike owner & one disbelieving wife at how long I spend cleaning them.