Wash and Lube

Its a good idea to get into a habit of cleaning your bike after every ride. Dirt, grime and grit is the one thing that wears away your bike the most, especially around the transmission and gear area. Bearings are venerable too.

Do not regularly use powered jetspray hoses to clean your bike. Doing so will force water into wheel and suspension bearings, requiring a comprehensive strip down to regrease the bearings.

Warm water and a sponge or bicycle specific brushes (from the likes of Muc-off) are perfectly adequate for removing the mud.

Another good idea is to use a pressurised garden sprayer - useful to put into the boot of the car to clean the mud off the bike while it is still wet. The water spray from this is not powerful enough to cause water to enter any bearings, but good enough to rinse mud off the bike. In addition to this, special bike cleaners are available, such as ‘X-Lite’s Muc-Off’. Simply spray bike cleaner over the dirt, leave for 30 seconds, then rinse off, although special care should be taken to ensure this is not allowed to enter any greased areas such as suspension and bearings.

‘Muc-Off’ and similar companies also produce a bike spray aerosol; a water dispersant that removes water from venerable areas such as gear mechs and leaves a non-tacky protective layer. Use this after washing your bike.

Muc-off has to be our favourite brand of cleaning products, they do a range of specific cleaning brushes, cleaning fluids and degreasers.

Care and attention wants to go to any moving part of your bike during cleaning. Drivetrain, brakes and headsets are top priorities to make sure they are clean and kept running at 100%

Special attention should also be paid to the following areas:

CHAIN

DISC BRAKE ROTORS

SUSPENSION

See our tips on the left hand side of this page

Our recommended cleaning step by step guide:

1. Start by giving the bike a good wash and rinse with some hot soapy water to remove the bulk of the mud and grime.

2. Using some bike specific cleaning brushes make sure you clean all dirt and grime away from all the moving parts, especially the Drivetrain components.

3. Rinse the bike with water

4. Now spray the bike with a bike cleaning product such as Muc-Off. Leave this for the recommended couple of minutes before rinsing off. Whilst your waiting once again using brushes make sure the Drivetrain, brakes, headset area, forks, chain and so on are clean and free of dirt and grime. The cleaning fluid will help get rid of any dirt stuck in components or hidden from sight. Rinse Muc-off away

5. You should now be left with a gleaming clean bike. Next step is to use a water dispersant spray in any area that is harmed by trapped water. Main places to spray are suspension, disc callipers (only if the water dispersant fluid is disc brake friendly), the chain, all the Drivetrain especially bottom bracket and mechs, the headset area, hubs, and bar controls. The bike sprays are normally designed to be friendly to all parts so there's nothing stopping you spray the whole bike (check the spray small print first). The bike sprays leave a protective coating too.

6. Once the bike is dry use a PFT spray, from the likes of Finish line to lube all moving parts again including SPD pedals, bottom bracket, mechs and so on.

7. Make sure the chain is clean. Remove and degrease if necessary. Once finished use a good quality chain lube to not only lube but to protect the chain and other drivetrain components.

8. Finished. Now store the bike somewhere dry ready for your next ride. If you need to do a full strip down and service of the bike make sure its clean and dry before you start disassembling your bike.