on6702 wrote: ↑13 May 2021, 12:07pm
Ok, a confession first..... given its commuting activities all year round my bike gets pretty filthy despite having mudguards and a long chain-ring guard. I know that I should clean it more often but given the mess and inconvenience, it's not happening as often as it should !
At present I don't have any specific tools (although I do have a repair stand) and it's a case of old toothbrushes, rags and hot soapy water and a bit of white spirit or bio degreaser. The thing I struggle with most is cleaning the drive train as it's such a fiddle. Hence, I'm trying to find ways of making it a bit easier and quicker and thought I'd tap into the collective wisdom of the forum.
Present approach: wait until I can't bear it any longer and then remove chain (via a quick link) and place it an old plastic milk bottle with a little bit of white spirit or degreaser and shake vigorously, then dry and relubricate. Clean up cassette, chain rings and FD and RD with a tooth brush and degreaser or soapy water.
Questions for forum :
1) any these clamp on plastic chain cleaner contraptions with rotating brushes any good i.e. are they quick, effective and convenient or are they a waste of money ?
2) what's the verdict on ultrasonic cleaners? If they work amazingly well for chains and cassettes I might consider one given the lack of mess but I'm a bit doubtful about their abilities and of course everything has to get taken off the bike and they are quite expensive.
3) any convenient tricks that people have discovered for cleaning ?
Thanks in advance
Oliver
The most time efficient way is to only clean your bike once a year, this will l save you countless hours over say cleaning it once a week and have the,added benifit of making it less stealable, theives presented with the requirment tO clean and polish your bike before listing it on gum tree will look else where .
This is my preferred method of both time saving and theft proofing,
If preserving the finish of your bike is a consideration, then coat all but the cross bar seat and bar ends in wax oil, though slightly more trouble to start of with, it has the added benifit that you dont have to clean it all till just before you sell it, at which point it will be immaculate
If for some reason you want your bike to look smart, then use car wax on it, a few coats of good wax with protect it from scratching and mean the dirt falls off with only a modest effort
.for all cleaning I use a,sugar soap spray, ready to mix it cost about 2 p per litre in use, if its particularly grubby, I out a,squirt of bleach in it