How to Keep Your Bike Clean

Jim’s Tech Talk

By Jim Langley

Recently I created two videos that are related. One is on how to wash your bike and keep it clean (today’s Tech Talk topic) and the other one covers some new tools that I ordered from Park Tool to upgrade my workshop (I learned about them after attending the Sea Otter Classic back in April and decided I had to have them).

One of these new Park Tool must-haves (in my opinion) is their new BCB-5 Professional Bike Cleaning Brush Set (4 brushes and a sponge). The thing that makes this cleaning kit unique is that the bristles on three of the brushes are made of tampico.

I have never heard of tampico so I asked my friend John K at Park about it. He explained that tampico is a grease-resistant natural fiber that holds soap and water well and is an excellent choice for bike cleaning brushes.

In the description on their website they go into a little more detail as follows “tampico is a natural fiber derived from the agave plant that’s extremely durable, resists chemicals, and holds moisture well, making it an ideal material for cleaning brushes.” From using the brushes I can tell you that it does these things quite well – as you’ll see in the bike wash video.

Basically I like brushes because I find them faster and more efficient. They come in different sizes for getting in between things and they hold enough water and soap to clean well. Also, if a bike has dirt or dried mud on it and you wipe it with rags or a sponge, you will probably make small scratches on paint and bare metal.

Brushes are flexible and aren’t as likely to press any dirt or mud into the surface hard enough to mark the bike. Instead they poke or sweep which is a gentler way to clean than pressing or squeezing or scrubbing.

Just in case you’re wondering what value the sponge adds, it’s ideal for holding water and soap which lets you squeeze it to keep applying more suds to the bike as you work with the brushes.

Many bike rides ago I spent a fun few days interviewing (and riding with) pro race mechanic and wheelsmith Steve Gravenites https://www.gravywheels.com/ whose nickname is “Gravy.” He said something that made so much sense that I still remember it.

I asked him about cleaning bikes and he said, “Jim, cleaning your bike is like cleaning your bathroom. If you let it go for too long it’s truly a nasty job.”

His point and what I recommend for bike cleaning is to clean your bicycle regularly. What’s regularly? It depends on how much you ride and where you ride, what weather you ride in and even things like what lubes you use on your bike. Wax-based chain lubes, for example, tend to keep a bike cleaner than oil-based ones.

It’s not a difficult thing to figure out though. The basic rule is that if your bike is becoming a nasty filthy mess with dirt and mud, stuck-on energy drink, dried worms, caked grime on the chain, cassette and chainrings, then you definitely need to clean it more often.

Ideally you’ll clean it before it gets too bad. For some riders that might be after every ride where it’s obvious that the bike became dirty. Or you might decide you don’t want to clean it that frequently. In that case you might choose to clean it after every few rides at which point you’d get it nice and clean BEFORE it gets so bad it’s a big job cleaning it.

The best way to make it easy to clean a bike frequently like this is to have a kit. I like to use a bucket and in it I keep my cleaning kit which includes: brush kit, sponge (I don’t use it that much but it’s nice for thing like the handlebars, stem and saddle), some absorbent rags for drying and disposable rags for cleaning the greasy parts (chain, chainrings, derailleur pulleys).

I use a hose for wetting and rinsing the bike. If you don’t have one you can use anything that lets you do those things such as a spray bottle, a water bottle off the bike, the bucket and so on.

I also use a repair stand to hold the bike off the ground. This makes it easier to see what you’re doing and allows turning the wheels and drivetrain parts which makes it much more efficient to clean them.

Also a repair stand holds the bike vertically and upright, which is how you want it. Because you’re going to drip (do not use high pressure water) water from above on the bike. That way you won’t risk getting water inside the components that have grease inside, the hubs, bottom bracket and pedals. The headset has grease inside and the water will flood it from the side. Luckily headsets are pretty well sealed and since you’re dribbling the water not spraying it, it’ll be okay.

I do not remove the wheels. You can if you want. But, if you’re cleaning a bike regularly you shouldn’t need to because there shouldn’t be too much hard to clean crud between anything since you’ve been keeping after it each time you scrub-a-dub-dubbed your rig.

Note that the ease of taking wheels off and putting them back depends on how they’re attached. By far the easiest wheels to remove and reinstall are quick-release wheels. Thru-axle wheels can be easy to remove too, but if you’re been watching any pro racing and have seen the struggles even pro wrenches sometimes have with them, you’ll know that with some types it can be challenging to get the wheels off and on some it can be challenging to put them back on too.

Then there are bolt-on wheels, which can be even more difficult to take off and put back than thru-axle wheels. So feel free to remove your wheels but it’s not usually needed if you clean your bike often.

In this video I show my procedure for bike washing. You can do a keep-it-clean wash like this much faster than in the video and especially if your bike is already cleaner than mine because you didn’t let it go so long.

Please share your bike washing favorite products, tools, procedure and tips in the comments. In the video I mention my riding buddy who had a plumber install a hot water hose. It’s outside close to where he stores his bike cleaning bucket with supplies. Since he has ready hot water he can wash his bikes super fast and his always look like new.

Drivetrain and especially chain cleaning are among the most discussed and debated topics in all of cycling and always have been. In the video I show a simple wipe-it-clean approach. If that doesn’t satisfy your chain’s needs, a few years ago we did a fairly exhaustive series on the subject that should do the trick

Part 1 is here: https://www.roadbikerider.com/basic-obsessive-chain-care/

Part 2 https://www.roadbikerider.com/bicycle-chain-lube-reader-tips/

Part 3 https://www.roadbikerider.com/more-top-chain-care-tips/

Last but not least, in this video I show Park’s new cleaning kit in more detail and the other tools I got and am now using in my shop.

Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.

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