Post spin maintenance

a148pro

I have a half decent road bike now and would like to treat it right

What should I be doing after a spin? Washing it down? Cleaning the chain? Cleaning brake pads, rims? Will wetting it do more damage than good?

If cleaning chain, do we mean just rubbing a cloth over it or degreasing and re lubing? I assume not the latter every ride?

This time of year or in general?

mirrormatrix

If you give it a run over with some baby wipes every week or so and relube the chain that should be plenty. I normally wash it with hot water every few weeks as well to give it a deeper clean. I find if you use really hot water there is rarely a need for degreaser.

Concentrate on the drivetrain and brake pads/rims. You'd be amazed how quickly pads wear down once they've a bit of grit on them. Main thing to avoid is power hosing it down in any way. Doing that runs the risk of taking the grease out of key components (e.g. BB).

Everyone is different though. Some people I know wash their good bike after every ride. My dad has an old steel commuter that I would say hasn't been cleaned in over 5 years and it's still running fine. It also depends on whether you are running full mudguards or not.

Luxman

As above, keep the drive chain clean and shiny. Dry summer spins I tend to lube to keep it smooth and full degrease every 3 weeks. In winter that goes to once a week. If I don't have time to wash the bike fully, the drive chain gets baby wipe treatment to at least get the grime off it.

circler

Baby/wet wipes are an environmental disaster

07Lapierre

https://youtu.be/QvzVRxlIUL0

magicbastarder

it's an 'it depends' answer.
if it's been a dry cycle, normal routine applies. wipe down and re-lube the chain every fortnight or so (but again, a fortnight can be a long time if you're only going out once a week).
your chain can pick up a lot of crud if you're cycling in the wet on dirty roads, and that's easier to spot with the effect on how dirty the bike is in general, but (in my experience) the nasty tricksy one is the one where you've been out for a spin on a frosty morning, and you put the bike away dry, but you've been cycling on salyed/gritted roads, which will get into your chain, and into your gear cables, and make the bike sound like a rusty lawnmower.

topper75

Loads of useful vids out there. Here is one for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8T2TzQ0ChM

a148pro

07Lapierre wrote: »

https://youtu.be/QvzVRxlIUL0

LOL - it was that exact video that made me wonder should I be washing the bike and chain every spin

topper75 wrote: »

Loads of useful vids out there. Here is one for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8T2TzQ0ChM

This is good thanks

Seems from this article that I should degrease and relube after every wet spin. TBH I find that remarkable, but definitely think at least every 3 spins in Winter:-

https://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/post-ride-cleaning-tips-50905/

FWIW my LBS though I was mad lubing it that regularly

Three little questions:-

1. Do I not need to worry about fibres coming off wipe / cloth onto the chain if I'm not fully degreasing it (chain cleaner uses brushes so not an issue until I'm rubbing off excess lube?

2. I assume the above posters mean clean / lube it every week when you've been cycling and there's no need to be lubing it if not riding it, I will ride fairly rarely in Winter. The only reason I ask is because of room temp variants as per below

3. If storing bike inside should I be concerned about room temperature, radiator coming on and off? Reason I ask is a chap in shop told me his cotton / graphene tyres frayed during Winter when he wasn't riding it, he concluded it was the heat coming on and off each day. (this is why I'm wondering if heat on and off might dry off lube)

(clearly over thinking things)

CramCycle

Jaysus, I must be a neglectful owner. I ride mine daily and wouldn't do it weekly. Monthly if I remember or whenever a big event is coming up.

magicbastarder

generally, i often play it (literally) by ear. if it sounds chatty, i'll act on it.
as mentioned above, i once put the bike away after a spin on a frosty morning, took it out about ten days later for another spin and it sounded like a bag of spanners in a washing machine. ended up changing the cables, the salt had done so much (though to be fair, it was probablly long past time i replaced them anyway).

fat bloke

I'm not a washer. But I've been very good with my TCR winter/do it all bike and it really pays off. Dry weather riding you can be as lazy as you like, but once the wintery spins start then I'll spend 15- 20 minutes on a decent bucket of suds and degrease wash. -Dry it off as best I can, and then go all around the bike with a ptfe spray - frame, cables, levers, and and all nuts and bolts or mechanical bits and pieces. The effect is multi-fold. The bike is positively gleaming afterwards, it displaces any water, keeps corrosion at bay, and when the bike gets dirty again it cleans off more easily.

Nothing better than taking a nice clean shiny bike out of the shed of a winter morning for a spin.

I bought that TCR second hand and rode it non-stop for 12 months. Got a new frame there last month and got the bits all swopped over, and a mate of mine during the week admiring the bike couldn't believe that the brake calipers were 2 years old and 10,000+ km on em. They look like new.

ExoPolitic

As a cycle technician, I'd tell you the cleaner you keep it the better. Dirt ruins components a lot faster than just plain old wear and tear...

youtheman

I was out this weekend and my winter bike was covered in 5hite, despite me having mudguards fitted. I then waited for the muck to dry, and got 90% of it off with a soft nylon brush. Then I managed to clean the complete bike with just 4 babywipes (not including the drivetrain, still have to do this).

vargoo

When I was a wee lad I had a bike for ooooh 15 years, it had moon miles on it, it got a new tyre every now and then, not like the crap tyres you get now that last a year and cost the same as a car tyre. New pedal after it went sideways down the road on mile 12 of a "no hands" into town. And it never got a wash unless it was so bad I was getting dirty just getting up on it.

Now we're surprised brake calipers look good after 2 years, where did it all go wrong.

Edit: And baby wipes should be banned along with anti bacterial everything (except for inside a hospital and maybe theirs data out there that shows not even in there) but that's for another day.