How obsessive are you....about cleaning your bike?

Mine still is covered in mud from the south downs RB ride, nearly a month now and every so often when my road bike isnt up to much and i commute on it, i'll knock a bit more mud off it.


When my new tyres come, ill give it a strip down and a good clean/regrease and such.
 
i think i cleaned mine once... i used to clean once a week. sunday morning was the ride, then sunday afternoon was a complete stripdown and rebuild.
These days the mountain bike gets cleaned when it becomes too heavy to ride, and the road bike... well i think its done 2000 miles since the last clean. Might explain why the front mech seized and I had to ride up a big hill on the big chainring.
 
I'm pretty obsessive, usually hose down right away while the mud is wet then spend the next couple of days fussing about the nooks and crannies with polish and a cloth :roll: , impossible to keep a commuter decent in this weather though.
If a bike gets really dirty i usually strip it and re grease the cables etc, i dont enjoy a ride if something is not right.
 
If it's just a short blast it gets hosed off, a good wipe down and re lube. After a longer run it's bare frame strip down, re grease and polish I'm affraid. Its just good practice and another reason that in 20 years of MTB I have never had a componant fail out on the trail (apart from the odd snapped chain).
 
I'm with Si on this one, partly just for the fun as I enjoy building bikes up as much (if not more than riding the things) and partly to keep everything running smooth (added to which there is nothing quite like the smell of GT85 and Rohloff chain lube to bring back memories of life in the bike shop
 
Which ever bike i use on its bi-annual mud outing gets treated to a luxury power wash on its return, bounced it on its back wheel to shake the drops off then a quick blast over with bike perfume (GT85) and that's it job done for another year.

The only bike that gets caressed regularly is the GT SS as that's my runabout ride and flavour of the month at the moment.

Incidentally out of sheer boredom i washed/serviced my fsr the other day and roughly worked out it was 4 years ago since i last used it :shock: :(
 
i used to keep my bmx immaculate to the point where id carry a cloth to polish my hubs and rims mid ride :LOL:

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compare my rear to my mates front at a day at the trails :LOL:

another mate didnt even worry about having a working bike let alone a clean one . his bike was stolen and we all eventually forgot about it and called it a loss , until one day someone spotted it in the harbour at low tide . now most people would strip it down assess the damage and keep what wasnt wrecked , but not him he just carried on riding it once it dried out :LOL:

i gave him a spare frame i had in the end as i wanted to beat that one into the ground , while taking his bottom bracket out i found a fistfull of sand :? :LOL:
 
Just a hose down and a wash with a brush and soapy water as soon as I get back from a ride. It's much easier to clean when the mud and sheep shit is still wet.
Then WD40 on the chain to de-water it, wipe off and relube.
Maybe a squirt of WD40 round the shifters too.

That's about it on a day-to-day basis.
 
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