How To Clean Your Bike – OLD

Steps

1. Rinse off heavy mud and loose debris - With a garden hose (not pressure washer), rinse the mud and other loose debris off the bike.
2. Apply bike cleaner and leave for directed time - Spray on your chosen bike cleaner as directed in the guidelines and leave to break down the grease. This can be anything from two minutes to ten.
3. Agitate tough grime with brushes - With a specific, CLEAN brush, agitate the areas of built up dirt on the bike. Sometimes stickier mud will need to be manually moved in this way as water and cleaner alone won’t shift it.
4. Degrease chain and wipe clean - This step is really important, but I bet most people miss it out? When you lube’d your chain last time, the oily part that stops the metal from rubbing also traps dirt. That’s why you get that horrible black residue if it’s not been cleaned in a while. If you have you do it regularly, you will be able to get away with applying chain cleaner and re-lub’ing. If your drive train looks black and won’t clean, it might be an option to remove it and let it soak in de-greaser or let your local bike shop do it for you. When complete, again rinse the chain with fresh water.
5. Apply bike lube to moving parts - Warning – only lube your chain with a bike lube. It’s not a sales pitch, WD40 and GT85 etc are not designed to stick to your chain and you'll need to use a thicker form of oil. All specific bike lubes are designed to stay on your chain – PTFE sprays are designed to repel water.
6. Apply bike spray to add shine and prevent mud sticking  - Warning – if you apply a PTFE spray to a braking surface, it will stop your brakes working! So cover them before you apply the spray. Apply product to the frame and leave for a few minutes. Gently wipe off with a cloth or paper and you’ll be left with a shiny finish that makes your bike look like new - but better still, this layer will repel further mud from sticking to the bike.