Just doing a quick wash after a ride
How often should I wash my mountain bike?
Ideally, you should do a quick clean and re-lube after every hard ride or two. A more in-depth wash is necessary if you ride through rain or mud.
Keeping your MTB clean (particularly drivetrain) is the most important preventative maintenance you can perform for your mountain bike.
Clean your mountain bike (after every hard ride or two)
Dry it off (thoroughly)
Then lubricate the chain (properly)
If you don’t want to wash your bike that frequently, at least clean your chain after every ride.
1) Grasp your chain with a rag
2) Turn the crank backward for at least 30 seconds
3) Lubricate chain
4) With clean rag repeat steps 1 & 2 to get off excess lube
A more in-depth cleaning is needed after riding through river crossings
The Importance of a clean mountain bike
“The best thing you can do to lengthen the life of your drivetrain is to keep it clean. Nothing wears out parts faster on a bike than dirt. Dirt and road grime gets in between the chain and sprockets and grinds away at both in a vicious circle. Taking the time to clean your bike not only prolongs its life, but also makes your bike shift better and quieter. ”
Routine washing of your bike will significantly prolong ALL the components. Especially, the parts of your drivetrain, such as:
Cogs
Chainring
Chain
Derailleur(s)
Since your drivetrain is exposed to all the elements, it needs frequent cleanings.
How to do a quick mtb wash
There are many different philosophies on this seemingly simple task. Below I have outlined a quick cleaning routine that takes less than 10 minutes and doesn’t require a bike repair-stand. Also, if you clean your drivetrain regularly, you can mostly avoid having to use solvents.
1) Hose your bike down
Hosing bike down after a ride
If you clean your bike regularly, all you need is:
Soap
Water
Sponges
Brushes
“Wet your bicycle with the hose, then work with the brush from the top down using plenty of soapy water. Rinse the soap off and wipe it down”
Step one: Hose your bike down
It’s super important to AVOID using high-pressure washers, such as you find at the car wash or other industrial sprayers
If you use a high pressure nozzle, do not point it at the bike from the side as it can blow the bearing seals inward
High-pressure washes can push water past seals in your hubs, bottom bracket (BB), pivot/shock seals, and headset
For a quick wash, you can leave the wheels on. Also, if you don’t have a hose, you can use a water bottle.
2) Scrub entire bike & wheels with hot, soapy water
Scrub a dub-dub
Wash with a big sponge for gentle frame cleaning and easy to reach places
Use a stiff nylon-bristle brush for tough and hard to reach places
Leave the chain, cogs, chainrings, and derailleurs for last and use a separate brush
Don’t forget to wash the tires
Can clean disc rotors with rubbing alcohol
With this quick wash, I don’t recommend using a degreaser. If you wash your bike frequently, a degreaser is not necessary and can lead to “over-cleaning” your drivetrain.
3) Rinse your Mountain bike
“Jet washers have certainly sped up the process, but they are noisy and wasteful and eventually break down. Pro teams use them for speed, but amateurs shouldn’t”
You can hose off your bike or wipe it down with a wet rag. Just remember not to use too powerful of a sprayer.
Once again, avoid getting water into the bearings of the bottom bracket, headset, or hubs.
What if I don’t have a hose?
You can fill up a water bottle and spray onto the bike, working from the top downwards. The soap and scrubbing are what loosens the dirt, and a light rinse will remove the rest of the grime, and soapy residue.
“Basically, a gentle rain ”
4) Dry off the bike
Using leaf blower to blow my bike dry
You can use an air compressor, leaf blower, or towel.
If not, drop your mountain bike a few times from a couple of feet as this will knock off excess water.
Also, wrap a clean towel around the chain and spin the crank in reverse for at least 15 seconds. This will dry the chain, which you want before applying lubricant.
5) Apply lube to the chain
Anytime you clean your mountain bike, you must apply lube to the chain, as the washing process will remove some of the lube.
“It is not necessary to have a heavy coating of lubricant on the outside of the chain or on the teeth of your chainrings and cogs. Rather, it’s the inner surfaces of the chain where wear takes place - the interfaces of the pins, plates, and rollers. ”
Wiping off excess chain lube
The largest factor causing a dirty drivetrain is too much lubricant. Excess lube on the outside of the chain will transfer to the cogs and chainring, which makes them “dirt magnets.”
After you have lubed your chain, make sure to spend at least 15 seconds wiping off the excess lubricant. You can’t wipe the chain off “too much,” so wipe it down well.
Final Thought
“There’s a difference between maintenance and repair. You know the saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? Well, maintenance is prevention and repair is that costly cure.”
The easiest and best preventative maintenance you can perform is simply to wash your bike or at the very minimum, your chain. Frequent and routine bike cleaning is easy. This will extend the life of your bike, as well as keep your bicycle running like new.
However, as one of my riding buddies likes to say, “it’s a tool, not a jewel.”
Jesse is Director of Pedal Chile and lives in Valdivia, Chile (most of the year). Jesse has a Master of Science in Health & Human Performance and is an avid MTBer, snowboarder, reader of narrative non-fiction, & frequent cleaner and luber of his bikes.
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Sources:
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Gwiazdowski, Jenni. How to Build a Bike : A Simple Guide to Making Your Own Ride. London, Frances Lincoln Limited Publishers, 2017.
Park Tool, and C. Jones. “How to Wash a Bike.” YouTube, 27 Oct. 2015.
Rohan Dubash, and Guy Andrews. Bike Mechanic : Tales from the Road and the Workshop. London, Bloomsbury, 2014.
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Wiggins, Christopher. Bike Repair & Maintenance. New York, New York, Usa, Alpha, A Member Of The Penguin Group (Usa) Inc, 2014.
Zinn, Lennard, and Todd Telander. Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance : The World’s Best-Selling Guide to Mountain Bike Repair. Boulder, Colorado, Velopress, 2018.