How to Clean a Race Bike

by John · 18/10/2013

Once you have the frame clean, have a go at the remaining components, such as brakes if you haven’t already done them, cables, shift levers, and so on. You may have to go over the frame again if in doing this you transfer some dirt back onto it but it should be a very straightforward job.

After cleaning the frame itself, move onto cleaning the components

Last of all I clean my wheels. Again some people like to do this first as you have cleaner water in your bucket. Either way make sure you clean the braking surfaces on the rims last of all. I always start with the tyres if they need cleaning, which will be every time with your cross bike or MTB. Then clean the hubs and the rear cassette. For cleaning the cassette I employ a number of brushes. First up is a stiff bristled floor brush which cleans the cogs of any lube. Then if there is dirt between each cog I have some thinner brushes and scrapers (Park do a good range).

Then finally clean the rims. Use an older cloth or sponge to remove the dirt, then using a newer cloth give a final clean. Be particularly careful with braking surfaces as any left over dirt or residue can affect braking performance. If you have disc brakes you don’t have to worry about your rims as much, and Fenwicks do a disc cleaning fluid which we will review later; they also have a suspension cleaner for MTBs.

If you need to clean your tyres, do that before cleaning your rims and hubs

You can now adopt one of these approaches: leave you bike to drip dry, soap suds and all, or gently hose your bike down with clean water, and/or towel it dry. I usually just let it drip dry, suds and all…

Once clean, you can leave your bike to drip dry, or hose it down, or towel dry it

Finally if you are going to lube your bike then now is the time to do so. Often, unless you are super enthusiastic with your chain cleaning machine, you’ll find your chain is OK to run with just the minimum amount of lube as there’ll still be some left between the links. I only apply a significant amount if I know I am in for a wet or dirty race. Make sure to run your chain round a few times to distribute the lube across the full length of the chain. Modern lubes help protect chains very effectively from wear and damage. Fenwick’s Stealth Road and Mountainbike Chain lube are still being tested here by myself and Rob, and so far so good.

Get into the habit of doing something similar to this routine and your bike will work better; together you’ll be a more effective unit and you will feel great come raceday – well providing you’ve done your training that is…