In the past two months I haven't ridden my bicycle much. This was mostly due to the bad weather. It has been raining a lot. It actually was the wettest year in history. And the rain mostly fell in the last three months of the year. And at the start of the new year it was freezing, so it was to dangerous to go cycling.
But in the last few weeks the weather started to change and I started cycling again.
In the beginning it was quite tough. Especially the first rides after weeks.
But I've picked it up again. Last week I've even ridden about 150 kilometers.
I cycled to work for three days and yesterday I made a nice 50 kilometer ride. Although it's mostly dry there is a lot of wind which makes the rides quite tough. But It's nice to see my fitness slowly improve again.
A dirty bicycle
Although it's not raining constantly anymore, it is still wet sometimes. And even when you go cycling after the rain you still have wet conditions on the roads. And this results in a dirty bicycle. Which isn't that much of a problem, but you do have to clean your bicycle regularly to prevent wear and tear of the components.
Here is the result of a week of cycling in wet conditions:
Sand everywhere!
And a greasy chain and gears!
The cleaning
The first step in my cleaning process is wipe the loose sand off my bicycle. I'm using a special bicycle brush for this, but you can also use an old dish brush.
After this I take my bicycle outside, put it upside down on some rubber tiles and spray it off with a garden hose. I keep using the brush to get the dirt off that didn't came of yet.
Then I use some biodegradable degreaser to spray in the gears and the chain. I'm using a combination of an old dish brush and a toothbrush to clean it all.
I pay extra attention to the small gears. They tend to collect a lot of grease over time which can really get in the way as you can see in the image below.
I use something to run against the gear to scrub off the grease and dirt. This can be anything, but I won't use metal things like a screwdriver since that can damage your gear. Anything plastic or wooden would do.
See here the before and after:
Then I spray off my bicycle of for the second time to remove the degreaser soap.
Just look at the chain shine! I run my chain through an old dry cloth to make it dry.
After that I apply a tiny bit of lubricant on the chain. I'm using special wet lube from the brand Muc-Off since I'm riding in wet conditions. I'm applying a single drop op lube for each chain link. You can see the lube going into the chain link.
After applying the lube I run the chain through the old cloth again to remove excessive lube since this can attract sand and other dirt again. The lube should only be inside the chain links.
And here is the final result of a nice and thorough cleaning; a shiny bicycle that is ready to roll again!
I hope you enjoyed my blog.
Do you have any additions, questions or tips; feel free to share them in the comment section!
FriendlyMoose
Creating blogs about photography, cycling, gardening, craft beer and more...
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