Wax your chain
I started waxing my chain not because it’s supposed to give you a few extra watts of power, or because it should make your drivetrain components last longer, but because it makes keeping the bike clean so much easier.
With a waxed chain I can skip the degreaser and tedious brushing. I don’t have to deal with that sticky annoying black grime that comes with a classic oil-based lube. All I need to do after a ride is hose my bike down with water. Sure, using some soap once in a while is a good idea. But after most rides I can get my trail bike really clean just using water and a few cloths.
And as an added benefit, your drivetrain stays clean to the touch when you store it in your apartment. That’s comes in handy especially if you have small kids with grabby hands or pets that love to brush their cheeks against your bike.
Hose down with a portable pressure washer
Speaking of hosing down the bike, this was my biggest issue, living in an apartment. I used to do it in the bath tub which was a truly annoying process. It would take so much time preparing everything, navigating the bike in, and cleaning the bathroom up after.
Recently, I discovered something magical – a portable pressure washer. The building I live in doesn’t have any place where I could connect a typical pressure cleaner to a source of water. But I noticed that some bikers use these handheld portable pressure washers in their vans. These things that have their own container for about 10 litters of water and a way to create pressure by pumping them with air.
So, after I come back from a ride, I just bring this pressure washer outside to a grassy area in front of the building, pump it up by hand to create pressure, and then just hose down my bike as if I had a classic pressure cleaner. In my experience, the 8-litre container is enough to hose down 2 bikes after a regular ride easily. Or one really muddy bike. And the best part is it only costs like €20.
Use microfibre cloths
I really like microfibre cloths for bike cleaning because they are gentle on surfaces, they don’t lint, and they are very durable. If the bike was very muddy, I would use two different microfiber cloths, the first is wet to wipe down the bike after hosing, to prevent streaks of watered-down mud. The second is to remove moisture, particularly around the drivetrain, you don’t want to leave it wet unnecessarily with a waxed chain. Microfiber material is also a lot more absorbent than your typical rag, so it dries the bike quickly.
Use silicone-based sprays
And the last thing I do is I apply a silicone-based spray, mainly on the suspension stanchions and dropper post. It reduces friction so they operate smoothly and it helps repel dirt and moisture. This helps prolong component life and makes next cleaning a bit easier.
I apply it after hosing and drying the bike. I usually spray it on a microfibre cloth to spread it over the parts I mentioned. You can also spray it directly on them, just be very careful not to get any on your disc brakes.
Leave the deep clean to your local bike shop mechanic
To summarize, I hose down the bike, dry it with a microfibre cloth, and apply silicone-based spray. This minimal effort strategy keeps my bike clean most of the time with minimal time investment and without needing a house with a yard or a garage.
The only problem is that a bike should get a deeper clean than that once in a while. And that’s where I drew the line. It would take a lot more cleaning supplies, tools, and expertise to do proper deep clean. And I would only do it like 1x per year anyways. So, for this, I happily pay the local bike shop mechanic to do it for me.
