How to Clean Your Bike - Quick Wash

As lovely as it is to spend hours cleaning every tiny part of your bike, we realise there's not always the opportunity to do so.  A quick wash is what's needed; whether it's because you've just got in from a ride, or need to get your bike looking presentable for the weekend's outing.  Here's our suggestion for how to go about it.

We break our cleaning processes down into 3 simple steps; Remove, Improve, Protect.

Remove - get the mud, grease, build up and general detritus away from your bike.

Improve - once clean, you can begin to enhance the look.  Whether it's removing scratches and imperfections, or bringing back to life the natural colours and appearance.

Protect - the bike is now looking great, but you want to be sure that finish remains as great as it can for as long as it can.

The Process.

Rinse your bike with a low pressure hose (if using a jet wash, be careful not to force grease out of all the important bits!) and use Mud Honey, our foaming bucket wash, with Madam Palm.  This is a new approach to bicycle cleaning; no difficult-to-use brushes that don't quite reach the intricate areas.  But instead a specially formulated bucket wash with our highly absorbent, super soft microfibre wash mitt.  You wear it like a glove and it allows you to reach every part of your bike, amongst the forks, underneath cables, all while holding lubricating bubbles.  

 

Once rinsed, if there are still some stubborn bits of dirt that won't shift, then use Pineapple Express; our rapid acting bike cleaner.   Spray on, allow to dwell for a few minutes (it's important that bit - that's when it breaks down the dirt!), then agitate with a pencil brush and rinse.  

If it's grease, oil, or general gunk caught up within your drivetrain and derailleurs, use Limon Velo - our highly effective degreaser.  Spray on, allow to dwell (again; an important part, that!), agitate with a pencil brush and rinse off.  

 Dry your frame and contact points with Soak Star - our highly absorbent, but appropriately sized, drying towel.

During your quick wash and subsequent drying, you may find small marks or light scratches on your frame. Mayo Jaune is an intensive frame polish and mark remover, perfect for quickly and easily perfecting the finish on your bike.  Use it with Chequered Rag, our waffle weave cloth, for the best results.

The final stage of this quick wash; protection.   Your bike is clean and dry, so our advanced nano protectant - Enduro - applied with our soft microfibre cloth Fur Rouge will help to keep it looking its best for longer.  Providing a slippery surface so rain, mud, grit and detritus is less likely to stick, it makes it much easier to clean next time also!  It's slippery, so keep away from your brakes and wheel rims.  (If you have a matt finish bike, or unlacquered carbon frame, use Carboniferous at this stage; it leaves nothing behind, thus retaining the matt finish)

 

This has been a very quick wash, using a small selection of our wide range of products.  To keep your bike looking as best it can, this is recommended after every ride.  We know time is precious and so we have made our products and accessories as easy to use, and effective as possible, as we can.

We will be bringing out a much more detailed guide soon, showing how to fully detail your bike.  That is, to make each part perfectly clean; to make your bike look the best it possibly can.  It's more time consuming, but the results are perfect.  We have the products for that as well.