Pinkbike Poll: Is It Ever OK to Pressure Wash Your Bike?
Race mechanic's often pressure was their bikes but then again they replace the parts often.
As a cash strapped teenager who was very excited by the prospect of working on and maintaining my bike, I was warned in very strong terms that you should never pressure or jet was a bike. The argument was that a high-pressure nozzle would force water past the seals and trap moisture where it didn't belong. This can then lead to corrosion, rust and a whole litany of other problems. I remember working in a bike shop about 10 years ago and we had a customer that was so eager to use the car garage-grade pressure washer to clean his bike that he, on more than one occasion, cracked rear ends because there was so much bind and stiction in the linkage of the bike.
However, on the other hand, I feel this is an area that has gotten significantly better in the last five years or so. It used to feel like washing your bike was simply a way to introduce another noise. Now, conversely, more and more linkages seem to be genuinely watertight, and gone are the days of seeing red or blue seals protrude around the edges of frame hardware. Headsets have also got better in this regard. In fact, Cane Creek now sell their Hellbender bearings, which itself borrowed from technology in food production to stop bearings from contaminating sausages.
Now, I'm not suggesting all bikes need sausage-grade bearings, although it probably wouldn't be a bad thing to have.
Personally, I wash my bike with a turned-down pressure washer a lot. I hate starting a ride with an already sullied canvas. But, it should be worth noting that I'm almost fanatical in this regard. Helmets, shoes, and bike all get a good clean after every ride. I just feel like a well-maintained bike that looks as good as it can is one less thing to rub away at your motivation as you try and get out the door. I also just accept that me getting merely 5 and not 5 and a half months out of a part is going to come with the territory.
On the other hand, a bit of mud on a non-moving or loading surface never hurt anyone, and if you can help it, as long as moving parts are clean, should we be washing them at all?
There's a big difference between using a bucket and brush compared to a mains-powered water cannon, even if it has been turned down. How often do you wash your bike, what's your method of choice, and how do you feel about pressure washing bikes in general?
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Find pressure washer, connect garden hose, connect power, open, find correct nozzle and spend 15 mins fitting the plastic demon, faff about with stiff hose to handle, carry contraption outside, pull power cord too much so socket falls out, plug back in, listen to the racket waking up the neighbours, blast everything within a radius of 5 metres, including all bearings, bike flops over and gets a new nice gash in the top tube. Garden hose falls off, spews water inside garage, refit coupling while blasting inside of garage, run back in, turn water off. Get soaked packing it all back together and make a mess trying to wrestle the octopus-like device onto a shelf. Mrs pops out the window; since you've already brought the machine outside you might as well do the cars, oh, and the house needs cleaning too. Etc!
I'll stick with option 1. Low pressure hose and wipe off.
Fight me with your pressure washer.
Or here is an option - don’t vote
Let the mud dry and use a soft brush to knock off the heavy stuff.
I don’t clean my bike cause if the mud got on my bike it’s lucky to be there and earned it’s chance to hang on as long as it can.
I've never had any issues with the bearings, but the pressure washer has stripped the paint off my frame if it's too close, as well as ripped off adhesive frame protectors and stickers. I regularly give my bikes mechanical love and grease where/when needed, so that may slow any damage I'm seeing from the bearings on my bikes.
Need an option for: I'll properly clean a part when I'm servicing it, but unless I'm taking it apart what's the point?
I recall reading an article from Joe Graney, former head engineer of Santa Cruz Bicycles (now CEO), about how bikes hate two things: 1) not being ridden frequently, 2) being washed. The bikes that got washed and/or sat for extended periods of time were the ones that were noisiest, the kind they thought were the most annoying to fellow riders on group outings.
Mud does act as an abrasive, I'd acknowledge. One muddy ride and a fairly fresh crank got major heel rub marks on it from a muddy shoe. I've seen mud abrasion on a frame with poor mud clearance around tires.
Not sure what others are imagining, when they picture a bike that's ridden in mud frequently but isn't washed. The dirt doesn't accumulate. It gets shed over time from just riding vibrations. Wise men of cycling consider the bike washing to just be a religious-like thing.
The one excuse I’ve heard that made sense was that in the process of cleaning a bike you go over every inch in detail. If there’s anything going wrong like wheel rub or a crack you can catch it before it does serious damage or fails catastrophically.
Obviously using a pressure washer to speed up the process would defeat the purpose entirely.
As for bolts seizing, of course. You already need grease to isolate steel bolts from the aluminium (to keep them from reacting and the aluminium oxidizing). Of course titanium would be even worse. I honestly don't get why people use these titanium bolts in aluminium parts (or even magnesium fork lowers). How much weight savings do these even offer? I recall Magura used aluminium bolts at some point for their super lightweight brakes. Which makes sense from a seizing perspective and maybe a little less sense from a fatigue perspective. I don't recall there were issues though.
Either way, in the context of this article, I just mentioned a titanium frame as if you want a frame you can safely neglect, you'd probably be best on titanium. And obviously, if the titanium frame has ISCG05 tabs or PM brake tabs, you'd probably be fine using titanium bolts there.
But for removing dirt in frame crevices and tires, pressure washers are magic. But I've only used one about 3x in 1 1/2yrs, since it's too much to drag out.
My bikes look pretty filthy most of the time but they work great and I have few problems with bearings etc. I’ve owned my current two bikes for nine years in total and can count the full cleans on one hand.
The majority of cleaning of MTBs is bad for the planet - it wastes water and detergent and lubes, and/or corrodes or damaged parts through standing water or missing lube, it sends nasty chemicals into the ground/sewage, and it’s wasting your time and money too.
It’s pretty obvious what needs to be clean and dry and lubed on a bike - just deal with those bits. Keep full washing for when you need to avoid transporting biological things (pests, seeds etc) between environments.
Bucket+ rag+brush+garden hose shower, with some gentle soap - cheap and easy on your bike.
Here's what I do, and have done, since 1990 or so:
Garden hose in shower mode.
Bucket with warm water and Carnauba wash/wax mixture
Natural bristle (Tampico) brushes, like you'd find in the Home Depot roofing section. One long conical, similar to a rim brush for a car, one with long bristles that is wide&skinny, and one with a handle that good for cleaning rims/tires.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BX7KRT8
www.amazon.com/Teravan-Tampico-Large-Spoke-Cleaning/dp/B07GFRGBTS
www.amazon.com/Osborn-81018SP-Handle-Utility-Tampico/dp/B00QEUJ6GY
www.homedepot.com/p/Anvil-6-in-Acid-Brush-90260/202085664
Carefully spray down bike to get most of the chunks off.
Use appropriate brush for whichever section of the bike you're working on, dunking into solution, brushing, then light hose. You don't want anything drying until full rinse. You don't want to be jetting water into anything.
Final light rinse of the whole bike. Bounce bike on rear tire with brake on to get most of the water off.
Then you can hand dry, use a leaf blower, or just leave in the shade to air dry.
Notes:
If you're gonna clean your chain, use a chain cleaner gizmo and citrus solvent. Do it before hitting the bike with any water. Might as well use a cog brush with solvent to get the cogs, pulleys, ring, too. Then use the high pressure setting of the hose to ONLY jet the chain. So jet in a stationary spot and back pedal. Do it from both sides. Switch to low pressure shower to rinse the cogs and the rest. Then get to cleaning the bike.
I take off the front wheel before starting, lets me get around the fork and caliper easy.
I take off the rear wheel after the chain clean, lets me use the conical brush to get in all the links.
Scrub wheels while off the bike, much easier and you can use conical brush to get into the hub
Sounds way more involved than it really is. Once you get used to your bike, you get the process down to a science and usually done in under 30min. Then you have an actual spanking clean bike without jetting anything into places it shouldn't have been. Also gets you intimate with the bike, so you notice stuff that might need to be fixed or at leased noted.
This has been a message from your friendly Anal Retentive Bike Mech.
Really muddy rides, I will usually just blast the bike off with a house quick and call it good.
I find that if I avoid close spraying bearing surfaces and simply move back a little that my bits still live an expected lifespan. When I do change parts I don't find any additional wear or rust. The car wash is fast and easy. I can clean my bike to showroom fresh in 5 minutes or less. I dry and lube every time I wash.
General cleaning I run the water through the pressure washer without it being switched on so it’s like a regular hose with a better nozzle.
Some bikes I put a ceramic coating used on cars (just leftovers from doing my cars), and that helps a lot to keep them looking cleaner than normal. Other bikes I just use mr sheen or silicone spray after rinsing.
I found that grit and debris caused more issues for bearing life than corrosion did, provided the bearings were packed properly from the factory. The ones that came with the bike were not, they were near bone dry and the little bit of grease in it was in one side of the bearing (maybe covering 20% of the bearings). That may work in bearings that make a full rotation to spread grease, but pivot bearings do not, so the grease never got distributed and they wore out very quickly. The factory also failed to press the bearings in with anything to isolate the stainless bearing races from the alloy shells, which means they would bond together and be difficult to remove.
Once I installed properly packed bearings, I found the life of the bearing was typically limited more by dirt and debris than corrosion. Even washing it aggressively and being caught in major rainstorms, the grease largely stayed in place and repelled the water. I'd do a post mortem on the bearing and pull the seal off, finding sand, dirt, and even part of a leaf inside of the bearing, but plenty of grease and no corroded balls. Once it was flushed out and repacked, it spun smoothly again. The balls themselves wouldn't have much corrosion on it. I think the grease does a good job at keeping the water out, but attracts dirt and debris.
I also found the apocryphal advice of spreading grease around the face of the exterior of the bearing made this much much worse, as the grease attracted dirt/debris and held it there, only to get rubbed into the bearing past the seal.
I've never had issues with hub bearings or headsets, but pivot bearings have always been a problem here. It doesn't help that blind extraction tools on the market for bikes are pitiful and awful, which makes maintenance a chore.
i only clean the moving parts, chain and suspensions. Yes, frame is dirty, but who cares? its gonna get dirty again!!
my road bike, 5 years after seeing no water, when went to service the mechanic said: "i had to wash it first, so i could find the bolts!!"
Frame, rims, hubs, shock/fork (not the stanchions), cockpit (not the brake levers). Looking forward to see how much it'll help!
I always just hose it down gently avoiding bearings/seals, then wipe the rest of with a microfiber while still wet. Hoping the job will be either faster to accomplish or look cleaner with less effort.
I'll wash my bike when it looks like it needs a wash, normally with the spray nozzle at the back of my apartment complex.
If I happen to pass by a gas station with a car wash (self serve pressure washer) which Vancouver doesn't have many anyway, ill give the bike a blast BUT the kicker is, ill leave it strapped to the roof so its generally getting sprayed from a distance and from underneath so I'm not basking down ward past the seals.
I've owned dirt bikes in the past and they only ever saw the pointy end of a Pressure washer and had no ill impact on the fork seals.
That’s four destroyed bearings, and that hub was only a couple of years old. I’m saying both freehub bearings, and both wheel bearings, no joke.
This is exactly what happens in the motocross/off road world. Any bearing exposed to the outside world will be ruined with a pressure washer. No matter what the seal.
But if you ride to be seen and no other reason, then please, blast away! Some fool will always give you top dollar for that bike since it looks like new.
I have not had a single bike come back with problems due to using a pressure washer.
E-bikes are an absolute No-No, I do not use one on e-bikes and when washing anything else with a battery (AXS), the battery is removed.
At the end of the day hopefully common sense prevails.
I don't ride in super muddy conditions because my local trails are mainly clay and damaged easily (and I'm a trail maintenance volunteer, so can't destroy my own work).
Post-ride, I put my bike in the stand, brush/wipe off any obvious dirt, especially around the shock wipers/seals. Then wipe and lube the chain if it needs it. Bike is then ready for the next ride. Every month or so during riding season, I give it a more thorough clean/inspection, and keep the fork, drivetrain and brakes happy. About once a year, I do a thorough disassembly, clean and tune. I like to go on long rides where I'm sometimes 20+ miles from home or car, so I don't want any mechanical surprises. This goes double for my gravel bike, which takes me even farther out.
I also care for my wife's 3 bikes, and the bikes of both my kids, so my home shop is busy.
"How do you wash your bike?"
LIKE A FKNG BOSS
Don’t do it. It’s a mountain bike.
Never use a pressure washer!
If you do. You should spray everything with WD40
Brakes, seat, grips, tires, everything.
I’m being sarcastic about that.
Do not wash your bike and do not spray it with WD40
Nothing was worse working in a LBS than some dude coming in with a bike that's spotless but "making weird noises" because he powerwashed it. Then when we explain "you can't do this to mountain bikes unless you re-grease everything" which was often met with "I've been power washing my dirtbike/car/non-bike item for years and I've never had issues so therefore I will continue to do it."
HUGE EYEROLL at people who "work on their own bikes" then have to take them into the shop after bc they totally f*cked them up.
Whats worse than pressure washing? a garden hose 100%
a garden hose puts out way more water and absolutely cakes and floods parts of the bike in water.
muc-off rep said to us dont ever use a garden hose if you want bearings to live, his words after were: "people online are dumb - they get an idea in their head and end up full on believing it themselves"
Are people on PB really that "stuck in their ways"