Mountainbiking

How to clean and maintain your mountain bike

After a long ride on rocky terrain with full of dirt and mud your mountain bike would usually get heaped with garbage junks. The tough dirt will spoil disc brakes, gears and suspension if you put away the bike without cleaning them for long time. One of the most important maintenance works for mountain bike is to clean the bike after a long and tough ride. Cleaning a bike thoroughly is a time consuming work if you have ridden your bike in wet or muddy condition bog areas especially rainy season.

Cleaning a Bike When Ridden in Dry Condition Trail

Wiping with dry cloth and splashing water is just an initial cleaning and may be necessary to do before and after riding your bike on clean and dry condition trail in summer season. You no need to spend more time on cleaning a bike when riding them on clean terrain. The best option would be using clean and dry cloth along with some quality cleaning solution. Most importantly use this solution on frame, suspension stanchion rod, fork sliders, chain stay, BB and crank arms. Pour the solution in a bottle and spray them on unreachable areas like gear cog, disc, chain and derailleur. At the same time do a quick random check on cables, brakes and suspension to make sure they are properly working with fixed tuning and setup. Read some mountain bike reviews to know more about the bike models and their component setup with comparison and specification. Lubricating non-friction parts of the bike is important maintenance and you can lube the chain and gear section but don’t live them wet. Riding in a wet creek beds and muddy terrain is a different situation. You must spend extra time to clean and need extra care to prevent any damage to disc brakes, gears and suspension because they are vulnerable in such tough situation.  

Cleaning a Bike after Riding on Dirt and Muddy Terrain

Cleaning a bike after riding on dirt and muddy terrain is a long process and absolutely necessary for good maintenance of hardtail or full suspension mountain bike. If you don’t clean as soon as you came back from a ride then it leads to many problems like rusting and severe damage to important parts. Good maintenance would avoid any costly replacements in near future. Lot of chunky mud and dirt would be heaped together on most prone areas such as freewheel, disc, under bottom bracket and entire suspension area. Some time it is difficult to remove chunky mud but you can easily remove the accumulated mud using small stick to have an easy access on such delicate parts. You must thoroughly check functions of other important components and their setting after removing all the mud.

Use the water force through big holed spray hose to dash masses or particles of water on the bike. Wash the bike completely on both sides, upright position and up side down and while doing so use scotch pad to remove toughest stains and dirt especially on disc to allow the brake to perform well. Pour some automobile or other bike soap solution in a bucket and use sponge to clean entire parts of the bike. Especially clean the wheels, tyre thread, frame and drivetrain on both positions as we said earlier. Make sure you do not spoil the crank bearings and wheel hub by splashing too much of water pressure. Again use the water pressure and splash down the soap and dirt from entire parts, freewheel, disc brakes, chainring, suspension shock, fork and dry the bike.

Clean the Rear Gear, Derailleur and Lube the Chain

Rear wheel gear and derailleur easily get debris and mud so you must get between the gear wheel and clean all the remains like leaves, sticks and other junk. Use a thin and a long screwdriver to reach between freewheel and remove the remains. You can also use cloth to clean the pulley in rear derailleur to remove hard portion of oil crust. These are the important areas which are prone to dirt and need regular maintenance for smooth gear shift. Do not forget to lube the chains and gears after washing the bike.

About the Author

I love mountain biking and it is a very good sports to keep your body in shape. Not only that it is very adventurous and helps me to participate and group with mountain bike community for sharing riding skills and other activities. On more information on mountain bikes visit www.mountainbikereviews.org.uk.

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