Setting up a mountain bike

After setting up a mountain bike you will ride your bike in many different conditions. When riding mud will cover your bike and in every nook and cranny will be dust. That is the reason why after setting up a mountain bike, cleaning your bike is very important. This will increase the service life of your mountain bike and is therefore a good habit to pick up. Bike cleaning is a hot topic, but we want to give you a pragmatic approach in this blog post.

Setting up a mountain bike and the role of every trail ride cleaning.

A good thing to do after every trail ride, is to hose off your bike. If you do it right after every ride, you get most of the dirt and mud off your bike. The big stuff has no chance to dry up and cake on.

After setting up a mountain bike and riding you see that a bike has many areas where dirt can be stuck. Those areas do not really get clean with a hose. For this reason a deeper clean is necessary. We will show you how this is done in the next paragraphs.

Water is your friend, but not high pressure water.

So you can hose your bike, but what can hurt your bike is high pressure water which can actually force dirt into moving parts like bearings. To avoid this, keep your hose on a medium spray, and take care not to blast the ends of the hubs, the bottom bracket, or anywhere else with a bearing seal.

To loosen up grime in the cassette, I use a little WD-40 and a brush. This is the same way you should clean your chain and the pulleys on your derailleur. Any other degreaser is good for this purpose, as long as it is a solvent. Solvents remove grease and oil from your bike. WD-40 is is not a lubricant. WD-40 is a solvent, and it’s great for cleaning.

Yes, we keep it simple also with the brushes.

For brushes you can use dollar store toilet brushes. The long bristles you’ll find on a toilet brush can really get all up in that cassette.

Soap it up

There’s nothing wrong with using a standard dishwashing soap on your bike, as some brands are actually pretty good at removing grease and grime. Otherwise, there are tons of bike-specific soaps and washes. Either way, it’s a good idea to only use soap or wash that is biodegradable. 

There are a number of options for how to apply the soap and scrub it around, ranging from a simple rag to specific brushes. Many brands offer their bike washes in spray bottles, which makes things easier. 

Apply the soap, and then scrub with a non-abrasive brush. There are also smaller, more abrasive brushes that are designed specifically for the drivetrain, as well as heavier degreasers that can be used for deeper cleaning days

This is more simple than setting up a mountain bike.

Clean the rest of your bike with dish soap and a rag. Simple and works. 
While drying your bike with a towel helps prevent water spots, I just drop them from a couple of feet up to shake them off.

This is all, a very simple bike clean, which helps you extend your mountain bike service lifetime and also to show off your cleaned and sparkling mountain bike. So in this post, we covered not only the usual topic of setting up a mountain bike, but also how to clean and maintain your bike.