Workshop: How to clean and lube your bike
If you’ve let the muck build up on your bike, here's a step-by-step guide that will get it looking like new – and running much better – in less than an hour.
We think this is best avoided: a five-minute hosedown and application of lube straight after your ride will help keep your bike running smoothly, if not showroom shiny. But nobody's perfect - least of all us - so here's how to shift serious grime.
- Time: 1 hour
- Skill rating: Easy
- Cost: Degreaser, grease, chainlube (approx. £15)
Tools you’ll need
- Bucket
- Very hot water
- Washing-up liquid
- Brushes and sponges
- Old toothbrush
- Narrow flat-blade screwdriver
- Old spoke
- Degreaser
- Polish/detailer
- Grease
- Chain lube
- Rags
1] Scrub the chain
The chain is the most important part of the transmission. The first step to cleaning it is to use hot water — wearing rubber gloves will help you use hotter, more effective, water. Add regular washing-up liquid to your bucket of water and allow it to foam up.
With the chain in the biggest gear, apply the mixture vigorously using a stiff bristle scrubbing brush. You’ll see a bright, shining chain emerge.
2] Degrease the chain
With the chain free from dirt, apply a biodegradable degreaser to the chain and allow it to soak into all the links. This will remove any debris and sticky residues you can’t see, and make for a free-running chain.
Rotate the cranks backwards a few times to get the degreaser right into the links. Allow to drip-dry, or wash off with clean water.
3 Wipe the chain
Use a soft rag to wipe the chain completely clean — you’ll be surprised what still comes off a clean-looking chain. You’re trying to massage the links, moving them through as wide a range of movement as possible — this helps expose the sections of link normally hidden from view.
4] Lube the chain
Apply lube only when the chain is clean. We prefer to lube a chain as little as possible, with as light a lube as we can get away with. Use a dripper bottle, because it’s easier to apply accurately and with minimum wastage.
Coat the whole chain, spinning the cranks to force the lube into the links. That’s where lube is most useful — not coating the outside plates, as many believe. Wipe excess lube away with a rag.
5] Wipe cables
Slide the outers to expose previously covered sections of inner cable. Give the entire inner cable a wipe-over with a section of rag soaked in degreaser. If you come across any sections that are rusty, replace with a new inner cable. Most dry cables can be reinvigorated with a little light grease.
6] Lube cables
The best way to apply grease evenly to a cable is to first apply the grease to a clean (lint-free) rag. Holding the rag in one hand with the greased section between thumb and forefinger, gently pinch the section of inner cable in the rag and draw it through.
The idea is to allow the grease to get into the fine strands of the cable without creating any blobs of grease.
7] Scrub front mech
Front mechs always suffers from neglect. They’re hard to access and are often jammed full of dry mud, and have pivots drier than a Jacob’s Cracker. The first thing you can do to get your front mech swinging happily again is to apply steaming soapy water. Use a small toothbrush to get right into the parallelogram and underneath the band.
8] Wipe front mech
Give the mech a good going over with the rag. Use a thin strip of rag to thread though the body of the front mech — this allows you to floss the body. Don’t overlook the inside of the front mech cage, as these get pretty grubby from rubbing the chain all day. A couple of minutes and you should have a gleaming front mech.
9] Scrape out rear mech
There’s no point having a free-running chain if the jockey wheels of your rear mech are bunged up. Use an old spoke or the blade of a thin, flat-bladed screwdriver to carefully hook out any old grass and oily gunge that’s trapped between the jockey wheels and the mech arm side plates.
10] Scrub Jockey Wheels
With the serious grime gone, use a little degreaser and an old toothbrush to scrub the jockey wheels (not forgetting the insides of the mech arm). It’s possible to unscrew the jockey wheels from the mech arm, but we don’t recommend you do so unless you’ve got a thread lock to use when reinstalling the pivot bolts. Sadly, we’ve seen too many rides ended by bottom jockey wheels falling out.
11] Lube Jockey Wheels
Re-lube the jockey wheels. They really only need the very lightest touch of lube, as they’ll pick up enough from the chain through use. Remember these little wheels attract a lot of dirt, and with lube being sticky, it doesn’t pay to make matters worse by overdoing it. Wipe the excess away with a rag. They should look dry.
12] Unclip cables
Set the rear gears into the largest rear sprocket and then, without letting the rear wheel spin, shift into the smallest rear sprocket. This will free up a bunch of inner cable and allow you to pop the outers from the slotted cable stops on the frame. With the cables now fully unclipped from the frame you can inspect, clean, re-lube and reinstall everything.
13] Lube Front Mech
Use the lube dropper bottle to apply drops of lube to all the pivots on the front mech. These take a lot of load, and can use all the help you can give them to remain mobile. Shift the mech into the smallest chainring and then work the parallelogram with your fingers to get the lube worked in.
14] De-Gunk Rear Sprockets
The rear sprockets are the final port of call on this bicycle maintenance mystery tour. They’re full of technology to help faster shifts, but also full of grease, mud and grass. Pick the worst lumps out with an old spoke or the blade of a thin, flat screwdriver. You’ll be surprised what hides in those tight spaces, even on expensive, open alloy carrier versions.
15] Scrub Rear Sprockets
Get the hot soapy water on them and get scrubbing with a brush. Really stubborn grot can be shifted with a dose of degreaser and another hit with the scrubbing brush. Getting to the backs of the sprockets can be tricky, but it’s really worth persevering, as the cleaner you make it, the less easy it is for new mud to stick.
16] Wipe Rear Sprockets
Give the sprockets some flossing with your strip of rag. This helps dry the sprockets, and also buffs away any outstanding marks. The cleaner you can keep your sprockets, the faster they’ll shift and the longer they’ll last. Dirt acts like a grinding paste when in contact with any part of your transmission, so get rid of it.
Tip: don't forget the general clean-up
You can get away with just cleaning the important parts, but a full wash-down should be part of your regular post-ride plans. Take the wheels off the bike and wash everything, beginning with the underside of the saddle and working downwards.
Tip: lube the pivots
Add a drop of lube to your brake lever pivots — they dry out too and work better with some liquid love. Ditto the shifters. For SRAM X.9/X.0 gears, simply unscrew the top caps and drop a few drops on the spring and cable nipple. With Shimano, undo the plastic grub screw and put a few drops inside before replacing the grub screw.
Tip: polish it off
If you love your bike, show it offby taking a soft duster and some nice polish and giving the paintwork a buffing it’ll never forget. Apart from making the bike look shiny, it also helps make it harder for dirt to stick to the frame the next time you’re out.
Tip: hot water and detergent FTW
The marketplace is rammed with bike cleaning fluids, and they’re mostly pretty good. Most are applied using a trigger bottle spray, requiring you to leave it on for 30 seconds and then wash off with a brush.
That’s all well and good, but we have just as much success with car shampoo and hot water. You can even use washing up liquid, but remember it contains salt so you want to be sure you get it all off. For all the marketing hype, the detergent and the grime-busting strength of steaming hot water are hard to beat. Have a good selection of sponges and brushes available to get into all the nooks and crannies.
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Showing 1 - 30 of 40 comments
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Vegeeta
Posted Wed 17 Sep, 5:35 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
If you've got a work stand it's much easier to take the wheels out and clean them up first then do the rest of the bike. That way you can get to everything more easily.
If you're going to use one of those chain scrubbing devices the Pro Gold thing with the quick releases and the sprocket makes life much easier because you can do it on the top run of chain and pedal forwards... thus avoiding snagging the chain up in the mech.
Sillkolene make a product that is FAR better then Muc Off called Fusch Off.
Use Pedro's ice wax in all but the wettest weather, it stays much cleaner than Finsih Line wet for example and after a fairly clean ride you just wipe it and it cleans the drivetrain!
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smccausl
Posted Wed 17 Sep, 6:41 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
I don't agree with the sequence of steps in this article. Generally, the drive train should be cleaned last not first as water/dirt/degreaser from other parts of the bike will contaminate the chain/cogs/chain rings etc. Also, it is logical to clean the chain/ derailleur /cogs/chain rings together then apply the lubricant.
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johnsav
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 1:41 am BST Flag as inappropriate
as said above, the sequence of cleaning is not logical at all in that write up. Some good info there though.
Also i wouldnt say using very hot water was a good idea really either. If the water did manage to ingress into any bearings it would be able to do a fair bit of damage. Ive never had a problem using tepid to mildly warm water! lol
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gthang
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 9:06 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Why clean & lube the chain only to degrease the front and rear mechs after, cleaning the gunk from the jockey wheels will contaminate the chain no matter how careful you are.
Surly it makes sense to clean the chain and mechs together, then apply lube to everything in one go. I would not clean my bike in the order listed above.
A good guide just in the wrong order
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Steve Sanders
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 9:25 am BST Flag as inappropriate
Will you come and do mine?
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Danukgser
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 11:54 am BST Flag as inappropriate
WASHING UP LIQUID CONTAINS SALT!!!!! DO NOT USE UNLESS YOU WANT YOU BIKE TO ROT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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M.Cole
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 5:40 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Read the article: "but remember it contains salt so you want to be sure you get it all off"
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ThreeFish
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 6:51 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Should been entitled "How To Turn Your Drivetrain Into A Gritty, Sloppy Mess".
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RichMTB
Posted Thu 18 Sep, 10:23 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
I personally wouldn't put grease on my cables, it more likely to make them stick, a couple of drops of chain lube is more than enough to keep them running smooth
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marcus Farley
Posted Fri 19 Sep, 7:49 am BST Flag as inappropriate
i guess it's like cleaning at home...how many of you dust first then hoover, and how many hoover first then dust? both have their drawbacks and benefits...
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muzza1981
Posted Sat 20 Sep, 8:58 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Some very interesting comments, especially on order of cleaning.
But like the dusty hoover, either way will do today!!!
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goldblendslurper
Posted Sun 12 Oct, 3:30 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
We all have our own methods for cleaning bikes. I use a chain cleaning device (Park) with either Fenwicks FS1 or another liquid degreaser to cean the chain. Then use a paintbrush and more degreaser and work it into the cassette, chainrings and mechs. Using a paintbrush makes the degreaser foam up more and seems more effective. Once everything is foaming, just use a sponge with warm soapy water to flush the mechs and cassette and to wipe off everythng else. Remove the wheels, at which point you can scrape out the jockey wheels and cassette. Then clean the frame using Muc-off and soapy water. Rinse with a low pressure hose. Once all that's done, everything can be wiped down with rags and lubed.
It's a good article but as others have said, the order is a bit random. Best tip I heard was to have a "dirty sponge" (drive components) and a "clean sponge" (frame etc).
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merlie
Posted Tue 14 Oct, 6:10 am BST Flag as inappropriate
So whats wrong with a quickie with the Karcher ?
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shaven1
Posted Mon 27 Oct, 10:34 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
A good tip given to me by my local bike shop is to use furniture polish to lube gear and brake cables. The silicon keeps water out and leaves a smooth film to maintain that all important freedom of movement. It's also cheaper than other silicon based lubricants. Plus it smells nice!
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tj7794
Posted Fri 12 Dec, 9:06 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
they should do a bike like car-wash. that would be very kewl for us lazy fellas.
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jweston
Posted Mon 15 Dec, 12:27 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
If you run disk brakes car shampoo is probably best avoided as it usually contains nice waxing agents to give the car paintwork a nice water repellent finish. So when you get this stuff on your disks and pads it lubricates nicely. I'm not sure if it comes off eventually, but I wash my bike too often at this time of year to want to find out.
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redcoyote12
Posted Sat 20 Dec, 5:41 am GMT Flag as inappropriate
Good stuff. I don't think the writer intended this to be a step-by-step sequence, more of a part-by-part explanation.
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blueeyedub
Posted Sun 28 Dec, 8:16 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
A good all round guide i have to say.Thanks.One question though.Any tips on keeping small eager helpers (kids!) at bay while im trying to degrease and clean my chain!!
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mikeyb34
Posted Tue 20 Jan, 11:02 am GMT Flag as inappropriate
i'll get slated for this, but you can;t beat a good old jet wash... best staying away from nay bearings though!
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warchild
Posted Tue 20 Jan, 9:09 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
"im with mikeyb34" i know its a big no no, just be carefull !!!
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warchild
Posted Tue 20 Jan, 9:12 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
lets face it, this time of year (off road) u need a shovel 2 clean your bike, after every ride.
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RichC-TRI
Posted Tue 27 Jan, 3:19 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
Why do people seem averse to using power hoses? I can understand if you stick the Karscher right next to bottom bracket and try and blast the grease out of the mech, but for the rear cassette, wheels and frame it's a good way to quickly get rid of the worst muck excess.
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wlshyd
Posted Fri 30 Jan, 7:44 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
the order of cleaning doesn't men squat, just get fresh water!! Come on work it out
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arturowan
Posted Wed 4 Feb, 10:22 am GMT Flag as inappropriate
cleaning the chain with it still on the bike is just a waste of time - you really have to bend every link & scrub out all the dirt - & if you leave it on the bike it's just IMPOSSIBLE to properly clean the pulleys & it's the crud on these that causes most of the mess on the chain - there are no shorts cuts when it comes to cleaning the drivetrain & l've tried to find them, but you just have to accept that to do it properly is very time-consuming & a job half done is time-wasted
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rider of the night
Posted Tue 17 Feb, 5:24 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
what about hydraulic brakes?
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Morty123
Posted Mon 23 Feb, 2:48 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
Is my chain dishwasher safe? (she'll never know) :-)
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spokey123
Posted Tue 10 Mar, 9:59 pm GMT Flag as inappropriate
The method for drivetrain cleaning that works best for me is as follows: -
1. Install a SRAM Powerlink to your chain.
2. When you want to clean the chain, remove it completely.
3. Get a plastic bottle with a screw-top with a wide neck/top (I use a 1L fabric conditioner bottle).
4. Put an amount of white spirit in the bottle (not much about 1/4 to 1/2 cup).
5. Now put your dirty chain in and screw top on.
6. As rigourously as you care to, shake it like F**k!!! Swish it round. You are basically replicating a washing machine. Even leave it in the bottle for a while.
7. If this is your first clean, do the above inspect the chain - you may need to replace the fluid and do quick second swish just to be ultra thorough.
8. Remove the chain from the bottle. Wipe it with a rag. Hang it up for a few minutes - the white spirit evaporates quickly. Lay the clean dry chain on a clean worksurface and carefully drip some good lube into each link. Leave for a minute or so to work its way in. Thats it! Like I said this method works best for me. I've tried clamp-on devices before. They work so-so but not as well as this.
It should be noted I do this with the bike on a workstand. So at the same time I will take the wheels off and clean the rest of the bits. This way everything goes back together clean.
Give it a try.
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krazykayaker
Posted Sun 10 May, 7:55 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Just wash it til your happy with it!
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jerrybeirne
Posted Wed 1 Jul, 7:54 am BST Flag as inappropriate
a good article, everybody has their own way of doing things. i do the drive train last, but applying degreaser first to let it work while i do the rest of the bike. i dont think there is any thing wrong with a pressure hose if it is used sensibly, not directed directly at bearings or brake/ gear control housings. it also loosens up dried mud etc.
if the chain is a real mess i take it off and put it in some guyzer for a bit before scrubbing clean. rinse off with cold water, shake off excess and hang to dry.
i still like GT85 for road bikes and mtb's in dry conditions and finish line for mtb's when its going to be wet and muddy.
useful bits of kit, old electric toothbrushes for front mechs, the park skinny cleaning brush for cassettes. dont forget the brake block contact surfaces.
happy scrubbing! jerry.
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northumbrian1
Posted Sun 26 Jul, 8:43 pm BST Flag as inappropriate
Hmm! Maybe I should remove the saddle and put the bike through a polytetrochloride bath (preferably in a sealed room/bath) and then re-grease and lube all the moving parts afterwards? Although dangerous, polytetrochloride (used in dry cleaning) gets most things clean - what say you?
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