Why washing a bike here matters more than most places
Hout Bay is on the sea, and salt air is quietly corrosive. It settles on the chain, works into cable housings, and finds its way past bearing seals. A bike ridden along the coast road and put away dirty ages considerably faster than the same bike in Gauteng.
Add the fine dust that comes off every trail and fire road in the peninsula through summer, and you have a mildly abrasive paste sitting on the most expensive moving parts of the bike.
Bike wash and degreaser are different products
Bike wash is a mild, pH-neutral cleaner for frames, forks and wheels. It is formulated to be safe on paint, decals, carbon, anodising and — importantly — seals. This is what most of the bike gets.
Degreaser and drivetrain cleaner is far more aggressive, and it is for the chain, cassette, chainrings and derailleurs only. It strips oil, which is exactly what you want on a chain and exactly what you do not want anywhere near a hub, bottom bracket or suspension seal.
The single most common mistake is spraying degreaser over a whole bike. It migrates into bearings and washes out the grease that was keeping them alive.
Keep it off the brakes
Nothing contaminates disc brake pads faster than degreaser overspray, and contaminated pads are difficult to recover — usually they just get replaced. Take the wheels out before you degrease the drivetrain, or shield the rotors properly.
How to do it, quickly
Rinse gently. Bike wash on the frame and wheels with a soft brush. Degreaser on the drivetrain only, with a chain brush. Rinse again, dry it, then re-lube the chain immediately — a clean chain left unlubed will start surface-rusting the same day in this climate. See chain lube.
No pressure washer. It drives water straight past seals. More on that in bike maintenance, or ask us at the shop in Hout Bay.
