How to clean your bike

[Squashed_Fly]

Just watched this series on youtube. It's absolutely brilliant! Thought I'd share the links with you all. Nooj, sorry if this takes away any business!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HREqf4wIukA

Then the parts are all linked from there. It's a 5 part series.

[Nooj]

Wrong on so many levels.

I'll elaborate later in the week, bed calls now, busy day tomorrow!

[Nooj]

WD40??? No. no and again no.

WD40 is a solvent based penetrating fluid, it'll get into your bearings and chain linkages and thin out all the grease that's supposed to be in there.

Also it's oil based, it'll burn onto your down pipes and leave a brown residue that's very difficult to shift.

[Nelly]

Just watched the first of those! WTF? Why not dismantle the whole bike and throw it in the washing machine? ;D ;D

[Squashed_Fly]

Ok.... I stand corrected! Seemed like he did a great job? Could it be there's more than 1 way? If you watch them all, he does clean the wd40 off before it dries... I'd rather take your advice tho nooj. Not 1 person has had a bad word to say about your work :)

[Mitch9128]

From most of what i've read and heard, wd40 won't harm your 'o' rings, so using it to clean your chain is fine. I agree it would thin out grease on the bearings, but a fine mist or soaked rag on the wheels for cleaning off brake dust isn't going to do that. It does make a mess of downpipes though.

[Nooj]

It has it's uses, but not cleaning bikes. We used to use it daily on our bikes over winter before we discovered ACF50, but it was always a day long job to clean it all off again once winter ended and it never gave the same protection.

It's fine on chain 'o' rings, but not on the grease behind them.

[Squashed_Fly]

But like i say, he does clean the wd40 off before it dries on, and then uses autoglyms equivalent of acf50. I'm assuming thats ok?

[Mitch9128]

How is it going to get to the grease in the chain rollers? The 'O' rings seal it in, so if it doesn't affect the 'O' rings, it won't get to them.

[Snowy]

I have heard from others that the petrol content in WD40 can disintigrate the o rings. What do I know though, I still can't understand why you lot put up with the horrible greasy high maintenance things anyway ;D ;D ;D

[NiteW4tcher]

how many galons of WD40 did he use ? :-?

[Squashed_Fly]

I still can't understand why you lot put up with the horrible, greasy, high maintenance things anyway ;D ;D ;D

I will NOT have my wife spoken about in such an outrageous manner!!!!


Oh, you meant bikes.... ;D ;D ;D

[Nooj]

How is it going to get to the grease in the chain rollers? The 'O' rings seal it in, so if it doesn't affect the 'O' rings, it won't get to them.

It's a very thin penetrating fluid designed to creep into all places. If you regularly clean your chain with WD40, over the life of your chain enough will creep past the seals to thin out the grease, which will noticeably shorten the life of your chain.

[garvey2003]

Not for me that vid, to much like hard work :)

I must give mine a clean soon :)