How I wash my mountain bikes

While usually my bikes are covered in mud, right now there's dust in every nook and cranny. Bike cleaning is a somewhat hotly contested topic, and many people have passionate reasons why certain bike cleaning methods are or aren't okay. The truth is though that there's not a whole lot that can hurt a mountain bike short of submerging it in water.

I hose off my bikes after every trail ride, so usually the big stuff never gets a chance to dry up and cake on. As needed, I'll do a slightly deeper cleaning to get to the stuff I missed during post ride hose offs. This is what we'll be covering today.

The first thing you should know is that spraying your bike with water won’t hurt it. What can hurt your bike is high pressure water which can actually force dirt into moving parts like bearings. To avoid this, I keep my 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. Everything else gets blasted.

To loosen up grime in the cassette, I use a little WD-40 and a brush. This is the same way I clean my chain and the pulleys on my derailleur. You could use Simple Green, or any other degreaser for this purpose, but just remember that these are all solvents. Solvents remove grease and oil from your bike. WD-40 is sometimes mistaken for a lubricant, but it’s not. WD-40 is a solvent, and it’s great for cleaning.

As for this brush I'm using, it's okay, but I used to use a dollar store toilet brush, and in some ways it was actually better. The long bristles you’ll find on a toilet brush can really get all up in that cassette.

The rest of my bike gets cleaned with a rag and dish soap. Not very high tech, but it gets the job done.

You might also notice that between these two mountain bikes there's only one front wheel.

So yeah, that's one less thing I need to clean today.

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. You could also ride your bike dry. To me, bike cleaning is more for maintenance purposes than it is for cosmetics so I'm not concerned with them being showroom clean. After all, mountain bikes look better when they're dirty anyway.

[Bobo-bwuc]

Recently seth cleaned it with a pressure washer

[yosephus]

The content that you produce compared to someone with more money, and time is amazing. Your stuff is better. You are an honest person who just makes good content about so, thing they love and could care less about subs or numbers. Please when you become popular stay honest Seth. It's what I and many other subscribes love about you and your content.

[garethdavies]

only spray wd40 on your rotors if you want to go fastet

[balaclavaman]

0:59 What you should never do when cleaning your bike.
WD40 is a solvent but a lubricant at the same time, a poor lubricant but enough to ruin your brakes.

[rufflesal]

This is a great MTB cleaning vid. Short and sweet but well ordered. Exactly what I was looking for! 👍

[nwolfe]

I love your videos Seth! I'm mostly a road rider, but I love watching mountain bike stuff. Keep up the good work.

[mrunknown]

When spraying your rear derailleuer, chain (etc) make sure you protect your rotors.
Simply cover it with something (like plastic nylon) otherwise a rotor will loosen which can be extremaly dangerous, and your brakes may remit.
Thanks for the video, keep it up

[benjisaidwill]

Bro, that was a really good clip. The way it was edited was brilliant. Short, to the point, great camera angles, useful content that matched the title of the video and it made you look likeable with your perspectives on bike cleaning. Great job! You get a follow :)

[MsTessG]

So helpful... best MTB videos on the net. I appreciate all the time and attention to detail you put into them.

[YourNickIsTaken]

1:08 - i did not know that, that WD40 is a solvent! I switched to specific oil for dry terrain and now my chain is more shiny and it's not that loud even after a long period of time.
THANKS SETH!!!

[rouge_neuf_onze]

Love that mentality of washing to maintain vs showroom clean since it will go back out to get dirty again.

[anthonysciabarrasi]

finally a video that’s note 15-30 minutes on a full detailing just a quick rinse like most of us are gonna do

[Triiiop]

Thanks for the tips. Instead of the dish towel I use a paint brush dipped in degreaser and just vigoriously paint the whole bike before spraying off. I like the drop dry technique, I'm lucky to have an air compressor to blast everything with.

[rocco.mbb.zoccoli]

Seth-
Sorry to see you had a taco on the trail and not at the end at your local spot but I appreciate the fact that you show the mistakes and mishaps you suffer on the trails.. It makes you as a web/tube rider more real and down to earth than many other outlets on the same topic.
It makes your page genuine and that's why I'll continue to thumbs up, like and "heart" your content!
Ok... That's enough nut swinging for today!
Get a new wheelie homie!

[fat-elife]

I needed a video like this to know how to wash my bike. Thank you so much for creating this video!!! Even if it's from 2016.

[Mykelele]

Dude as a PMd you i got a new bike about 2 weeks ago and its pretty dirty. since I found your channel your videos come perfect for me the wheelie tutorial (Now i can wheelie Thanks :D) and now this video. keep the great work !
(Sorry if my English is bad)

[stephanwolvers]

thanks for cleaning up with me today and i will see you next time!😂

[ehenferio]

Let me guess, the next ep. is "How to true a bent wheel" 😉

[TheCaffeinatedDrive]

I know that you said WD40 isn't a lubricant, but are you sure it's safe to keep the brake rotors exposed to it like that?

[DABLACKBRDonline]

yet again, another great video, cheers Seth you're a real legend. keep up the good work