I Have been riding a road bike for the last year or two and that thing hardly got dirty. Now I’m in the gravel game. A few questions bellow.
1. How often do you clean your bike of the gravel dust?
1. When doing so do you just wipe it down (if so with what) or do you wash it with water?
2. How often do you lube the chain? When doing this do you just use a rag to wipe it down and then apply chain lube or is there another technique?
Some inspiration: One of the first actual gravel rides I was able to pull off in February from Minnesota.
[https://youtu.be/\_4wk-Lu0ujo](https://youtu.be/_4wk-Lu0ujo)
by Delicious-Pea-5107
3 Comments
If I ride on a dry road, I don’t do anything, just ride it and put it away.
After a dirtier gravel ride, I’ll normally hose it off after riding and dry it with a leaf blower. Then I throw some fresh lubricant on the chain and wipe it down.
Every so often, I will break out the car wash stuff, and scrub it down more thoroughly, especially if it has stuff caked on it, or if it’s starting to make funny noises….
Once a year, I break it down into pieces and scrub everything then lubricate it all and put it back together. This is normally when I decide it’s time to upgrade something, while it’s already all apart….
Whenever I feel like it…. Though i frequently lube chain and other moving parts.
It’ll get dirty again pretty soon anyways. Why make it shiny after every ride?
About every 2-300 miles I re-wax my chain and while the chain is off I usually give it a quick spray and scrub down with the hose and some car wash soap. I only clean in between that if it’s crazy dirty. Also if it’s just dusty I might go longer between hose downs and just do the chain waxing.