Tips for bad weather: Cleaning your bike and clothing
The basis for bike cleaning
The standard wash requires little material:
- Cleaning bucket full of water or garden hose
- Brush with long, soft bristles (e.g. paste brush)
- Rags
- Chain oil
As long as the mud has not dried, it does not need more than a generous application of water to rinse it off with a brush. Drop the wet bike on the ground a few times so that the water drips off, then rub the chain halfway dry with a cloth and oil it straight away. This prevents flash rust. An environmentally friendly chain oil is recommended, especially in muddy weather.
When you need more: Professional laundry
Every few laps, the bike will appreciate a professional wash with environmentally friendly bike cleaner. The better the drivetrain is mechanically pre-cleaned, the easier it is for the cleaner. Discarded dentist's tools work well on the derailleur pulleys and between the sprockets - it doesn't hurt to ask. After pre-cleaning with water and a tool like this (if necessary, use a tyre lever), spray the bike and specifically the drivetrain with cleaner. Important: let it work according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually for a few minutes. Then scrub the chainring, sprocket and rear derailleur with a small, hard brush, pull the chain through a cloth and then rinse everything off with plenty of water. After cleaning, fresh chain oil is particularly important.
How to get your rain jacket and rain trousers clean again
How often, how hot, how fast to spin? Tips for the Correct cleaning of impregnated, vapour-permeable rainwear we have already given many times. The key points: Use liquid detergent sparingly, rinse thoroughly, spin at most briefly and fix the final impregnation with heat using an iron or tumble dryer. You can save yourself the odd wash cycle if sun cream, body lotion and the like don't get on the inside of the jacket in the first place. If the outside temperature allows, long sleeves and tubular scarves are therefore helpful barriers between your skin and the jacket.
Care tips from the expert
Axel Meyer, Managing Director of the specialised laundry Meyer und Kuhl, answered two particularly tricky practical questions for our colleagues from our sister magazine BIKE. His company also professionally washes and waterproofs bikers' rain gear.
BIKE: In our experience, re-waterproofing is never as good and durable as that provided by the textile manufacturer. Why is that?
Axel Meyer: For the textile and the impregnation to bond optimally, the pH value of the surface must be right. Too much alkaline washing powder or too acidic water will impair the effect. You can't really control this with household products. But we and the textile manufacturers can. The impregnation is fixed with heat, and our process is also very precise in this respect.
In addition, there are problems due to the avoidance of certain environmentally harmful fluorine compounds, the PFCs, which were previously common. The alternatives are usually based on silicone or melamine resins - and these two substances are not compatible with each other. If the re-impregnation does not match the initial impregnation, it will not work.
Cycling jackets and trousers sometimes come into contact with chain grease - quite a problem on such a functional jacket, isn't it?
No, it's not that bad. If you pre-treat the stains before washing and waterproofing, they should come out. I recommend either a paste made from grated curd soap with water, simple soft soap or a mild washing-up liquid. Use a grease-dissolving washing-up liquid, diluted at least one to eight with water, otherwise the area will remain too alkaline even after washing. Massage it in with your thumb, leave it on for a short time, then put it in the washing machine. And as always with textiles to be impregnated: rinse thoroughly in the washing machine. An additional rinse cycle improves the result.
