As a recent transplant from the South, I’m attempting to embrace this whole “riding bicycles in the rain” thing. It hasn’t been too bad, it’s also been awful, and I think I’m learning a lot about what makes it endurable for me – with the help of things like a hat and glasses! However, my poor bicycle is taking a hit.
When I arrived here in June, I had recently gone through a very emotional downgrading of my bicycle stable from six bikes to two. Gone are my BMX bike, my vintage cruiser, my cross bike and my commuter bike. I crossed the country with my road bike and my mountain bike, and have been converting my road bike into something more commute-friendly. Additions have included a decent front light, a bell, and fenders, oh my god, fenders.
I took a look at my road bike this weekend as it sat in my living room, and felt this creeping fear sneak under my skin. There’s bright orange surface rust on my chain. There’s so much grit caked around my bottom bracket it looks like it’s foaming at the mouth. Tiny bits of leaves and dirt are so plentiful you can’t read the once beautiful LeMond decals on my frame. And my rims and tires are a disgusting milky grey from who knows what. This is my deepest fear; my bike is sick and it might die this winter if I continue like this.
Do you share this fear? I know at its core my bike is just a combination of steel tubes and a few moving parts but I like it best when it functions and makes me feel like I’m flying. I want to keep my bike happy so it can keep me happy. So here is my winter intervention! I’ve asked around for tips to help my bike (and thus myself) survive winter riding in this great rainy city! This is definitely not an exhaustive list, so help fill in the gaps by adding your tips in the comments!
1. Apply Herbicide – if you live in an apartment type place like me then you don’t have a hose and maybe you also perform all of your bicycle maintenance in your bathtub. A good way to get some of the excess grit off in this situation is by using one of those herbicide applicators filled with water. Squirt down your bike outside before dirt dries on. Just mind any area where excessive pressure could end up sending water inside your frame.
2. Keep it Simple – cleaners like Simple Green are great at removing some of the dried gunk. A wet sponge will help get your frame clean with minimal damage your bike’s beautiful paint job.
Not recommended: cleaning your bike in the shower. Water gets everywhere and the debris clogs the drain.
3. Baby Teeth– a baby tooth brush, the smallest you can find, can get in some of the small crevasses around the bottom bracket, etc.
4. Chain Lube – I hear this is key and very different from WD40, but it won’t save you if you’re not removing all the buildup before reapplying!
5. Hauling – At some point a good overhaul is in order. Take everything apart, clean it real well and put it back. Or take your bike to your local bike shop and have it done professionally. Nothing like a job done right from top to bottom.
Also, for good measure, here are a few things that have not worked well for me:
-Washing my bike in the bathtub – water gets everywhere and the debris clogs the drain.
-Shaking my bike really hard before bringing it inside my building – this does nothing but loosen my fenders.
-Using a hair dryer to dry my bike – might have been better if there wasn’t so much heat involved.
-Using cardboard to get grease buildup out of my cassette – I end up with soggy cereal box shrapnel in between the gears. It was a bad idea.
Do you have some experience in successful winter bicycle preventative maintenance? What’s worked? What has left you thinking, “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Share! Let’s keep the bicycles alive and spinning this winter!
Let’s give our bikes some TLC to keep them alive and spinning this winter!
Keep your rims clean if you have rim brakes. The combination of road grit and rain makes a slurry that seems to be the ideal abrasive for aluminum alloy rims. Want lighter rims? Just use your brakes. I have more than once destroyed rims cycling through the winter. I’m now riding a Focus Urban 8 with hydraulic disc brakes, internal hub gears, and a belt drive. Very little maintenance so far this winter.
I have an old school (1979?) motobecane converted to a single speed for the Seattle winters. Some nice brake levers bought from Recycled Cycles and cheap rims with formula hubs (70$, craigslist). It’s such a horrible color scheme, when the decals vanish I’m not too sad. Especially helpful when the roads get sanded and would normally ruin my Felt, Giant and custom KHS and Specialized DJ bikes.
I see you have gears! Winter will kill them!
Have fun adjusting!
Love your LeMond? Quit riding it. Clean it, lube it, and leave it, until spring that is.
Look in the bike shops and ask around for a good beater bike, or invest in a winter bike. Something that has enough frame clearance for some wide tires and fenders. Don’t wory about how heavy it is- it’s a training bike-
Disc brakes are the only way to go. As was said, your rims will be eaten alive by the road grit. Your LeMond just isn’t built to stand the gritty nightmare of winter riding.
Plan on removing the chain each week and cleaning with detergent and toothbrush. Dry it in your toaster oven (no, I’m not kidding) lube it back up, wipe it down, and put it back on. Those belt drive really make sense.
Plan on packing your hubs with fresh grease each fall, and if you have a steel frame, flushing the tubes with frame-saver or something like that each year.
Most full time riders up here have at least two bikes, one just for winter.
Enjoy the riding in the smuckus, we’ve only got about five more months until we get good weather again. (take your vitamin D too.)
Gears to you….leo
Hey Ellison, its your cuz Casey. like stated before, actual chain lube is amazing compared to wd-40. Pam cooking spray is useful for keeping mud and grime off . that’s what I use on my mountain bike and my ATV during muddy races.
Start with fenders. They do a lot to keep the mud off your feet, your rear end and also your chain. Then read this post on Seattle Bike Blog: http://seattlebikeblog.com/2012/10/23/how-to-bike-in-the-seattle-rain/
It’s not really all that complicated.
“This is my deepest fear; my bike is sick and it might die this winter if I continue like this.” http://t.co/6Z3CWI5K #SEAbikes
Things that I went through a lot of as a 4000+ mi a winter commuter in Seattle, in order, on my old bikes:
1. Brake pads
2. Chains & cassettes
3. Inner tubes and patch kits
4. Rims & tires – Easily one set of wheels a season
5. Bottom brackets and hub bearings
My winter bike love tips (in order):
* Wipe down rims and keep brake pads clean as frequently as possible.
* Wipe down chain and oil it after it’s dried off a little. Keep a close eye on chain wear.
* Inspect rims before and after winter. If at either point they’re looking like they’re getting close to wearing out, start saving and/or purchase a new set. Blowing out rims, at best, was the inconvenience of me having to carry my bike 10 blocks to the nearest bus stop. At worst, they can send you to hospital. New rims now are much cheaper than medical bills later.
* Thinking you might need new tires? The start of winter is a good time to look in to new tires. Water acts as a lubricant that helps foreign objects embedded in your tires slide through the rubber and puncture your tubes. Check your tires on a weekly basis for embedded glass. Also might be a good time to start carrying an extra tube!
* If you store your bike in a nice, warm place, put it outside in a cold (but dry) area about 30 minutes before your ride. If you just take your bike out and immediately start riding it in the rain, as the warm air inside your hubs and bottom bracket cools to the ambient temperature, it will draw air and any moisture around the bearing seals in to the hubs and foul up the bearings and bearing grease. This will wear out parts a little faster. Higher end components tend to be more resilient against this, but lower end bikes will benefit greatly from this.
RE: Rims and rim braking – it is true that rim braking and winter riding are never meant to be together, but it’s not impossible to have both play relatively nice together. Ask your local bike shop about ceramic rims.
RE: Herbicide applicator and/or hose: Go easy on anything that protects bearings. That generally means anything that spins: the pedals, the bottom bracket, the hubs, the headset.
RE: Simple Green and Cleaning – Again, go easy on anything that protects bearings. You get water or simple green in to the bearings and you can kiss longevity goodbye. Thankfully, if you do actually get simple green in there, it’s generally repairable by repacking said items with grease. Generally I’ll wipe down bearing covers with a rag, but no more. When it comes to chains, if the chain is fairly new it will still have the factory lube on it. You should avoid cleaning this with any kind of solvent cleaner for as long as possible; the factory lube has the deepest penetration, and removing it with the solvent cleaner will only shorten the life of the chain.
RE: Chain lube – everyone has their own opinion on this, so I’m going to mention the one thing that I found DIDN’T work because pretty much everything else worked with varying degrees of success – chain wax. It was suppose to be top notch, but after 3 days in the rain, the chain had started rusting. Nowadays I use whatever is cheap from the store during winter, and something nice during summer.
RE: Overhaul – if you want your stuff to last, you’ll do this once before winter, once at the end of winter, minimum. You can probably get away with doing it only once at the end of winter if you’re using a belt drive. If you had to cut it down to a minimum, repack the bearings with grease, and remove/reinstall parts that unscrew after reapplying grease to them (“The three B’s – bolts, bearings and bottom brackets). Even sealed bearings can be serviced to a certain extent this way once you’ve accessed them – use a razor blade or sharp knife to remove the bearing cover, repack it with Phil Wood bearing grease or some equivalent, and replace the cover.
RE: getting grease buildup out of the cassette – grab a business card as you walk out the door of a place you frequent. Let the bike dry, fold the card in half and use the business card to loosen the caked on grease. Works great, costs nothing. Shoelaces also work well, as do dedicated cleaning tools. But business cards are generally the cheapest.
RE: cleaning your bath in the bathtub – If you’re mindful of how you’re doing it this actually works really well! I’ve done this before a few times *mumble mumble* don’t tell my boss or my girlfriend *mumble mumble*. Things to keep in mind are that you don’t want to clog the drain (use a catcher over the top of the hole and manually clean this by hand, and keep the catcher VERY clean) and you don’t want to immerse or directly spray anything with bearings or an entry point in to the frame (e.g. hubs, bottom bracket, headset). I’d use the herbicide thing if i had one. A watering can does ok in a pinch, but can only apply water from a top-down approach.
It is cute that you Seattle residents with your “Seattle Freeze” (In a place that rarely ever falls below 32 degrees) throw around the word “Winter” as much as you do. To a native Minnesotan your use of this term is about as liberal as your politics, or your classification as the Seahawks as a legitimate playoff contender, not that I am complaining, as I obviously moved here for a reason.
That said, the weather here is no joke at times, and what it lacks in the cold, it more than makes up for in its potential to destroy the thing you love most (your bicycle: for anyone who does not have their priorities set straight).
For the most part, I chose to move here because I was tired of the unbearable dead period that I go through every winter in my home state. Riding in Washington during this time of year is not always desirable, but at least it is possible, as you do not typically have inches of snow on the ground. However, what I have always enjoyed (and when in a hurry despised) about cycling, is that it really is a true test of commitment in many ways. It isn’t always like lacing up your shoes and going on a jog, it takes planning. Over time you discover what works best for you personally.
What I have learned in my time in Washington (more specifically, Bellingham), is that though riding here is possible in the winter, unless you are truly committed to the maintenance of your bicycle (which I personally lack the skill to do), you really don’t want to be on something that you care about too much. It almost warrants riding a single speed, but I doubt you would really want to be one of those people.
When I graduated from college I was getting into cycling more and more, and was going through the awkward stages of reading “It’s Not About the Bike”, falling in love with Lance, buying a Trek Madone, and watching the Tour De France along with “You, Me, and Dupree” multiple times, and to be honest things were getting out of hand. Some of my friends didn’t understand me anymore. The spandex that my dad had suggested several months earlier, and I had used the words: “Never, ever, ever, ever” too, now had become the norm. It is never wise to make loud, boldly definitive statements, especially when you are 21.
Anyways, the point is that I was going through the awkward transformation of becoming a cyclist. It is a lot like a tadpole becoming a frog, clueless and undeveloped at the beginning, awkward and in between (wearing a camelbak on a road bike) in the middle, and odd looking to anyone else who isn’t also a frog in in its completion (legs shaved, sunglasses outside of straps, etc). I was riding a carbon road bike, my first ever, and it had changed the way I looked at things forever
Last year when I was living in Minneapolis, in an attempt to avoid the winter hibernation stage that I typically go through every year, as I hate my trainer with the passion of a thousand angry motorists, I borrowed a mountain bike from my Dad that was literally found on the side of the road. It had been fixed up since then, but it was just one step above something that you would buy from a department store.
The only thing was, for as many good times as I had riding that Madone, some of my favorite rides I had that year was on that beat up old mountain bike. Sure it was heavy as hell, shifted in that consistently shitty manner, and would never be acceptable for riding with the club. But that bike allowed me to keep doing what I loved, and surprised me in the realization that it really didn’t matter what type of bike I was on, as I guess I just like riding my bike.
Emboldened by this knowledge, and the fact that I am now on an AmeriCorps salary and cannot stand to destroy my Tarmac (which was paid for by my work for a health insurance company after college, but now due to my poverty may no longer be looked upon as a blood diamond) by riding it through the rainy, slightly colder, “winterish”, season that they have here in Washington. I bought a bottom of the line Specialized Sirrus a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say, I am so happy with this decision. It rides nice, it shifts well enough, and the fact that it is a hybrid allows for me to night ride (with the aid of proper, and obnoxiously bright lighting) without worrying about nailing potholes, or crashing on the slick roads. It gets dirty, and I beat the hell out of it, but I don’t ever try to clean it in my shower. I have a puppy for that.
Put the LeMond in storage for the winter, beat the hell out of some other bike, they don’t make those anymore.
Nice entry. I share your fear. For the last 4 years, I’ve been commuting almost every day, over 3k miles/year. Seattle Winter is difficult, but still, I love it. Here are my tips for year round biking bliss. #1 To save your nice bike, have a cheap bike for days when you know you’re going to be slogging thru standing water. #2 To save rims and stop better, get disc brakes. #3 After a wet ride, wipe down the chain and cogs with an old T-shirt. Optionally use a grit brush first. After the chain is relatively dry, re-apply a bead of lube to top/bottom of chain (not the sides) as you back-pedal. #4 To clean between cogs, I “floss” them using thin (~ 3/4 inch) strips of old T-shirt, baby-wipes or shop towels. Twisting the strips into a “rope” kindof helps too. #5 Try to do a full power train cleaning with de-greaser every 300 or so miles of winter riding. #6 Don’t stress about the wear/tear cuz I know I’m saving a ton by not not driving while doing my body good.
Don’t use that WD40 as lube; use it for cleaning, instead! It works wonderfully. Here’s a post by Kent about how to use it for cleaning: http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-wd-40-is-good-for.html
I have verified that it does an excellent job of getting years of grime off of your wheels, body, gears, fenders, etc. Wear some latex gloves while you scrub, or your hands will be brown afterwards.
A mud flap on the front fender does a nice job of keeping most of the crud off of the bottom bracket, chain stays, and drive chain. I’m very happy with mine.
For some science behind this, read this article: http://janheine.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/why-we-dont-need-rain-bikes-any-longer/
Nice post and great advice everyone. Keep riding!
Ellison, go to your local co-op or search craigslist to get a commuter. Time to rebuild that bike stable.
Great to hear you ride all winter. Like one of the other commenters here, I winter-rode in Minnesota. It wasn’t Minneapolis, so bike-friendliness was lacking, though we did have a pretty great city-wide network of trails. Getting out on the roadway in snowy weather was pretty bad. During heavy and/or prolonged snow events, the roads got narrower and narrower as there was no place to put the snow. So I didn’t go very far due to the snow and temps. Overall though, considering the wetness here, it’s not a slam dunk as to which locale was worse. I didn’t (and still don’t) have much money, so my clothing and equipment was not great. Numb toes and fingers were the norm.
My basic mindset is to not be too worried about wear and tear on my bikes. I’ve never had the money to buy an expensive bike. So I take the approach of acquiring inexpensive or free bikes, have multiple of them ready to serve me (yes, my wife hates that part), and if they get run into the ground no big deal. I lack in-depth knowledge of bike repair, and lack motivation to do the maintenance the bikes need.
Surprisingly, the most expensive bike I’ve ever gotten – an $800 Schwinn we got for $350 – is my war horse and takes most of the truly nasty abuse of PNW winter riding. The bikes I have gotten from garage sales or on Freecycle that have turned out to be pretty cool bikes IMO, I tend to be more worried about and try not to use as much in gritty weather.
Why that’s bad for the environment, you say – abusing these bikes then having to discard them. Well, aside from the fact that I don’t recall yet having to actually dispose of a bike over the years (some have been stolen from me though):
1.) I do perform a basic level of maintenance (For a time, I used to spray WD-40 on my rear cassette after a snowy ride even though I was advised against it. I would gently use a wire brush to clear crud out of the cassette while spraying it with WD-40. That chain broke on me and I stopped the practice).
2.) I practice something that most cyclists would be unwilling to do: I use my brakes as little as possible. When coming to a stop I go sort of Flintstones and put a foot down several times to help slow the bike, and then come to a trotting stop when speed is low enough. Brake pads cost money and so do rims! As for the commenter that buys a new set of wheels per year: You’ve got to be kidding! Which leads me to my last point:
3.) If you think wearing out bikes is wasteful, consider all the resources required for that proper maintenance that is suggested. Really think about it. All the water required for washing your bike and its components, the rags used, the solvent/cleaners involved, the new grease and lube involved, the discarding and replacing of parts that likely have much useful life left in them. You get the idea.
My last, last point: Who really has the time and inclination to do all that tedious maintenance? Tearing down and rebuilding stuff at intervals of like 300 miles? That has not even a remote chance of getting done by me. More importantly, it is extremely discouraging to anyone who is in the decision stages regarding taking up cycling.