Gamjams Review - Cleaners & Degreasers - Lotsa Junk

I don't have one specific method for cleaning my bike, but here goes the entire process, no two of which usually happen in series. I just don't have the patience or time to fully clean the bike very often...

First of all, I never work on my bike without a beer in hand. It's a matter of meditation. Tinkering with my bike is fun, so while some may consider it work, I get into it until my bike is spotless. A beer just helps the mood. The first recommendation off of the top of my head is Rogue Dead Guy Ale, a maibock style beer that is oh-so scrumptious.

Enjoy too many beers, though, and you'll get a bit ambitions. If I enjoy more than two beers while tinkering with the bike, I become a terrible perfectionist. I end up with horrible shifting and dirty, overused bartape that just won't "get even."

So, to clean the horrible looking dirt, if the drivetrain and moving parts are as dirty as they get, I use White Lightning's Clean Streak cleaner/degreaser to get the hard gunk off the the nooks and crannies of the bike. Warning: THIS IS NOT A CHAIN LUBE. I'll go through and clean my chain and cassette thoroughly later on with some good lube. We'll get to that later. This is just multi-purpose cleaning stuff that will make you dizzy, too.

My tip with Clean Streak is not to use this stuff inside or you'll be cleaning out your brain, too. Aside from that, the stuff works but dries out your chain and cassette, so you need to lube up your parts if you know what I mean.

I always wipe down my frame with water, and sometimes soapy water. I use old t-shirts, soft rags, or just plain paper towels. It's a heck of a lot easier to do this if you have a stand and can take the wheels off first so you can get inside the fork, under the brake calipers, and behind the crankset. You know a bike isn't truly clean until there isn't a spec of dirt or dust left on it. Anywhere.

Speaking of which, my bike is horribly filthy right now. I'm not exactly practicing what I preach here, so take my methods with a grain of salt. I cleaned it after Saturday's ride at the Lost River Barn only to ride in the rain on dirty roads on Sunday. Oh well.

After the big gunk is off the moving parts, and the frame is semi-shiny, I start the real process of cleaning the chain. I usually try to do this whenever my chain isn't silver anymore, or about once every week or two, even if I'm not cleaning the entire bike. I used to be more lazy about it, but since I got this bike a year ago I've disciplined myself to clean it up.

I usually use ProLink to clean the chain. I follow the directions, applying the stuff liberally while turning the pedals backwards, and wiping down the chain with shop rags or old T's until that doesn't work anymore. Then I move to paper towels.

If I want some lube that stays on a bit longer than ProLink, I use Rock "N" Roll Gold. If you're predicting wet conditions, they say that Rock "N" Roll Blue is a better compound for shifting, but I have never noticed a difference so the all-around stuff works just fine. Similarly, Rock "N" Roll Red works for drier conditions. Whatever. If you so much as clean and lube your chain, you're doing more than most folks to maintain your bike. Use something.

For what it's worth, Catherine taught me most of what I know about making my bike look good. Clean bikes just look "Pro."

Her bikes always look sharp and shiny, gold chains and all:


After I lube the chain (if you know what I mean), I again wipe down the frame, especially the seat- and chain-stays, just to get the lube gunk off from cleaning the chain.

Then comes the final trick: Pedro's Bike Lust. It's a silicone liquid that covers up the frame. Like shoe polish, I guess it fills in the microscopic holes and pores in your clear coat, to give it a good shine. The stuff also makes cleaning and wiping down the frame a breeze because less gunk sticks to it. Although Bike Lust works well on the parts of the bike you like to show off (down tube / logos), I like using it most on the parts of the bike that attract lots of grit: down tube, back of the seat tube, etc.

So here is my bike a few months ago, outside of a CVS, right after I did a total cleaning:


Talking about cleaning and lubing your chain... It always sounds so inadvertantly perverted.

Anyways, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.