Cleaning the Bike
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If cleaning of the frame is a matter of carefulness,
then cleaning of the chain is a matter of necessity.
No kidding!
1. Introduction
Cleaning the
bike, but not only the bike, is for sure the least
amusing task. Some bikers do not clean their bikes at
all. They let dirt to pile up until the gravity gets it
off. Well, there are quite some reasons why this is not
good:
-
dirt,
which remains on the bike, slowly finds its way into
the bike components' interior - bearings, etc.
because of which the wear is more rapid and the life
span is thus shorter
-
the
bike works worse: gear shifting is not that smooth,
breaks are difficult to apply, etc.
-
damage
is hidden, for example cracks in the frame can not
be noticed on time
-
clean
bike is nice to ride
In summer, when it's dry, dust from macadam roads and
cart tracks gathers in thin layers on frame and other parts of your mountain bike. After rain and in wet periods dust on
pathways changes into mud, which is even more annoying. In
any case no one can avoid regular and frequent cleaning. This is especially true for the chain.
If you experience a close encounter with a bigger amount
of mud, then you have to do a complete general cleaning (chapters
1 - 7), which usually occurs a few times a season.
Otherwise you have to perform a basic drive train
cleaning every couple of dozen kilometers, which is
basically every trip
(chapters 6 and 7). If you don't, the drive train wear
will be much faster.
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