Do you hose your bike?

A friend of mine who used to work in a bike shop once recommended against using a hose to get rid of mud, as water can get into seals and bearings. Instead he suggested to let it dry and use brushes and rags to clean the bike. I've always followed his advice.

Another buddy doesn't clean his ride at all, he says it'll get dirty on the next ride anyways :)

What method do you guys use to clean your rides, and how often? Has anybody experienced any issues after washing with a garden hose?

mostly leave it dirty sometimes brush off the dryed dirt

I use a concentrated stream from the garden hose to de-mud the tyres and mud build up on the frame, mindful to not directly direct the stream of h2O on the pivots, hubs or drivetrain.

ffs it's just a bicycle, not a Rembrandt.

Washing down your bike will definitely reduce the service life of the bushings/bearings on your bike, no matter how careful you are . I just let the dirt and mud dry and then brush it off.

I always wash it. It doesn't matter if it gets past bearing shields (as it will) because that shit you're suppose to regularly maintain anyway. I'm almost two years on my Xprezo and it rides like new.

getting the bike wet enough to saturate caked mud is fine. Getting your bike a little wet while washing it doesnt hurt it as much as riding it in the rain with seals moving and allowing for more water to enter.

Even if you arent technical enough to do your own maintenance or adjustments, at least washing your bike allows you to find dangerous cracks or compromises in your ride. A cracked head tube, seatstay, a partially severed brake hose, frayed derailleur cable, worn brake pads, cracked derailleur pulleys, ect.

I don't wash it all the time but I certainly like to give it a cleaning every few rides or after a real dirty one.

Nothing worse than working on a filthy bike, best way to get grit in a thread or bearing and have a ghost creak.

I use a concentrated stream from the garden hose to de-mud the tyres and mud build up on the frame, mindful to not directly direct the stream of h2O on the pivots, hubs or drivetrain.

ffs it's just a bicycle, not a Rembrandt.

yup what he said

i have a shower head nozzle i use to rinse of the heavy stuff and soak the bike down , then it,s a bucket and assortment of brushes , then a rinse down and wipe dry . only do a full wash down every couple months or every race

I try not to hose down the bike unless it's absolutely filthy. Even at that, I usually let it dry and brush the dirt off.

On my current bike, the rear end will creak if I wash it too often, remedied by removing and re-greasing the pivot hardware.

On a past bike, water from washing ended up getting past the headset top cup and sitting in the headtube above the bottom cup, causing the lower bearing to corrode and seize.

I never wash mine

I usually just wipe down stanchions and chain.

I have to roll mine through the common areas in my building so it can't be totally filthy. Otherwise I would just let it dry and then brush it off.

I use a hose with just enough pressure to get the worst of it off. Typically it doesn't look all that great once it's dry but it's not covered in cakey mud leaving a trail of debris, and that's enough.

My bikes are sexy, they come in the shower with me