Bike Cleaning 101 by Primal Pro Women and Pro Gold Lubricants

This season the Primalprowomen have been traveling around the country giving out special clinics to women who want to improve their racing performance. These clinics have included bike-handling drills, bike safety, nutrition, and the attendies always leave with secrets to success that pros like Nicky Wangsgard have learned over years of racing to help them become the best. Another important aspect of these clinics have been bike maintenance 101 because everyone knows a clean bike is a faster bike. Most of all, if you want to beat the best, you need to have a bike that is working its best.

In this post, we will go over six easy steps to keep your bike running its best, whether you are out there to win the weekend race, beat your buddies up the climbs, or just want to enjoy the little time you get on your bike without annoying problems or noises ruining it for you. To get your bike running its best, you need to start out with the best cleaning and lubricant products designed for heavy duty touring and light weight race bikes. That is why we use ProGold Lubricants (progoldmfr.com).

Step 1: Start off by spraying your bike down with ProGold’s Wash + Degreaser. Spray wash all over, frame, wheels, chain, and gears. Let it sit for at least five minutes. This is a step many people don’t do and is vital for the degreaser to sit and do its job in loosing up grim your bike attracts. For really dirty spots use ProGold’s Foaming Citrus Degreaser. I especially like the foaming degreaser on the chainrings and derailleurs.

Step 2: While the degreaser is magically working on the frame, spray ProGold Blast Off on the cassette for an easy clean. Blast Off is awesome. Within a few seconds grim is gone and your cassette looks brand new. Gone are the days of “flossing” a cassette or the “shoe shine.” Blast off can be used all over the bike as well to get off grim that is really on there.

Step 3: Now it’s time to lube up your cables. ProGold’s Luber Pen does the job here. With the rear wheel in the frame shift up to your lowest gear. Stop spinning the pedals and shift all the way down, loosing up all cable tension. Now you can get the cable out without having to undo any bolts. Slide the housing away and lube up your cables. Just this small step can really improve shifting performance.

Step 4: Wipe the bike down with ProGold Pro Towels. You can use this on the frame as well as the chain and chainrings. Now your bike is looking really good! These towels are magic. They quickly remove any dirt or crud collected before or after ride. The girls on Primal use these towels on their bike before and after every ride.

Step 5: Never leave your chain dry after a good cleaning. Finish up by lubing your chain with ProGold Extreme chain lube or the standard ProLink Chain Lube. Lube the chain with the chain in the biggest chainring. Spin the pedals backwards while lubing the chain for a good three full rotations. You can never have too much lube. The trick is to give it a good wipe down after. You want the lube to go “into” the chain. If excess lube is left on the outside of the chain you will attract dust and dirt, making your chain wear faster.

Step 6: To finish off the job, use ProGold Bike Shine to give a final protective coating on your bike. This will help repeal dirt and dust off your frame as well as protect it from the suns UV rays. Not to mention it leaves your bike looking totally awesome.

ProGold offers a wide range of products including a steel frame protector as well as a helmet cleaner that leaves your helmet smelling like it just came out of the box. Find all their products online on their website or better yet, go to your local bike shop and tell them to start carrying ProGold Lubricants if they aren’t already doing so!

Check out our recent you tube post featuring our wonderful bike mechanic cleaning Nicky Wangsgard's bike using the six steps above at http://youtu.be/hdn2Zfa-pf8.