Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Commuter gets a cleaning . . .

With the warm weather I decided that my commuter could use some lov'n and I figure the best way to do that is to start with some cleaning. The bike hasn't seen the entire winter, like a lot of them have and I had hoped mine would, but it did get to commute at least once every month which says something I guess since we did get 13 feet of snow this winter!!

Here she is . . . all 50 bucks worth. My buddy Scott thought I would like road riding so he hooked me up with this ride last spring. I put 2k+ kms on it last year so I think I got my money's worth.



One of the things that I keep clean on my bikes is the chain, unfortunately the commuter doesn't get its share of this cleaning. Sometimes I use a typical chain cleaner, sometimes I soak the chain in degreaser, then brush it, rinse it and dry it. I don't know about you but one of the things I hate is getting greasy from a dirty chain.

Sometimes it happens on the trail when I am fixing a broken chain . . .


and sometimes it happens at home when I am cleaning up the commuter!



Either way the end result is that I have grease where I don't want it!



No matter how it gets there it can be a real pain in the A$$!!



I recently tried a "Citrus-Powered Degreaser Hand Wipe" or CitraWipe that is made by a company called Zogics. They come in a very portable and convenient little package that can easily fit in a jersey or a pack.

The pictures above were just taken a few minutes ago in the garage and this one is what my hand looks like after a wipe down, pretty sweet huh!?!



Here's a shot of the packaging and the wipe after I beat the crap out of it. . . . or into it as it were.


I'll definitely be carrying this in my hydra-pak this summer but I hope I only have to use it on my hands!!! I better throw one in my seat pack on the road ride also in case I get a flat, it'd be good for cleaning up after any messy incident.

P.S. If you're wonder'n whether or not the grease came off everywhere you'll have to ask the boss! :-o

4 comments:

Kari said...

Nice post Lenny! That grease gets everywhere if you're not careful!

Unknown said...

you can use baby oil to lift off the heavier chain oil, then ordinary grease cutting dish soap to take it all away. or alleviate your trouble altogether and use wax based lubricant (for your chain, that is. i don't want to even guess what else in going on in that basement :P

Anonymous said...

lol!...how many times did Tammy or the kids open the garage door on you?

Anonymous said...

Ewwwww . . . . saggy old man butt!