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<p style="text-align: left;">It's been dry for a few weeks... and then monsooned for 2 hours on Sunday. That was the two hours I was riding.</p>
I don't mind washing the bike, hose, soapy water, hose, done. It's the muddy kit that does my nut, to try and save my washing machine bearings I rinse everything a couple of times in a bucket. That's the bit I hate. Helmet, pack, clothes, gloves, shoes, pads, socks... everything covered, everything soaking. Freezing in the garden.
A mate has a sacrificial old washing machine in his shed. Picks one up each autumn from FB marketplace, attaches a feed from a hosepipe and pipes the waste goes into a garden soakaway. It's knackered come spring so he scraps it and looks out for another. That's a genius idea but isn't possible at my house.
So... top tips for reducing post ride middy kit faff? After all, winter is coming.
I hose myself at the same time as the bike if its that bad, then normal washing machine.
If it's bad hose it down to get the worst of the mud off, if it's rally bad out I tend to take my Worx Hydroshot in the car to do the bike at the end of the ride and will give my kit a good blast at the same time.
If you can let it dry, most of the worst will brush off before washing.
Normally leave it on the garage floor and forget about it until I need it. Not the best option but it tends to happen this way.
Bring it into the shower with me. (Not wearing it). give it a few rinses and wrings out to get the worst of the mud out.
Have also used the bucket soaking method in the past.
This
I hose myself at the same time as the bike if its that bad, then normal washing machine.
Bucket if bad, although machine is now on 'insurance' - the only thing that is. Shorts and jersey usually the worst.
When its really minging I soak everything in a bucket for a day or two with a dod of detergent in there and then wash with other smelly gym kit etc
If you can let it dry, most of the worst will brush off before washing.
This is what I tend to do, helps if you've sufficient kit and its warm!
Hose as soon as I get back, then dry in the house and wipe down, lube and put away.
Hang it out under the eaves of the house for 24 hours, then brush and wash.
Hmmmm, drying before brushing off then washing. That's one to try 🤔
Creepily I throw all my dirty washing on kitchen floor. Be it bike kit/work kit etc and few days later it’s magically clean in a pile 🤷♂️
I hang my dirty kit up on the garden washing line, connect the hose pipe to the garden's hot tap and blast away all the mud with lovely warm water
Next wring it out and if its no longer dirty ill hang it up in the garage with the dehumidifier on to dry it, if it needs further cleaning then it goes in the washing machine
The garden hot water tap was the best house d.i.y thing ive ever done
to try and save my washing machine bearings
I am not a washing machine engineer, but surely the bearings are out of contact with any water, grit or cack in the machine? I'd have thought ( and I absolutely accept I could be hopelessly wrong) the bearings support the spindle the drum rotates on and are dry?
Happy to be corrected.
I can imagine excessive dirt might do other damage though.
Mudguards?
Hose off the worst, chuck it in the washing machine.
If it's really muddy I'll give things a quick hose off or perhaps get undressed standing in the shower and wash off the grit.
But, my washing machine is probably over fifteen years old and although it doesn't have to deal with kids, it has always been loaded with muddy bike gear and various horse paraphernalia including hair covered numners overloaded piss and poo ingrained rugs and it's still running great...so I don't worry too much about what goes in it anymore!
Hose off what I can with the HydroShot when I'm doing my bike.
Waterproof stuff that doesn't absorb mud gets a follow up rinse in the shower, then drip dry.
Anything that's a fancy material, gloves, and protection pads gets a bucket wash with Halo. Jerseys and non-waterproof socks go in the machine.
Helmet gets a wipe down. Pat down the pads with tissue to dry the sweat out, then a dash of antibac spray. Take them out once in a while for a Halo wash.
Shoes get a wipe down then onto the shoe dryer, and a dash of antibac spray.
The garden hot water tap was the best house d.i.y thing ive ever done
I do keep toying with the idea of an outdoor shower for these sorts of occasions.
Hose myself after I've hosed the bike down...that gets most of the dirt off. I've a shower room next to back door so I then tend to walk into shower and do another rinse off as I get undressed - but I need to be absolutely manky for that.
Shoes go on a shoe dryer - Aldi or Lidl special - helmet sits over them (about a foot above - in my way of thinking there is a slight current of air passing through helmet so it dries it - suspect I'm just wafting bacteria into it though).
Depending on how wet and manky, it might just be jacket and trousers off and hanging up to drip dry with socks in wash with rising shorts and top and shoes on shoe dryer. Or it could be a huge operation with several wash stages.
Massive mudguards help enormously!
Front ones stay on all year for me, its never a good time to get sheep poo in the face 💩
Took the rear off this summer and rode on Wales for 4 days of solid rain. I'd forgotten the feeling of hitting a huge puddle at max speed. Like being dumped in a cold muddy bath at regular intervals.
We are on the same second hand to us washing machine for 10 years. My wife killed the previous one with hair pins.
I just put it the machine, perhaps a bit of a hose if it's been exceptionally grim
If you've driven to ride, and it's too bad to go in the machine and you hose yourself down in the garden, how do you get home?
Brush/hose off the worst of it whilst still wearing it then bag it up and take it up to the bathroom. Empty the bag into the bath and rinse the remaining loose dirt off then stick it into the washing machine
Hurl it in the machine without a second thought.
Straight in the washing machine, same with my OH's horse-riding gear.
Don't give it a second thought.
If you’ve driven to ride, and it’s too bad to go in the machine and you hose yourself down in the garden, how do you get home?
Haven't driven to a ride in 10 years. But i have of those massive dressing gown toweling things and an IKEA bag (and a floor mat if it's gravelly).
Everything goes in the bag and i get myself dryish and dressed, don't like sitting around in cycling kit if i don't have to anyway.
Hose it off then it goes in the washing machine with another load of clothes, the drying part I've not fully figured out though especially in winter. This summer I've been hanging them up in the conservatory and the heat has had them dry pretty quick.
Last year I was using an extra spin cycle then hanging them up somewhere warm around the house but apparently I can't do that anymore as the wifes said we aren't a chinese laundromat, so back to the drawing board for winter this year but we did get a new tumble drier with a bunch of bells and whistles so I need to see if there is like a gentle heat/synthetics mode that works with the bike clobber.
I know a washing machine repairer. I asked him and he said just bung it all in on a rinse cycle. Doesn't do the machine any harm.
Except somebody disagreed when she came home and heard my winter SPD boots clonking around inside.
peg on the line and hose it down or on grass, missus did tough mudder at the weekend so i cleaned her kit, i can see why so many people just leave their trainers for them to recycle..
Another vote for straight in the machine - the trick is to look after the washing machine though. Give it a clean every once in a while and check that the filter isn't all blocked up with crap
Pressure washer and then in the machine.
hang it in the van for it to dry out then re-use next ride in a couple of days time.
i wash stuff occasionally once its dry and all the big lumps have fallen off. i`m going to get wet, smelly and dirty so i might as well start smelly and dirty as it saves time.
This is where a downstairs shower with a tiled route from an outside door is key.
Shoes off at door, walk to shower with empty bucket, into shower fully clothed and basically wash and remove a muddy item at a time. Wring out gently, lob in bucket. Have a normal shower and rinse the walls, screen etc down in the process. Then take out item by item and put in washing machine trying to leave as much of whatever crud remains in the bucket.
Other good things - trews mean that there only tends to be one above waist layer that is filthy, one below waist one and then socks and gloves. I have a doubled-over plastic sheet that something was delivered in once upon a time in the car to sit on and that goes up the back of the seat so I can just drive home in my muddy gear if not getting changed (midweek night ride etc).
As for the bike - hardtail for all the regular local rides so less moving parts. After a midweek night ride it gets the fork and dropper stanchions wiped, chain wiped, GT85 on chain, wipe again, oil. The bike then gets a proper clean after the weekend ride when I can see what I'm doing.
Shoes rarely get cleaned, just dried. Fanny pack gets emptied after a weekend ride every so often, rinsed in a bucket and in the wash with the clothes.
Cold winter night rides also feature a bit of prep. Making sure the bucket is where it should be before, towel ready in the shower room, crumpets in the bread bin, toaster out on the side etc. Anything to make the post-ride clean up quicker/easier.
Just to clarify - waterproofs don't go in the washer after a shower. They get dried on a radiator in a non-pretty part of the house, so a bit of mud on the radiator etc doesn't matter.
All this talk of post-ride cleanup routines is making me nervous ahead of when the weather properly turns... 😬