Today i rode with my brother Alan both on the road and in the trails. We started off with a couple laps on the road before switching to the trails. Alan is getting really good at mountain biking, as he kept having to wait up for me whenever we hit a technical section. It wasn't until we did the easier green trails in Stillwell that are flat and mostly dirt trails free of obstacles that I was able to put some distance on him.
I learned that my Mavic Kysrium SL's are not the best 'cross wheelset, (at least not for singletrack trail riding), as i hit something that caused the front wheel to go out of true, and the bike did not track corners well at all for the rest of the afternoon. This has only further reinforced my belief that my mavic cxp 33 wheelset is the best one to take on Bike and Builde, as they can take alot of abuse.
After emerging from the woods with our dirty machines, it was time to clean them. Here I witnessed Alan performing the cardinal sin of bike maintenance, which was taking a hose to clean off the bike. NEVER CLEAN A BIKE WITH A GARDEN HOSE. Bikes in general don't like getting wet, but shooting water at certain area's of the bike like bearings and headsets, shortens the life of the bike and components by many years. Mechanics on the protour may use powerwashers to clean the entire team's bikes for those nasty European classic races in the spring, but they wind up replacing bottom brackets every two weeks, which are not in most people's budgets.
You clean a bike to prolong the life of components, not to shorten them.
To clean a bike, all you need is an old tshirt and maybe a little soapy water for hard to clean areas. Nothing short of meticulous hand cleaning keeps the bike in as good shape. (Ocassionally I'll hit the frame up with proline bike cleaner to give it some shine) I take pride in the fact my bikes are always clean and well maintained, as they run smoother and look a whole lot nicer.
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