123123user

I had to take the bike on a freshly-rained-upon road and had no energy left to clean immediately when I got home. I attempted to at least degrease and wipe off the drivetrain but there was a lot of gravel in between the crevices of the cassette, chain, basically everywhere. I could hear them sanding together while I cycle -- it needed a full body wash.

Just today I popped up the pressure washer and sprayed it straight onto the muck -- my cassette never looked this silvery before! Also sprayed from the top in between the crank arms, the FD area, the brakes, and anywhere else where the gravel had conveniently rested on and it's a relief to feel smooth again. Didn't really bother with the top half though.
Then I turned on the internet for more cleaning advices and it says that I should not ever use a pressure washer ever. Holy crap, did I make a mistake? I watched someone on youtube testing it out on his mountain bike (I washed a road bike) and had some water inside his BB after.

PoorInRichfield

I used to pressure wash my 1999 Trek 5200... until I blasted part of a decal off on the downtube. Unless it's a very low-pressure pressure washer, hand washing is likely a better option.

bargainguy

The problem with pressure washers is bearing surfaces. Any high-pressure application to those bearing surfaces is going to result in moisture infiltration. Now you're talking rebuild.

The good news is that once you've rebuilt the bearing surfaces with fresh grease, you're good to go.

Chuck Naill

Fenders are your friend. I honestly don't know why they are not more popular. Even dirt bikes have them.

Pop N Wood

Yeah, got to believe all the over the top warnings on the internet.

The worry is forcing water past the seals into the bearings. Just don't make a habit of it and if you do, avoid areas with bearing seals (like the bottom bracket). Bike wash by hand just fine.

base2 

The advice against pressure washing generally stems from days of yore when "sealed" really meant a dust shield in close proximity to prevent general particulate intrusion. The term "sealed" was meant to distinguish from "unsealed" where the bearing balls were plainly visible to both the unaided eye and whatever sand happened to be nearby. Think of the difference between an American Ashtabula bottom bracket versus the tin cover pressed onto the cone of a wheel bearing. These bearing were intended for regular disassembly & servicing owing to their exposed nature and chemistry of the available lubrications of the time.

Modern rubber sealed bearings are unlikely to get water infiltration owing to improved design. The pressure of a jet of water on the rubber seal can actually possibly make it seal harder depending on design. Though bicycle bearings are friction sensitive to the end user and such design is rarely employed outside of some cartridge-style square taper bottom brackets.

Generally the seals in a cartridge style bearing are inserted into the cartridge and the assembly is behind a shield/flange/baffle of some sort. Observe the flanges on an axle endcap. Or the dust shields of a quality headset... The purpose is to take away any direct path and deflect the energy of any incoming jet stream before the rubber seal so that the rubber seal can do it's one job, keeping dust out & keeping lube in.

Your bike is designed to operate in the rain. I think general advice ought to be updated to: "Pressure wash bearing areas no harder than would be experienced by rainfall." But, that may be too much nuance for many people, especially people who have no idea what kinds of bearings they have. Thus the general: "Thou shalt not!!!" still persists.

easyupbug 

Assuming you used a typical high pressure washer you should check at a minimum your headset, hubs, bottom bracket, derailleurs, & pedals, anywhere there is a seal.

Maelochs

Did you think your bike had been bad so you pressure-washed it to punish it, and now you feel guilty?

cyccommute 

Excellent advice. I would add that even loose bearing hubs…which are about the only things using loose bearings now…have far better seals than they did back in the 80s and early 90s. We can thank mountain bikes for that.

123123user

What could be the implications if water has ever invaded bearing surfaces?

cyccommute 

Rust. Maybe pushing outside grit into the bearings. If the bearings are cartridge bearings, this isn’t much of a concern since those kinds of bearings are replaced if they stop working.

soyabean

Bearings are made to repel dropping rain and puddle splashes, and even then, I have seen that dry out bearings and rust up. Regardless, even sealed bearings are not designed to withstand 2000 psi of water.

If a bike has never been washed and only a pressure washer can remove cakes grease and cured dirt, then the bike is due for a rebuild anyways. Go ahead, and rebuild that bottom bracket, headset, wheel hubs.

After that, you only need garden hose and water pressure that garden hose provides, a good soap does the rest.

We've also seen electric water guns used in professional cycling pitstops. These give better pressure than a garden hose, but still much lower than a pressure washer. Rhe pit crew using this knows the areas to avoid, and water into bearings is not an issue for a bike that only needs to work that one day.

Maelochs

I agree .... the high-pressure water can blow the grease out of the bearing housing so the bearings just grind themselves to nothing. Yes, bearings, loose or cartridge, can be replaced ... but doing something that harms the bike because you can fix it later ... we all make our choices. I do not choose that.

I use Simple Green, but any sort of soap is fine. as was mentioned, if the grease is caked and baked and won't come off with soap and a brush .... maybe time to break down everything and repair and replace in a more serious manner.

wolfchild

Pressure washing a bike is total overkill and unneccessary. You could of used a garden hose to rinse it and that would of been enough.

tomato coupe

Would have, could have.

Inusuit

Rust.

indyfabz

English be hard.

rsbob 

I used to regularly pressure wash my MTB after mud caked rides. However, I was careful to avoid the headset, BB and wheel hubs.

indyfabz

Yeah. I got mired in Montana mud up to the spokes, which splattered mud everywhere, including on the brakes. (Glad I didn’t have fenders.) Fortunately, there was a car wash place with a power washer maybe 9 miles up the road. Made sure to spray down whenever possible and use as little pressure as possible.

PeteHski

IME pressure washing a bike will soon compromise the BB, wheel bearings and headset. Especially if you are pointing it straight at them at close range.

Even regular riding in the rain and mud greatly reduces the lifespan of these bearings. They are not that well sealed.

cyccommute 

Bearings don’t “dry out” because of water. Grease is hydrophobic and doesn’t dissolve in water. Older greases used salts of fatty acids to hold the oil in suspension but the oil can flow away from that kind of grease over time. The salt of the fatty acid was generally not water soluble either. More modern greases use different formulations that retain the lubricating part of the grease better than older greases. The days of “grape jelly” in bearing surfaces is mostly gone.

While the pressure at the nozzle may be as high as 2000 psi, the pressure drops to atmospheric as soon as it exits the nozzle. There may be a small gradient very, very close to the nozzle but, as long as you don’t put the nozzle directly on the bearing, there is little chance the you’ll be in that pressure zone. The water will have a fairly high velocity but it won’t have any pressure.

The guys over at GCN actually tested this and found even putting the nozzle right on the bearings for minutes at a time didn’t cause problems.

cyccommute 

Do you offer that advice to motorists? The bearings on bicycles are adapted from bearings found in various spots on motor vehicles. They are most like what you will find in the steering system. Those bearings carry heavier loads and are exposed to more harsh conditions. They, however, last for 10s of thousands to hundreds of thousands of miles with no maintenance at all.

The cartridge bearings used in bicycles aren’t bicycle specific. They have wide applications in many industries that operate under far more harsh conditions that we cyclists put them through. No one seems to be all that concerned about their ability to handle the conditions.

PeteHski

Yeah I definitely go easy with the pressure washer on cars. Although it's a lot harder to directly spray bearing seals in a car. But you can certainly get water into places where it causes trouble. For example I've seen alternators destroyed from pressure washing engine bays.

I presume you pressure wash the crap out of all your bikes and they last forever. I just use a garden hose at most.

GhostRider62

I use the power washer with 45 degree nozzle when there are a lot of dried worms on the downtube. I never apply water pressure to a bearing. You just have to not be stupid.

Hvac

Lessons learned for us all.