If you have an e-bike, it will get dirty at any moment. And during wet weather and winter, it might get dirtier. So during this time of the year, you might think of cleaning your electric bike. But there is a way you should do it. The reason is that electric bikes aren’t like regular cycles. They need extra care as e-bikes have a motor and a battery. Moreover, you might question how often you should clean the electric bike. And this article will give you answers to all your questions.
Furthermore, even without the dirt, your e-bike gets during wet seasons, maintaining the cleanliness of your e-bike is a must. It helps you to keep the electric bike brand new. And also, doing so ensures its durability. Therefore, remember to clean your e-bike as much as possible. But follow the necessary guidelines to do so.
Cleaning the electric bike isn’t a pleasant task for everyone. Many electric bike owners identify it as a tiresome task. But if you need your electric bike to last longer, cleaning it is a must. So it would help if you took it seriously. If you don’t care about the electric bike’s cleanliness, you may invite permanent damage to your e-bike. So you need to do periodic cleaning of your electric bike. And the frequency of doing so depends on the usage of your electric bike. Moreover, it would help if you had excellent patience to clean an electric bike and enough space.
It isn’t only about the cleanliness of your electric bike. It is more about safety. The reason is that once dirt gathers, your bike’s functionality will seriously go haywire. And it can result in fatal accidents.
How Often Can I Clean My Electric Bike?
If you are a responsible electric bike owner, you should maintain the cleanliness of your e-bike. Accordingly, cleaning your e-bike depends on how often you use it. So if you use an e-bike daily, you should wash/clean it once a week. However, cleaning your electric bike once a month is enough if you ride your electric bike only on the weekends.
And the frequency of cleaning depends on another thing. That is the condition of your electric bike. For example, imagine you had to ride on a muddy trail on a rainy day. So your bike would catch dirt and mud. In such an instance, don’t wait till your regular cleaning day. Clean it immediately after such a ride.
So be careful under which conditions you ride. The reason is that the weather conditions determine how often you clean your electric bike. It could be an easy ride of five minutes to the nearby market. Or else it could be a long ride in the off-roads. After all these rides, check your electric bike well and decide whether you need to clean your bike. Doing so can ensure that your e-bike performs like a brand-new one daily.
Let’s forget for a while about washing the e-bike. Please remember to wipe your electric bike out after every ride. The benefit of doing so is that it prevents dirt from piling up on your e-bike and its components. As a result, when you clean it, you don’t have to put much effort into doing so.
Small reminder
Please go through this section before you read the rest of the article. Don’t clean your electric bike directly after you come from a ride. Most importantly, avoid cleaning directly if you ride under wet weather conditions. However, we know you want to clean the dirt off your bike right after you return home. But our advice is to wait till the mud gets dry. Now you might wonder why you need to do so. The reason is that once the mud has dried, you can clean your e-bike easily. This method might sound a bit contradictory to what you have heard about general ways of cleaning an electric bike. But it is the truth.
How to Clean Your Electric Bike: What do You Want?
Firstly, remember to leave your battery when cleaning your electric bike. Moreover, select a spacious place to clean so you can move and turn the bike as you wish. In addition, it is good if your electric bike has a stand. However, if your e-bike doesn’t have a stand, you can lean the bike against a fence or wall. And make sure you have adequate space to work in this process.
The majority of manufacturers don’t recommend washing electric bikes. Instead, they ask you to wipe it off using a soft cloth and less powerful soap. However, this method isn’t going to be helpful if you are going to ride long hours under damp weather.
How to Proceed with the E-bike Cleaning Process
So before you start washing/ cleaning your e-bike, there is another thing to do. Ensure that every bike component is in a relevant position—particularly the drivetrain and your battery.
And soap isn’t an essential thing for this cleaning process. But if you want to use soap, make sure it is light. Don’t use powerful soap varieties. For example, don’t use car wash soap for cleaning electric bikes.
Apart from soap, it would help if you had a sponge or a soft cloth. That is for wiping the electric bike’s frame. And it would help if you had another dry cloth piece to clean everything other than the frame. Moreover, between a sponge and a soft piece of cloth, the latter is easier and smoother to take through the bike’s parts.
And when you prepare water for this, it is better to get ready with two buckets of water. One is for soft soap water, and the other is for water. The latter is to rinse the soap water on your electric bike. Moreover, you can go for your garden hose without using two buckets of water. But ensure you don’t use high water pressure to wash your electric bike.
Finally, the last thing you need for cleaning is chain lube. Lubricating your chain after cleaning the electric bike is a must. It prevents your electric bike from rusting.
Which Supplies Shouldn’t I Use?
Don’t use a pressure washer to clean your electric bike. The reason is that electric bikes aren’t made to endure high water pressure. And if you use this to clean your electric bike at a high water pressure, it can bring irreversible damage to your electric bike. Apart from that, a pressure washer can cause spread dirt all over your electric bike. Therefore, it is good not to use a pressure washer to clean your e-bike.
Moreover, don’t use car soaps. The reason is that some of these soaps have wax. And this wax isn’t suitable for electric bikes.
Parts of Electric Bike that You Shouldn’t Clean
There are sensitive parts in an electric bike. Therefore, you must first know those parts so that you can avoid them while you are cleaning the e-bike. And you shouldn’t apply water in these parts. Usually, the recommended way to clean an e-bike is by wiping its parts using a dry cloth. And the following is a list of parts you shouldn’t apply soap or water.
- Hub bearing (Electric bike wheel’s center part)
- Bottom bracket (the place where the bike’s pedals link together through your bike’s frame)
- Headset bearing (the place water in that the handlebars are fixed to the bike’s frame)
- Seat post (the place where your seat connects to the bike’s frame)
- And brake pads, chains, and gears are also parts that you must avoid applying water.
- Apart from that, the rotor and discs are other components to keep away from water and soap.
You must avoid the parts mentioned above as you should avoid water getting into your bike’s motor. And also to avoid water getting into the frame. Moreover, it would help if you avoided rotors and your bike’s brake pads. This tip is to avoid water affecting these components’ functionality. If they are polluted with water, they will squeak. So if you ensure that water doesn’t enter these parts, you can avoid a lot of damage that can happen to your electric bike over time.
Preparing the electric bike for cleaning
First, you have to examine your user manual. By referring to it, you can understand the amount of water it can accept. Usually, this information is at the beginning of the user manual. And you can identify this from the letters “IP.” If the number under these letters is higher, the waterproof quality of the electric bike is higher. But if you see a lower number (38 or less), don’t use the garden hose. The reason is the electric bike cannot endure too much pressure.
Next, if your e-bike has a display, take it down before the cleaning starts. However, some e-bike displays cannot be removed as the manufacturer fixes them firmly to the bike’s wheel. In such an instance, you should cover the display using a poly-film. As a result, you can protect your electric bike from water.
Next, remove your electric bike battery. Usually, all the manuals instruct you to do this step. The reason is that you have to be careful enough not to cause the slightest damage to the battery. It is one of the most crucial parts of an electric bike.
And if you can turn the e-bike upside down. By doing so, you can clean the wheels comfortably. Otherwise, you will struggle to clean every nook and cranny of your e-bike wheels. But if you are confident about your crank arm, you can skip this step.
Cleaning steps
The rims of your electric bike and tires are probably the parts that are prone to catch dirt. So, use a brush first to clean such dirt. Moreover, these parts get dirty quickly since they are more open to the air. And remember to avoid the bike’s hub bearing. And also, avoid brake pads and rotors. Moreover, scrub the bike’s pedals. These are the first steps of the cleaning process of your electric bike.
Steps Ctd And The Things You Need
After these steps, take the sponge or the dry piece of cloth. And using it wipes the electric bike’s frame. Most importantly, wipe the frame’s underside. The reason is that more dirt gathers at this part of your e-bike. However, don’t wipe the bottom bracket and the bike’s seat post. And also, avoid wiping the headset bearing.
If you complete the wiping step, you should remove the soap and water from your electric bike. To that end, you can use a damp cloth. Or else you can use the garden hose. But please use an extremely light sprinkler mode to spray water.
After you clean off the dirty soap from the e-bike, use a dry cloth to wipe your bike. You must dry your electric bike after applying water and soap. Even though you took every action possible to avoid the most sensitive parts, could you go through them? And wipe them down with a dry rag. And when you do this step, it is better to start from the top part. Finally, clean the rims and do it more carefully because they can contain more dirt that remains even after cleaning.
After Washing
The next thing you need to do is lubricate. And this is a must-do after the cleaning process. Accordingly, apply some lube on your chains so that the bike’s chain won’t undergo rusting. Before applying lubricants, ensure that the chain has no water on it. Moreover, make sure you apply the lube thoroughly on the chain.
Finally, take out the bike’s battery. And using a dry cloth or rag, wipe it completely. Usually, the place where the battery sits and the surrounding areas of an electric bike is relatively clean. But it is always better to take extra care of these parts. And remember no water on these parts.
Now you are all good to store the e-bike in a secure place.
Don’t do these things.
Don’t use a pressure hose or anything similar to wash your electric bike. If you use one, it can damage sensitive parts of your electric bike.
Don’t apply a bike degreaser on the brake pads. If you do so, the functionality will start to go haywire.
Don’t pass 6 months without checking your e-bike components. And don’t forget to
wash it, either. Moreover, this is your responsibility as an electric bike rider. Moreover, even if you don’t ride the electric bike often, ensure that the bike hasn’t gathered dirt. And this is important to keep you safe during your rides.
Moreover, don’t keep or store your electric bike outdoors for a long time. Otherwise, it will get exposed to many environmental factors like dust and fog. And make sure that your garage isn’t damp either. If you store the e-bike in such a place, that also can damage your electric bike.
Furthermore, please don’t use strong chemicals to wash your electric bikes. Even when you use dish soap or something, we always recommend using light soap categories. Even though using them once won’t damage your bike components, you will lose your valuable electric bike in the long run. So we know that you don’t need that to happen. Therefore, don’t take an unnecessary risk.
Final Thoughts
We have covered all the aspects you must follow when cleaning an electric bike. So it is your responsibility to be wise and follow the proper guidelines to clean your e-bike. Moreover, the more you clean your e-bike, the more durable it will be. And the subsequent cleaning processes become quicker and easier. Moreover, don’t forget that cleaning your electric bike isn’t only about the look. The dirt that gathers around your bike components can lead you to accidents. Therefore, proper cleaning ensures your safety while you are riding your e-bike.