thanks for the reply s
Was at the bike shop tonight ,new bike last Friday and the shifter was not working, they fixed the shifter now the gear is slipping in middle cog !!
Anyhow took advise from the forum and got some chain lube so at least this is a start.
My ride home is x/c some footpaths and off road wet and muddy .how often does one clean the bike and how ,hosepipe it down and a wipe of daily? weekly ?
my old commute was across bridlepaths, single track roads, and a dirt track. occasionally I would get a patch of clean road if it had rained hard enough... usually I was cycling through mud (expescially in autumn/winter/spring and often in summer as well...)
Both myself and my bike would need hosing down (I used a watering can) (gently) TWICE a day - once at each end... The chain would get daily inspections, usually oiled & cleaned (rag) every other day and major cleaning session on the only day of the week it was not in use - Saturday. without that, it got gunked up badly, very quickly and I cycled along sandy & muddy bridlepaths (not footpaths, that's illegal) each and every day. So it would get a lot of cleaning because it needed an awful lot of cleaning - it was a mountain bike btw.
It really depends on how dirty it actually is getting, how much has stuck, what type of bike it is, what oil you have bought (yeh I know, no-one said anything about different types of oil) and how long you want to go between having to replace chain & casettes. The more maintenance/cleaning you do, the longer between replacements... if you don't use too much oil that is.
