question for those who live in flats

[al78]

For those who live in flats without a balcony how/where do you do the cleaning/maintenance for your bikes? I imagine it would be difficult to do inside without getting the carpet dirty.

 

[hackbike 666]

My carpet is already dirty.

 

[gaz]

clean it outside.
Saying that, the flat i lived in was a 4 story town house converted into 4 sets of flats in the centre of plymouth. We had a driveway that could fit about 10 cars so i had plenty of space.

 

[vernon]

Put your bike in the bath?

 

[gavintc]

I live in a city centre flat and there is no space outside the flat for bike maintenance. The street outside is one of the main Edinburgh roads and the pavement is very busy. So, I put a large sheet / duvet cover down in the kitchen to do the cleaning. I have used the shower, but only twice if I recall, as it takes a bit of time to clean the shower afterward.

 

[Keith Oates]

If you use the bath or shower do the cleaning afterwards with Washing up liquid and it does a pretty good job fairly quickly. The biggest problem I find is stopping the tyres touching the walls when going in or out and then leaving a dirty mark which is not easily removed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bauldbairn]

I live in a flat - but have a garden, so I clean it outside. Then it stands on a towel on my carpeted hallway till it drys.

 

[XmisterIS]

Are you close enough to the ground that you can attach a hose pipe to a bath tap, and throw it out of the window? I used to do that when I lived in a first floor flat. Nobody seemed to mind!

 

[Arch]

Mine only tend to get cleaned once a year when I swap the downstairs-in-the-lobby daily ride - the winter hack is down there now. I've been meaning to go down with a bucket of water to take it outside to wash off the salty gunk.

Otherwise, I sometimes clean up here - lots of newspaper down, or take stuff into the kitchenette which has a mopable floor. Any upstairs cleaning tends to be muk-off type polishing on a small scale, than anything with buckets of water.

Luckily, the landlord is not too fussy about the odd tyre mark on the walls from carrying bikes up and down - it's the carrying that can put me off going out on one of the upstairs bikes. Carrying it down is worse than up, I find, because the back end is heavier,so hangs lower, and knocks against the stair behind me. I've tried carrying it arse-end-first, but then the handlebars get me in the back of the neck.

 

[Davidc]

Put your bike in the bath?

That's what I did when I was a student. It'd be more difficult in a flat with only a shower.

Some years ago I had a thing designed for cars, which I used on car and bike. It had a piece of pipe, a valve at the end, which went in a bucket, and a brush the other end. As the pipe was moved it drew water up from the bucket. When it broke I didn't replace it (had a house with an outside tap by then) and I don't know if they exist any more.

 

[Headgardener]

I do all my maintainance and cleaning outside the front door on the patio which isn't very big. Unfotunatly this can only be done when the weather is dry so it rather limits the time available. It's better when summer is here as the days allow for more time, so I'm off now to fettle the bike while I can.

 

[palinurus]

Luckily where I live the building has a communal garden and I get to use the shed too- so I keep some cleaning materials there, and the commute bikes. I have cleaned bikes upstairs but that doesn't work for when I've been racing and my 'cross bike is plastered in mud.

At a previous flat- in a converted house- the only outside space was a two-foot wide bit of front garden, so I cleaned the bikes there.

 

[palinurus]

I have cleaned my TT bike in the bath after a particularly wet evening 10.

That works, best if you rag off as much oily stuff as you can first. It takes a while to clean the "brake dust ink" out of the bath after.

 

[dav1d]

For those who live in flats without a balcony how/where do you do the cleaning/maintenance for your bikes? I imagine it would be difficult to do inside without getting the carpet dirty.

Sometimes use the hallway, sometimes use the living room (depending on where that particular bike is stored). My carpets are clean though! Not a lot of room in flats for bikes though, but the empty electric cupboard looks like it would hold a couple of bikes if I stood them on their ends...

 

[BuzzyJace]

Clean your bike? They look better dirty.

When I do clean mine, it's in the little car park thing out the front of my flat with a bucket of water. I clean the chain and lube it at the bike racks at work.