How to clean an ebike

The electric bike gets dirty while riding in the street and especially off road, and we are sure that you want to keep it clean and shining, so how to clean an ebike?

Today we see how to properly clean an electric bike without damaging it. As a first reminder, you have to consider that electric components "fear" water, humidity and high temperatures, so you must avoid submerging the bike and washing it with hot water or high pressure.

The best way to clean a bike it's a gentle hand wash with a sponge or light water flow. The crucial part comes after the wash, because you have to remove all the water to prevent short circuits and damages.

Modern e-bikes have a certain level of waterproofing, and it means that they can resist light rain and splashes, but they aren't suitable for riding in extreme rain environments. It's always better to avoid riding under torrential rain or even to let the bicycle outdoors under the storm.

Electric bikes should be always stored in a safe place, far from humidity and water.

Let's see how to wash the bike and how to store it properly, to ensure a long lasting life.

Ebike Wash: never use high pressure

If you want to wash your electric bike, you must know that it hasn't to be washed with high pressure water flows. For example you have to avoid car wash stations and home tools that use high pressure gauges.

The high pressure can easily enter inside the frame, or inside electric components, causing a short circuit and a failure. Some components can also be bent or broken, because the flow comes with so much strength and speed.

It's ok to use a garden pipe, using a soaker or swower light flow, to remove the dust and dirt without damaging any component.

Hand wash is safer

The safest way to clean the ebike is hand wash with a sponge or rug, so you can carefully clean all components without using too much water. You can hand wash with a microfiber towel

that will easily remove all the dirt in fews minutes.

Maybe it requires a longer time, but it's definitely safer and less dangerous for electric components.

Dry wash chemicals spray

In the market you can also find some special products that are meant to easily clean electric bikes without water, with a special spray that cleans and lets your bike shine in a few minutes.

Those products are specific and very delicate over components, to avoid damages and troubles.

You can also buy a special spray that's made to clean electric components from water and humidity, it's a game changer after a water wash. Infact, it's meant to remove the water and keep components in a perfect shape, preventing oxidation.

Dry procedure is the key

If you wash your ebike with water, the most crucial phase is the Dry moment. In Fact you have to perfectly remove all the water remaining from the frame and components before storing the bike.

After a wash, never store the ebike before drying it!

If some water remains inside, it can cause a future electric failure, oxidation or rust over components. Bearings will suffer a lot from rust, and they can break or start to work with a lot of noise. So, how to dry an electric bike?

First of all you should shake the bike in the ground, gently, let the wheels bounce a bit up and down to remove the major part of drops. Then, we cnsa also suggest raising the front wheel to let the water drop down from every hole and component.

Then, you can use clean rugs to remove the remaining water and humidity. BEWARE, don't use the same dirty rug over disk brakes, because if some grease or oil comes in, it will cause a dangerous brake failure.

Must clean disk brakes with some disposable dry paper.

After carefully drying, we suggest opening and removing the battery to check if some battery it's entered in the frame.

Lube the chain: you need some oil

After cleaning and drying, you will need to lubricate the drivetrain adding some oil in the chain. You can buy a classic bicycle oil, and add it to the chain.

You don't need to add oil randomly, but it's needed to lubricate only the center of each chain link. You can add a drop of oil for each chain link.  

To do it faster, you can put the bike kickstand and grab the oil with your left hand: with your right hand you can slowly rotate pedals backward, and with the other hand you can target the center of the chain.

In that way, the oil will drop in each link while rotating the chain, with a few practice it require few seconds to properly lube all the chain.

Now your ebike it's clean and shining, ready to be used again or waiting in storage. Keep riding safe and have fun!