Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

Silly question time: When you're bike ends up looking like Dicki's on the previous page, how do you clean it?
Mine looks like that after a muddy day in the Chilterns. Do you let it all dry and then brush it off? Best tips to clean the drive train?
I'm sorry if these are inane questions but this is considerably more mud that I am used to experiencing on my outer-inner London commute...It was a lot more fun though!

Do you let it all dry and then brush it off?

if you can.

Bit of time with cleaner, a hose and a set of brushes will do a good job too.

I definitely prefer cleaning mud off when it's wet. For starters you don't bring it into your house.

I have a portable pressure washer which means I can get the bulk of the crap off without freezing outside. Worry about a proper clean later (or never).

Low pressure hose and a brush as soon as I get home.

Wash off when still wet for sure

Bash the dried mud off once or twice a year

Nah, don't do that. Cleaning bikes is what causes frames to snap. Trufax! You never see any cracked frames when they're covered in mud, do you now?

Buy new bike.

Bash the dried mud off once or twice a year

Exactly, after every ride.

Buy new bike

Before the old one gets muddy?

n+2, because n+1 is never enough.

Always be prepared.

N++

That's the same as n+1

Actually "things come in threes" so n+3 just in case.

$bike = $true
while($bike){$n++}

Always be prepared

I do that by staying at home

One benefit of cleaning your bike after each ride is reducing the risk of transferring environmentally nasty pathogens (e.g. ash dieback) from one area to another.

Staying at home is quite effective there too

Got some of these for my Supercaliber. 7 days more of isolation before I can grab them from the shop. Can't wait.

2 Attachments

staying at home

Good plan till you forget how outside looks like.

It mostly looks wet

Hope that helps

There were some helpful responses in there. I went to town with a couple of brushes and a hose. Just need to lube up the chain again now and I'm good to go and get it muddy again...

Bash off once or twice a year

I suspect most of us manage more frequently than that

decided to get a big bucket of water and a large car brush, dip in water, brush mud off with lots of water sloshing around, got 85% off then let dry in hallway over night, the rest has dried on, it is due it's annual service .... about 7 months ago

chain looked rusty as anything next day but just put a drip of oil in each link, and drops of oil in all the moving parts on front and rear derailleurs, headed out for a ride and it ran as silently and smoothly as ever it has

i'm always amazed how much muck you can throw at the gears hubs shifters cables etc and they'll still run nearly as good as new with a few drips of oil here and there

did another epping forest ride last sunday it has dried in the week but bike looked quite similar with some big muddy puddles still around

Mountain bike fit

As the trend continues toward longer and lower it feels this is an area that is quite up in the air. XC bikes it kind of makes sense that some of the fit is geared to seated pedalling dynamics. But trail/enduro fit probably ought to be geared more to handling characteristics.

A couple of interesting videos here

https://youtu.be/rHagRovHSYs

https://youtu.be/HyppZOpHocM