BIKE DETAILING, THE EASY WAY

Somewhere in the annals of time, a fastidious clean freak realised they could go further than just washing their bike, they could detail it. They would get into the nitty-gritty and make the machine look like it had just rolled out of the showroom.

It kind of spoilt all the fun for the rest of us, because now we know how nice it is to have a great-looking bike, and how it will be worth more and be easier to sell when the time comes.

But bike detailing isn’t for everyone — in fact, I hate it. So much so that I’ve developed a few tricks to make it easier. Despite that, doing it well is a time-consuming affair, there’s no getting away from that.

I recently returned from a 4000km tour where the bike spent a lot of time on dirt