I normally look after my bikes really well, as the milage I get on components testifies to, but I fell out of love with the Camino after the brake pad pin came out somehow, despite the no fall out clip being on it and it cost me my BB200. So as a result I have pretty much ignored it over the winter.

Today however, I actually got around to cleaning and sorting it out. Queue lots of Welsh mud washing down the bath plug hole. However the mud seems to have protected well as the chain and the other shiny bits are lovely and shiny still once the mud came off!

I also sorted out the flat tyre that for some strange reason, just needed the tubeless valve to be removed, cleaned and then refitted and is now fine.

Am I bad for leaving the poor thing along the whole winter?

No harm done!

I thought the same when I pulled out my summer bike shoes today to wear and they were covered in mud Would have be been to have cleaned them at some point in the last three months or so

No point cleaning a bike, it'll just get dirty again on the next ride...

That pretty much. Hose it down, in winter at the end, and lube chain.

I would not drive home from an event and then clean my bike ( unless something needed fixing) but I would have cleaned it before the event.

Two semi-conflicting themes for me.

1) A bike that is left in the back of the shed or somewhere for months will generally be good to go with just a wee spot of air in the tyres and potentially some chain lube.
2) Spending time cleaning a bike normally means I find lots of little bits on it to tidy up/fix.

The bath, you say?

If you're regularly travelling to ride in different locations, it's worth considering the benefits of cleaning your bike to reduce the risk of transferring plant/animal diseases from one area of the country to another.

I'm a bit fussy so I like to hose down the bike and wipe the chain as a minimum - just a quickly...

I normally keep them all pretty clean as they live on a bike stand in the house, but I was just pissed off with it at the time and then just never got around to dealing with it. The bath is in the next room, otherwise its down three floors to get outside.

My ride was so bad today with mud that I swerved via the garage on the way home to use the jet wash (on the low pressure setting)…

First time I’ve had to do that