It’s horribly muddy and wet out there, the waterways are clogged with puddles of dirt, the roads are covered in leaves, and heaven help you if you haven’t got mudguards installed on your bike, as it’s not amusing arriving at your destination with a line of muck up your back.

Surprisingly there are a lot of Oxford riders neglecting their duties towards their bicycles. Every day I see filthy, grimy bikes making their way to and from work. Derailleurs are slowing under the strain, brakes are hardly working and there are literally thousands of pairs of trousers getting ruined. Now I am not saying I am a saint when it comes to cleaning my bikes.

Some of them don’t really require that much due to enclosed chain guards, mudguards and dress guards. However, I have never lost a bike due to rust and mistreatment.

My partner is an avid mountain biker, even in this weather. Most weekends he toddles off to some muddy hill somewhere to race against other nutters. When he returns home it is hard to recognise him and I wonder if he hasn’t sent me a replacement man, complete with mud disguise.

But regardless of how tired he is or the weather outside, he religiously wanders off to the garden with his hosepipe and cleans his bike down to make it all shiny and new, and ready for the next adventure.

We still clean our cars regularly so why not our bikes?

Gone are the days when Sunday streets around the country were filled with long lines of proud men in driveways buffing and waxing their motors to within an inch of their lives. There is no need any more for the elbow grease as you can just drive down to the machine at the petrol station and nod off for five minutes while the robots do it for you.

My friend just had her bike repaired. After moving back to the city after an age in the country, she decided the bike needed to reappear. But after months in the shed with no oil it resurfaced with rusted chain and cables to the extent that nothing on it moved.

What could have been a £30 repair to get it running smoothly quickly escalated to over £100 as one part to the next had to be taken off and replaced by the experts. Prevention is better for your wallet than cure and a bottle of oil costs a fiver – a new chain much more.

Your bike will love you if you also invest in a good degreaser and a sponge as well and give it a good clean before lubricating the important parts. Contrary to our cars, our bikes have the important bits on the outside leaving them vulnerable to the elements.

Do them a favour and treat them nicely this winter. They don’t need much just some love and attention now and again.