Bikes you use them all kinds of weather and in all kinds of conditions. You then need to look after your bike, if you want it to last. You do want it to last?
Below we’ll give you a guide to keeping your bike running and help you to keep your maintenance bills down.
Cleaning
One of the most important things you can do for your bike is to give it a bath occasionally. Cleaning your bike is not glamorous and might not be fun, but it is definitely something you’ll want to do regularly.
Not cleaning your bike will lead to parts wearing down faster than they should. Dirt will get attracted to the lube on your chain. The dirt will turn into a paste, and this paste will work to grind away your drivetrain. An expensive problem that can be easily avoided.
If you want to know more about keeping your chain clean, check our guide to the best bike chains as it contains a lot of advice as well.
One of the parts you may overlook when cleaning is your headset bearings. The bottom bearing in your headset is in a perfect position to have water and mud thrown off your tires at it, provided you aren’t using fenders.
Your headset then can become crunchy and quickly fail if you don’t take care of it.
Occasionally loosen your stem and drop your fork. Give the bearing a clean with degreaser and then repack it with grease.
If you put a healthy layer on your fork crown and below the bearing, you’ll stop dirt and water getting into your headset for a while.
You want to make sure you clean everything as well as you can without washing away grease from your bearings.
Pedro’s Green Fizz Foaming Cleaner
The green in the title of Pedro’s Green Fizz Foaming Cleaner is not about its color but its environmental specs.
It is one of the best cleaners available for the local environment.
You simply follow their instructions “spray, scrub, rinse,” and you should have a sparkly clean bike.
Finish Line Ceramic Grease
When you’re repacking your headset bearing, there are not many better options than Finish Line Ceramic Grease.
Over time we’ve found it to be long lasting and offers a very smooth feel.
It contains sub-micronic ceramic particles, and this helps to guarantee that your bearings will be smoother and last longer.
Suspension Forks
If you have suspension forks, you’ll want to take special care when you wash them to get rid of all the dirt.
It is worth getting an earbud and using that to clean down by the fork wipers, the rubber bits at the bottom of the stanchions.
The wipers can hold onto dirt, and it will kill your fork’s performance. Get the earbud in behind them and get the dirt out.
Tuning your gears
Your gears should never need too much work, but sometimes you might have to fix them. They’re not a dark art, and you should be able to fix them easily.
The first thing you need to know is how your gears work. Your gears shift by cable tension, unless you have electronic gearing, when you press your gear lever the cable will either have less tension or more tension.
As you gears are indexed, one click moves the cable exactly enough to shift your derailleur to the next gear.
The issue that you get is that the cable no longer moves the derailleur enough. What has happened is that your cable has stretched and you need to re-tension it.
Getting the tension right
Doing this is not complicated. Look at your barrel adjusters. You’ll find one beside your shifter, at the rear derailleur, and sometimes part of the way along your cable.
To increase your tension, you need to unscrew the adjuster slightly. Just go small movements at a time and then check to see if the bike changes gear more smoothly.
To do this, you’ll want your bike on a work stand. Change your bike down to the smallest cassette cog.
Your cable will now be at its slackest point unless you have a low normal derailleur and then you’ll need to go to the biggest rear cassette cog.
Now spin your pedals using one hand and with the other change gear. If your bike doesn’t shift gear easily, start to unscrew the barrel adjuster, just a bit.
Try again. If it changes easily, try and change back down. If it does this well start going up and down the cassette in one click movements. Using the barrel adjuster to make any hesitant shifts disappear.
Clamping the cable
If you end up having to slacken the barrel adjuster a lot, you’ll be better to try and tension the cable again.
Change down to the small cog again, and screw the barrel adjuster back in. Take an Allen key and release the cable anchor bolt.
Hold the cable and pull it till it becomes taught. You don’t want it to be too tight, just taught. Clamp the anchor bolt back down.
Go through the previous barrel adjuster steps and your gears will not hopefully be great.
Your gear changes jump.
If you change gear and nothing happens, so you click again and this time your chain jumps two cogs, then you may have a friction issue.
The likely cause of this issue is dirt; you have been washing your bike like we said up above?
What you’ll have to do is clean and lubricate the cable. Doing this will be easier on exposed gear cables, and to be honest, they are the ones most likely to have the issue.
Spray the cable and the joins with degreaser, dry them down. Now you’ll want to put a spot of chain lube on them, let the lube work its way into the cable. If you still have issues, you’ll be looking at new cables.
What you’ll have to do is clean and lubricate the cable. Doing this will be easier on exposed gear cables, and to be honest, they are the ones most likely to have the issue.
Spray the cable and the joins with degreaser, dry them down. Now you’ll want to put a spot of chain lube on them, let the lube work its way into the cable. If you still have issues, you’ll be looking at new cables.
Your chain overshoots
If you’re having problems with your chain overshooting, and then perhaps coming off the cassette or chainrings, then you may have an issue with your high (H) and low (L) screws.
These screws need delicate care; when you wash your bike, it is worth occasionally putting a spot on chain lube on them. If they seize, it can be a nightmare to get them unstuck.
With your bike in a stand, look at it from the rear. The H screw controls how far to the right it goes, smallest cog.
The L screw goes to the left, that should be easier to remember, and this is towards the big cog.
Unscrewing the screw restricts the movement in the directions we mentioned. Screwing them in allows more movement in that direction of travel.
Make small movements till the derailleur stops in line with the end of the cassette.
I’ve spent way more time in the bike trade than anyone should reasonably want to. In that time I’ve wanted to make cycling jargon and marketing easier to cut through to help people get the bike of their dreams.
When I’m not writing about bikes, I can be seen out bikepacking on single speed bikes or teaching kids how to ride.
I’m an old timer Mountain bike weekend Warrior. This initially conceived project was to look at the Eurobike. Nice specs and adding things like bike assembly by pros, nice foldable frame to get bike onto BART, and rear hydraulic tensioners. My 20 year old bike cost about $800 and it had great specs. Now, that same bike is in the low $1K price range. I was getting the Eurobike because of all the bells and whistles but there too many Nay sayers, so I ditched the project due to the nickle and diming to death over the specs and conditions put on by riders who experienced the flaws in design logic. This old body can’t take the pounding, I just got a hernia and need to get surgery. I’m off the circuit for a few months so I cancelled the order and am rethinking the strategy. There are electric hybrids that are on the market that I will investigate as an option. Don’t need the bike for commuting, I’m semi-retired. I was going to Chase stadium to experience the people enjoying the wonderful architecture and shows out in the courtyard. It’s in a very scenic part of town and there are going to be great venues inside of the Stadium. I think there is gonna be a lot of high rollers in the custom booths. My buddy used to put in for booths at the A’s stadium. We were munching on finger foods and shooting the shit with people we hadn’t seen in literally decades. There go the homeruns unnoticed. Good food and drinks made it a really excellent way to relax and socialize.