Minor bike maintenance

[Paula]

If you had 15-20 minutes once a week to do some minor bike maintanance, what would you do? and how? (okay, not a April Fool's day question, albeit it might sound like one)..

thanks

[wonger]

Clean it.

[Lister Farrar]

After each rainy ride, hose it off. Grit is the bigger problem than water. Let your bike drain right side up. Up side down, water drains into the places it's supposed to drain out of.
1 minute

Keep your bike somewhere warm and dry. Cables, chains, rust inside if you leave it somewhere unheated. 0 minutes

Oil the chain. Use a heavier oil in winter so it doesn't splatter, and lasts thru a rainy ride. Phil's tenacious or chainsaw oil both stick. 1 minute, after every hosing, or every 4 to 5 typical TS rides. More for longer rides.

Oil pivot points with a lighter oil (eg the regular teflon lubes) (derailleur pivot pts, where cables enter or leave a casing, brake pivots, quick release levers, pedal release pivot points.) 5 minutes. Every 5 rides in the rain.

Pump the tires before every second ride. Saves rims and tires. 2-3 minutes.

Adjust barrel adjusters on cables. Derailleur and brake. 2 minutes.

Check your chain every two weeks for wear. 10 seconds. Replace chain as soon as chain checker says so. Saves the cassette and chainrings.

A big wash and thorough cleaning can take an hour, but is nec for a more thorough cleaning and to avoid bigger problems.

Or drop your bike off at a bike shop and then go pick it up. 20 minutes. Seriously, cultivate a relationship with a mechanic you trust. Early repairs are much cheaper than waiting. Repairs are always cheaper than new.

[4827north]

clean it, degrease and lube the chain. Check it over for anything going wrong... tire wear, loose spokes, whatever.

[Jbooyah]

I've been wiping the drive train down with a rag and it seems to work alright. Maybe it's my nature but I think it should be cleaner. How do others clean the chain and cassette. Degrease?

[Lister Farrar]

One guy with tristars cleans his chain after every ride with pipe cleaners. If that seems messy, try this:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/chainclean.html

His more serious answer: http://sheldonbrown.com/chains.html

After trying many different tools and methods, I hose mine off, then with wheels off and a chain guide in the dropout, spray it with full strength simple green and let sit. Scrub with a variety of brushes. Doing it on the bike actually seems to offer more places to scrub the chain than if its coiled up in a dish. When it looks clean, rinse with water. Non-green solvents also work but condemn you to hell. This one leaves your garden path, where I hose mine, smelling fresh.

[Rolf]

A cautionary tale:

I just got a call from the Fairfield Bicycle Hospital. I have to miss another Friday ride and plunk down about 300 bones before Bianca can come home. That's twice what I paid for her in 1994 -- when she was already approaching middle age. I just hope she hasn't put on any more weight during her extended bedrest!

I don't think I can blame a cracked rear rim on poor maintenance, but a complete drivetrain transplant is the inevitable result of a dogmatic refusal to move beyond Lister's first three suggestions above. Okay... I probably pumped the tires once or twice since my last shop-clean... in September. But I promise she never gets so much as a wipedown.

Moral of the story: unless you like to buy new components often, some basic maintenance will probably go a long way.

(Of course: if you can ignore the ethical issues around euthanasia, you can always leave things long enough to build a better case for putting your ducats into a shiny new bike. Keeping the old lady on life support gets expensive over time.)

[sylvan]

It's amazing how much nicer it is to ride a bike with a clean, well-adjusted drivetrain. I just figured out how to adjust the front derailleur and now I can shift into the big rig without a huge double effort and feeling like I'm going to break the cable. It's pretty cool. For cleaning I just stick it on the stand and use one of those chain cleaner units, then spray Simple Green all over the gears and brush it off with various brushes. Rinse, allow to dry and lube some. That's once or twice a week, plus pumping the tires before every ride, without fail.