Bicycle Mechanics - Is it time to do a yearly complete re-lube?

I have had my new mountain bike for about a year and a half now and if you take all the times I have ridden it accumaltive you could say I have ridden it for about 30 minutes every day for a year. I heard that every year you should take your bike to the bike dealer and have them do the whole relube job where they take the bike completely apart and clean and relube everything. I don't want to grind my bikes metal parts down or have my bike get run down. But I'm also kind of short on cash and it is expensive to get this done, so I was wondering with the amount of rideing I have done can I wait a few more months or do I need to get it done now?

Do it yourself.

....if you have the tools! Although I have recently had my confidence shaken in my wreching abilities I have opted to buy the quality tools required to do everything myself with the help of this forum. Using the wrong tools can cause more damage if you cheat with english vs metrick. Vice grip vs cone wrench.

My rational is the Park BBT2 tool costs $12 and a bottom bracket rebuild at the LBS is $15. I'll buy and learn it myself.....I hope!

Of course others just want to ride and have ZERO, I mean ZERO ZERO interest in understanding what is going on underneath them. For those folks PLEASE support your local LBS. The worst thing to do is nothing. Uncared for bikes....there is just no excuse, having just fixed up 4 in the past 30 days!

I am a rookie. I found this prior post. Some wisdom on what tools to spend money on first. A bike store near me had a sale of old unused tools, many of them Park brand in old packaging. I bought up some things that normally I would go without. Now I love to rebuild hubs just to use my nice laser cut Park cone wrenches. But Sheldon is right, in most cases all you need is a Park 13/15 combo wrench assuming you have a conventional 15, 17 metric open end wrenchs. Quality tools is a lifetime investment.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=57051&highlight=tools

How important this is depends on where and how you ride. All road riding in good weather only? You probably can wait. Major off-road riding through mud and water? You waited much too long.

The critical components to have relubed and adjusted are the hubs and the headset. If they are cartridge bearing hubs and headsets, there isn't much maintainance even for them. If they are cup and cone hubs (Shimano or Campy) or headset they should be serviced and I wouldn't wait much longer. Current bottom brackets are typically sealed units and require no service.

Otherwise, thoroughly wipe off all of the surface dirt and crud and lube the derailleur pivots and brake pivots with Tri-Flo or a similar light oil. Check to be sure your brake pads aren't worn down excessively and your cables are clean and have no broken strands.

Shortness of cash is a real incentive to learn to do your own bike maintainance.

Hillrider. How can you support not servicing your BB? From experience, neglect here can render the entire bike useless if you can't back out your retainers. I'm a newbie but would hate for someone to read this and dismiss the BB. Then again I could be wrong. Pls elaborate.

I have had my new mountain bike for about a year and a half now and if you take all the times I have ridden it accumaltive you could say I have ridden it for about 30 minutes every day for a year. I heard that every year you should take your bike to the bike dealer and have them do the whole relube job where they take the bike completely apart and clean and relube everything. I don't want to grind my bikes metal parts down or have my bike get run down. But I'm also kind of short on cash and it is expensive to get this done, so I was wondering with the amount of rideing I have done can I wait a few more months or do I need to get it done now?
Spin, listen and feel every bearing on the bike. If everything spins freely with no noise you can likely wait a bit. Conditions is huge. Mountain bikes require more maintainence then road bikes that aren't ridden in poor conditions...contamination infiltrates bearings. I just had my newest road bike all torn down for fresh regrease after a year of riding...bearings and grease looked perfect but I don't ride in bad weather. So conditions are big...dirt and wet and how you clean the bike. If you plan on riding a bike the rest of your life, consider doing your own maintenance and buying bike specific tools you may need for the BB, cassette removal...cone/spanner wrenches etc to conserve time and cost. I personally would never let anybody touch my bikes. If you can't do a certain thing...take it to the shop and ask to watch the repair. Next time you can do it yourself.
Good Luck,
George

Hillrider. How can you support not servicing your BB? From experience, neglect here can render the entire bike useless if you can't back out your retainers. I'm a newbie but would hate for someone to read this and dismiss the BB. Then again I could be wrong. Pls elaborate.
My take is many modern cartridge BB's aren't worth pulling out and servicing...a throw away. Just install another and you are good for another block of big miles.
George

Hillrider. How can you support not servicing your BB? From experience, neglect here can render the entire bike useless if you can't back out your retainers. I'm a newbie but would hate for someone to read this and dismiss the BB. Then again I could be wrong. Pls elaborate.

Hillrider is one of the guys whose advice I respect. Modern cartridge bottom brackets are maintenance free just like most of the suspension fittings on modern cars.

Hillrider. How can you support not servicing your BB? From experience, neglect here can render the entire bike useless if you can't back out your retainers. I'm a newbie but would hate for someone to read this and dismiss the BB. Then again I could be wrong. Pls elaborate.

First, you don't "service" cartridge bottom brackets (except Dura Ace and we aren't concerned with those). They work for thousands or tens of thousands of miles then are replaced. Second, if the bottom bracket was installed properly, it can remain in place until it fails. You can remove the cups periodically, regrease or teflon tape them and put them back in but, done right once, there is no reason to worry.

Otherwise, thoroughly wipe off all of the surface dirt and crud and lube the derailleur pivots and brake pivots with Tri-Flo or a similar light oil.

It's very difficult not to over lube brake and derailleur pivots. It only takes the tiniest drop that you can manage. Too much just attracts dirt and gums things up.

How important this is depends on where and how you ride. All road riding in good weather only? You probably can wait. Major off-road riding through mud and water? You waited much too long.

The critical components to have relubed and adjusted are the hubs and the headset. If they are cartridge bearing hubs and headsets, there isn't much maintainance even for them. If they are cup and cone hubs (Shimano or Campy) or headset they should be serviced and I wouldn't wait much longer. Current bottom brackets are typically sealed units and require no service.

Otherwise, thoroughly wipe off all of the surface dirt and crud and lube the derailleur pivots and brake pivots with Tri-Flo or a similar light oil. Check to be sure your brake pads aren't worn down excessively and your cables are clean and have no broken strands.

Shortness of cash is a real incentive to learn to do your own bike maintainance.

Well said all around
:beer:

Learn something, do it all yourself. A bicycle is not the most complicated machine...
Some cartridge bearing headsets even make life easy to service. I know for my 240's, disassembly and reassembly requires no special tools, so i clean the ratchet components and replace the grease every 4 or so months.

Oh and i've found that even if you have a sealed bearing headset, a film of grease around the bearings is nice. Not for lubricant, as theres already lubricant inside, but as another protection to water. The front tire, especially with knobby MTB tires, kicks up all sorts of crud

I know it's cliche, but...

High-end mountain bike: $2000
Bicycle Overhaul: <$200 (less than 10% the value of the bike)
Not maintaining your investment and having more problems in the future: Priceless