Mountain Biking - I need to make a couple of repairs on my bike..

I have a GT Avalanche 3.0 with Disk brakes. When I bought it, it was perfect, now after a couple months of riding I'm starting to have a couple of minor problems which I'd like to take care of. First thing is that the gears don't change as easily. Especially on the ones on the crank. I degreased the chains and applied new oil and the problem is still present. I've also noticed how on certain gears when I pedal I hear a noise that seems to come from the crank. and lastly, the shocks seem to be giving me some trouble. Or maybe the problem is with me. How often are you to clean out your front shocks and regrease them? I use my mountain bike 70% of the time on the road and 30% of the time on trails. So it's not like I am constantly on trails, but after maybe a week or so I find my front shocks screeching and being very stiff. Is this normal or is there something I'm doing wrong when I grease it? If I could get some input on this I'd greatly appriciate it. Thanks.

You need to tune your derailleurs to sort out your drivetrain bud, here's a link that might be of some assistance:
http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/fix/rshf-tun.htm

Read it, a lot. And then it read it again and make sure you understand it.

I think sometimes after getting a new bike and breaking it in, cables stretch some and settle into their housings, which is normal. I'd take it to your local bike shop and they should be able to check it over and make some adjustments as needed.

Or, if you want to save some money and learn a little something, you could check out these sites and learn how to make adjustments yourself:
http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=75
http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=64

As for the fork, I'm not too sure. It may be the type of grease your using or another break in period side effect. I'll let someone with more knowledge chime in.

Dang BFG, you're quick (or maybe I'm just a slow typer).

Something else Med!c, sometimes the store you bought your bike from will provide free tune-ups on the bike that you bought.

Allllllso, if you ride your bike on trails, you'll want to look it over, clean up the drive train and make sure everything works on a weekly to biweekly basis. REI provides free bike maintenence classes that will go over how to clean and make small adjustments to your bike. The REI close to you has one coming up on 9/18:
http://www.rei.com/stores/store_event_detail.jsp?pid=38459F1C3DA3C7F3E90A53BFB4A63FF7&template_id=30&template_family=webDetail&ignore_cache=1

The Park Tool and Sheldon Brown sites are invaluable resources for someone learning to wrench on their own bike. The Utah MTB site- not so much, in fact I've even even read misinformation there.

The fork is something a lot harder to help you with here. Go to your LBS for that.

I bought my bike from performancebike and they do provide free tuneups, however I want to learn to do it my self rather than have someone else do it, simply because I like knowledge. :)

Have the Mechs. at Performance teach you how to do it.

no one has mentioned anything about the OP's second question: cleaning/maintaining the fork.

i'm interested in this as well (i'm knowledgeable).

how often should you touch your forks?

is it different depending on the model/style (coil v spring)?

I don't know much about working on suspension forks, so this'll be a learning experience for us both :thumb:
Here are a few articles on suspension forks from what makes up a suspension fork to how to tune and service it:
Anatomy of a fork (http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3229)
Fork tuning for beginners (http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article.asp?UAN=3242)
Simple fork servicing (http://www.bikemagic.com/news/article/mps/uan/3253)

To Zan's question, the two models/styles of suspension forks that I am aware of are coil springs (where shock is absorbed by a metal coil) and air springs (where shock is absorbed by compressed air). A bit more in depth from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_fork#Suspension_Forks):

Coil spring forks are often heavier than designs which use compressed air springs, but they are more easily designed to exhibit a linear, Hookean response throughout their travel. Substituting steel coils for titanium coils in a design can decrease the weight of the design but leads to an increase in expense. Air springs utilize the thermodynamic property of gases that their pressures increase as they are compressed adiabatically. As the "spring" is provided by air rather than a coil of metal, forks with air springs are often lighter.

According to the Psylo Fork maintenance schedule, you should do the following:

after every ride: clean and inspect the condition of the upper tubes (check for scratches)
25 hours: check/tighten top caps, brake posts and shaft bolts and lubricate foam ring
50 hours: Remove lower casting, clean bushings and change oil bath, clean and lubricate U-Turn spring assembly
100 hours: change oil in pure system, clean and lubricate remote lockout assembly
200 hours: rebuild Pure System

They suggest that things done from 50 hours up be done by a qualified bicycle mechanic. Also, SRAM/RockShox suggests an O-ring overhaul after 25-50 hours depending on your riding style, but that seems a bit excessive to me.

/end info overload

no one has mentioned anything about the OP's second question: cleaning/maintaining the fork.

i'm interested in this as well (i'm knowledgeable).

how often should you touch your forks?

is it different depending on the model/style (coil v spring)?

I put a small amount of fork oil on the stanctions after every ride , compress it then wipe it off along with the dirt it collects.. I change oil every 100 hours per the manual