Bicycle Mechanics - Drivetrain maintennance and lifespan

Im getting up the nerve to take my drivetrain apart for some springtime cleaning maintennance maybe next weekend. My Fisher is going to be 2 this year and has about 2-300 miles on it if not more; mostly woods, up to 20% road commuting to work. I plan on taking out the BB and crank apart and cleaning stuff up. Everything seems to run OK, with a bit of creakyness in the cranks when mashing hard (no strange noises while on trainer). Should I be prepared to replace the crankset or BB at this stage? I would rather do it now then wait until middle of the summer when something falls apart and Im out of commish for a few weeks. I know I will know better once stuff is apart, I just dont want to get overly upset when I get in there and see my stuff in shambles.

Unless you are doing some pretty nasty things to your bike, you should not have to replace any components at 300 miles. Did you mean 3000 miles?

Even then, most better bikes have cartridge BBs and do not need servicing until they fail. There's no reason to take apart your BB to clean it. If you have the old style cup and cone BB, then you should consider cleaning out the old grease and repacking.

You should just clean everything with the little bit of mileage you have on the bike. No parts should need to be replaced at this time. If your mileage listing is correct you have about 6 years to go. I usually put about 4500 miles a year on my road bike and I do a complete overhaul in July and January.

All I would do is remove the chain and clean it well, unbolt the rear derailluer from the frame and soak it in a bucket of cleaner/degreaser with the cable attached. You can pull the cable from the rear cable holder once the derailluer is removed for more reach. Remove the cranks then the bottom bracket only if it is the type that uses loose ball bearings. In that case, remove and clean all parts, grease and reinstall. If it's a cartridge type leave it alone. Clean the cranks and the spindle ends. Put a extremely small amount of grease (just enough to see a shine) on the spindle and remount the crank arms. Do not over tighten the arms but do snug them well. This will remove the squeak.

Good luck.

cool, thank guys. it does only have 300 miles on them, but they have been a pretty muddy afair. I think I will just take the cranks off and clean them up. the deraileurs are in pretty good shape, not too gunky, but i will use some degreaser on them as well. im heading out to the LBS tonight or tomorrow to get some lube, i may not have enough left from last year

How much lube ought one apply? I wipe the chain each time with a cloth and reapply wet-lube sparingly, but the chainset and cassette are black (no longer silver) and look as though they're going to stay that way. My bike runs smoothly, just doesn't look as it did when it left the shop. Is this normal?