How many hours a week do you work on your commuter bike(s)
 

And what do you work on the most? I like to work on my bikes, by and large. I think I average about half an hour a week on my bikes. The brakes take up mosts of my time. Keeping the chain oiled and clean, the bike clean, and the tires at the right inflation takes up most of the reat. About every 2 months I need to true a small wobble out of a wheel.

How much time do you spend on your bikes. What do you work on?

10 minutes here 10 minutes there.

Yeah, same. But I keep it really clean too, so I don't get grief for bringing it in the building or getting gunk on anybody's work clothes and such. Plus, I like working on my bikes one night a week anyway. So I'm probably the hour+ exception.

It's a sad fact that bikes that actually get used, do need service! I voted 1/2 hour per week, but I spend more time with now that it's winter. In the summer, the bikes require much less maintainance.

Mars -- You have way too much maintenance.
5 minutes weekly to adjust tire pressure.
30 minutes every 25 rides, about every 2 months, to lube chain.
5 minutes every other month in winter to recharge headlight battery.
10 minutes every year to test and retighten connectors.
LBS checkup/maintenance when suspect a problem. So far only 2 visits. One for initial retighten after 30 days and one for chainring and cassette changes. May have another in a year or two just to have the major bearings checked.
Expect 30 minutes this spring/summer to check/replace disc brake pads.

That's it.
I spend more time thinking about commuting, tracking performance and reviewing options than I spend on maintenance. It's not a TdF bike so I don't expect to baby it like one.

I voted 1/2 hour but its more like 1/2 hour a MONTH. I air up the tires every so often and lube the chain every 2-3 weeks. That's really it. Of course I am running a fixed gear so that's all thats needed. When the bike had all its shifty bits, it was alot more.

I listed half hour, but its more like 10 min a week.

I am starting to spend more time as my bike gets older, and as I'm gradually learning to do more jobs that the LBS used to do.

I voted 1/2 hour but that more like the average. Most weeks its no more than a few minutes checking air pressure and putting oil on the chain. But I seem to have a thing for constantly changing something so about once a month am doing some kind of change on the bike (I would say upgrading but often times its removing parts or replacing with lower priced but different components). Because I fun fixed maintence is minimal but my tinkering makes up for it. I use my LBS for wheel builds and headset installs only. Everything else I do myself.

Craig.

Like many others, I said 1/2 hour but it's really less. But once a year, I do a complete tear-down, and sometimes I tackle projects that take longer than half an hour, such as a wheelbuild.

I'm going to have to do some work tonight, though its prolly more in the cleaning area than true maintenance. The chain was skipping on the cogs as I approached work; but it was in the snow, so I think its just getting crusty, rather than something being broken.

1/2 hour, I guess. A few minutes here and there lubing and wiping the chain, pumping the tires, maybe tightening a spoke. And washing it once a week.

Normally, I'd take it to the LBS for an annual overhaul, but I'm trying to do more of that stuff myself. I can't rebuild wheels but I can certainly do most of the other stuff.

I clean and lube the bike once a week and make slight adjustments. I take it in for a tune up once a year and a overhaul once every 3 or four years. I lube it my self once a year (except this year so much rain this season I will lube it here in a couple of weeks)

5 minutes to oil the chain every 2-4 weeks. The bike gets washed when it rains.

I'd say 30 minutes.
I'm always tinkering..

..and I'm running a stupid 27" steel rear wheel that requires truing if I even mutter the word "pothole" near it.

I bet if I yelled "THREE STAIR GAP!" at the wheel, it would just taco.

You forgot the option of "Not as much as it needs". Yes, I am sadly the busy owner of a neglected bike.

In the slightly altered words of Willie Nelson, heres a bike song for valentines day-

"Maybe I didn't lube you, Quite as often as I should
and I guess I never checked out, your brake pads as completely as I could,
Little things I should have bought and used,
but I never took the time.
You were always on my mind, you were always on my mind
Te-----ell me, Tell me that your old parts will not die,
Gi----ive me, one more sweet run, down the mountainside,
You were always on my mind, you were always on my mind'

About an hour to teach myself and then execute retightening the FD and adjusting the screws. Now I could probably do it in twenty minutes and get perfect shifts. The most time gets spent washing the dirt off it.

:D gotta love it.

as for my rides... I'm not sure how to catogorize it, but I spend more time switching/fooling with my bikes than anything. and it's mainly my commuter.... when I want to ride mtn, I have to take the rear rack off and change the wheelset. how often I do this depends on how often my buddies want to ride single track. I hardly ever tinker with my road bike.... it's brand new though.

Same here. Pump up tires when they soften, keep lights charged, wipe off worms after a rain. I don't keep my commuting bike clean ... makes it more attractive to theives.

jw

1 hour...2 words: Minnesota Winter.

Every Sunday : 40 minutes.
> puff up the tires...
> flood the cassette with 30wt oil....
> Lube everything that moves with heavy oil
and clean the chain with WD40 & toothbrush and follow up
with thiiiin coat of light oil.

Then, during week : 20 minutes total.
> Hit moving stuff up with Wd40, keep an ear out for
cassette noise (oil!!) if there is a lot of salt on the roads
for the day/week. Wd40 wipe down if necessary :)

1/2 hour. Wipe clean wi8th a dry paper towel. Clean drivetrain minus chain using paper towel, and clean chain using oil soaked paper towel.

...Sometimes I clean the rim using 3M pads and take a file to the brake pads to remove all the rim particles and road crap.

It's a crusty rusty POS, and takes me everywhere with only a chain lubing every now and then. Also sometimes I have to make a new duct tape mud flap.

< 1/2 hr... It's really 1/2 hr every other week. Now that I have better rims, they need air only every other week rather than ever other day!!!!!!! :eek:

It takes me about half an hour per month. All I do is lube the chain, and pump up the air in the tires, which holds up extremely well, and doesnt need repumping every day (Like my road bike). I only give the bike a wipedown when i've ridden in the rain.