Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Clearly you haven’t been paying attention. I’m a long term volunteer at a co-op and have worked on thousands of bicycles. Almost all of them have been bikes that a commercial shop would say “Nope! Not going to touch it!”
My comment was aimed more at people who do weekly chain cleanings and monthly complete overhauls than at people who pump up tires because they need air. If your bike’s drivetrain is so filthy that you have to clean it weekly, you should use a different lubricant. If you are constantly having to wipe down the chain because it is covered in black gunk, you should use a different lubricant. Any of the bearings on a bicycle should be able to go for thousands of miles before needing to be relubed. Any derailleur on a bike should be able to shift cleanly and efficiently without the need for constant adjustment.
Ok Fair Dinkum but I would have made that one clearer. Though I don't often see people overly cleaning chains at least not with any of the bikes I see. Maybe your co-op has heavily stressed chain cleaning. I also don't know a lot of people doing monthly overhauls aside from a former mechanic of mine but he was mostly just taking apart his various fixed gears so he could ride different ones less so then actual real maintenance so sometimes every day he might swap parts over to another frame to make it rideable for one reason or another but that was just silly and he knew it and I offered to help him get parts so he could have complete bikes rather than swapping to other frames so often.
If I had the time to do overhauls more often I would but not monthly but again I don't' see that being hugely realistic unless someone is riding through slop on say a mountain bike often.