Originally Posted by meontheweb

Hey - So I got this bike off of FB Marketplace last year; it was in rough shape but I really wanted to ride it right away so didn't really spend a lot of time cleaning or anything.

First thing that went wrong was the chain broke during a ride... thankfully one of my boys was home and he picked me up.

Then over the last few months, I found it difficult to ride - just general issues, nothing in particular. I thought of taking it to a shop to get a full tune-up and clean (it was VERY dirty) but the cost was pretty high and for a free bike, spending anywhere from $120 (Canadian) and up just wasn't in the budget.

So I started reading and thought I could do much of it myself. It mostly needed a good wipe down and degrease in some key areas.

So I mixed 8oz of Zep degreaser with 32oz of water and got to work.

About 3-4 hours later I was mostly done! I wiped the frame down, had some industrial quality swaps and used that to get into places my fat fingers could not get into and degreased the bike.

It looks so much better!

But in the process, the spoke guard broke - so I just ordered a set off of Amazon, that will be my project next weekend.

Now, I think I got the main parts but what else should I be doing? What regular maintenance needs to be done on a bicycle?

I was seriously considering taking it all apart and giving it a good wash... but I'll save that for another day.

Look at all that gunk!!!
Mostly clean -- spend another few hours on it to clean it up even more -- looks so much better now!