Chain oil is perfectly priced by the LBS to meet the needs of their customers for overpriced accessories suitable for their overpriced machinery bought at inflated prices.

Wow. And you comment about snobs and Real Bikers. :rolleyes:

Most people have fond memories of bike riding as a child. However, if you were to slap an odometer on those bikes, we'd see that most kids just putz around their neighborhood and might ride a bike 500 miles before they outgrow or wreck it. They never develop any sense of maintaining their bike; they think a bike always belongs outside; they don't even realize tires naturally lose air. When these same people become adults and choose to take up the bike again, this is the experience they draw upon.

When I picked up bike commuting, none of my non-cyclist coworkers had ever heard of regularly oiling a chain before.

I kinda wish I had a loud freewheel, it'd work as a bell to get people out of the way on the MUP. :lol:

Yes, my friends/coworkers think 'bike maintenance' is something I do as an extension of my hobby, not a necessity.

Work at a shop for a week and you'll see some stuff...

Girl came in for a helmet the other day and some air in her tires. She had ridden there at about 18 psi, chain the color of a beautiful sunset, when I grabbed her bike I thought the front hub was really loose until I realized the 17mm hardware store nuts on the axle weren't even finger tight, etc... Not sure how she rode the couple miles to the shop without dying, and here's the kicker: after applying lube to the chain, airing the tires, and securing the axle I bet she didn't even notice an improvement.

I totally spaced taking pics on campus yesterday (midterms brain!), but on a cross section of bikes I spotted a cannondale black lightning, an early 80's centurion lemans, a utilitarian univega road bike I think from the late 80's, two brand new CF treks, and a plethora of x-mart cruisers, mtbs, fixies, etc.

[MENTION=359043]AlTheKiller[/MENTION], she may not have noticed the difference tight axle nuts made, but I'm sure she felt the difference firm tires and a lubricated chain makes. Most do. The problem is at tires seep and chains dry out gradually. That's why people don't notice them. The improvements are substantial and sudden. Trust that she noticed them.

Some guy i saw yesterday or day before had the noisiest freewheel i've ever heard. I was genuinely concerned about it seizing right in front of me & me not being able to stop in time.

- Andy

I used to think a robust WHIZZ was cool, and had a bit of freewheel-noise-envy. Then I had a wheel with a loud freewheel, and having to hear it all the time, it got real old, real fast (although, if I wasn't such a lazy rider, I wouldn't have had to hear it so much...)

On my daily commuter, my wheels have 105 hubs, and that's just fine.

[MENTION=235305]RaleighSport[/MENTION], that's a fantastic signature quote, especially for the internets!

I've got a pretty high tolerance of noise. I'm using a 9 year old shock seat post that squeaks when it's compressed and I don't think there's a way around it. As for my chain, I can't stand even seeing rust on it. When I see people riding piles of rust I wonder how they can get it to move at all and I toy with the idea of packing a tool kit with lube and fixing random people's bikes. Then I get the idea that some people would take offense at being helped and drop it. Still, low tires and 80% rusted chain drives me nuts.


BTW: It's always a name-brand bike I see like that! It seems people are more mindful of maintenance if they're under the conviction that they're riding a heap of junk.

I just keep it there to remind myself whenever I post ;)