Regular Maintenance.
 

Went to the LBS this morning and there was a Shabby looking TCR that looked the business. Closer look and it was not for sale- it was awaiting collection by the owner after a repair. It really did look secondhand but the gear on the bike was all top of the range. While waiting to be served the customer came in and paid for the repair and went away.

Apparantly- the problem was that the bike stopped changing gear. The owner had bought the bike a couple of years ago and is a good club road racer. He had not done any maintenance on the bike in all that time other than oil the chain and change the tyres. The reason it did not change gear was that he had broken the internals of the Brifter. That had broken because the cable had siezed solid in the outer. It had been getting stiff for a couple of months and finally when the cable siezed- he just put real pressure on the lever and something went ping.

Don't know about the rest of you- but bike maintenance and cleaning is done on a regular basis by me. I have a system in that everything is checked on a regular basis. Comes from The mountain bike I suppose- but clean the bike down-and various parts of the bike are checked on a rota basis. After ride 1- cables are checked- and oiled. Ride 2 and brakes and wheels are checked- ride 3 and it is the headset where I take out the forks and clean and regrease the headset(Not done that often on the road bikes though) and ride 5 and both deraillers are thoroughly cleaned and checked. Then there are the points picked up on the regular cleaning like frayed cables- loose bolts or paint chips. Week 4 is a bit different as This the week when the wheels come off- the frame is in the stand and the bike is polished. In doing this- all the cables are released- lubed again- and the wheels checked for true in the stand.

Regular maintenance is not hard. No major work is done except on the headset and all it is really is checking the bike over. Luckily- The road bikes do not get the use and wear taking place that the mountain bike does- so instead of being after each ride- I do this around every 100 miles- but you can reckon that at 500 miles- the whole bike and everything on it has been checked over- so I have plenty of time to get the part replaced or adjusted before I go out and have to call the sag wagon.

Basic maintenance is not difficult

Thanks for the reminder. As soon as my shipment of ball bearings arrives, it will be time to repack some hubs. :)

Any chance of a translation for those us in the former colonies?

I'm not as thorough as you. I don't oil my cables, I'm in a dry, dusty climate and I'm afraid the oil would just attract crud. I just buy the inexpensive Alligator housings and cable and replace annually on the road bike and twice a year on the MTB. On the MTB, I wipe off the crud on the chain, lube and wipe again, take a brush to the cogs after every ride to get the sand out. The road bike gets the same every two or three rides. I'm too lazy to do an off the bike chain cleaning, so I get the inexpensive 951 SRAM chain, check for stretch every couple of rides and change when needed.

Aaaackk! There I was feeling pretty good about myself and you put me to shame. I clean my bike after every ride, including chain, spokes and oiling everything. Polish it every few weeks. But I don't take anything apart without good reason. Maybe when I am retired? :)

It's true of any tool or technology. Some people love to understand and maintain it, some just want to use it but are at least careful to see it gets cared for, and some just use it without attention. Obviously most of us are in the first or second group. I hope the LBS reminded the guy that he needs to either do regular maintenance, or bring it in for regular attention, if he doesn't want it to fail in a race.

There was a top of the range Giant TCR-with dure ace and carbon all over it- That was covered in mud and dirt and Grease and paint chips everywhere.

Incidentally- The wheels were out of this world- Bladed Carbon low spoke count and Thick aero rims- No name on them but Asked the mechanic and they are a hand built wheel that is ultra light and Very expensive- and according to the mechanic- were now not worth a light with the bearings gone and well and truly worn out Rims.


And ad6mj

This is why the bike is cleaned after each ride- We have just as much dust in the summer over here- but The chain is cleaned on the MTB after every ride- If mud is on it- it will get into the chain and will have washed off the oil- If it is dry and dusty- You might just aswell put grinding paste on the chain. I use a "Dry" lube on NON wet days and this stays on the chain without attracting much dust- It still has to be cleaned though to get rid of the "Not much dust" that it has attracted. That same lube Dry lube can be used on the cables. My cables are replaced when frayed and that is all. The never rust or sieze and I can't remember the last time I had to replace an outer cable on any of my bikes.(Or an inner that was not frayed) And If you did a basic clean- check and adjust on a rota system- you would not be changing the chain very often- I used to change the MTB chain once a year- About 3,000 miles of hard use. Never wore out Front rings- and only changed the rear cassette at every 3rd chain. The Tandem is different but I won't go there as the breakages and maintenance on that is high.

There are not many jobs I cannot do on a bike- wheels are the one thing I let the LBS sort. So my LBS does not get much labour charge out of me. However- I reckon they get about $10,000 out of me in a year. Maintenance on mine and the bikes I maintain for friends- and the odd major purchase each year. In fact today- they were talking about the new range of bikes they saw at the Trade bike show a couple of weeks ago and they have a buyer for my OCR- If I want to sell it.

The owner of this bike just rides his bike. Doesn't do any maintaenance and when it breaks- will expect the shop to repair it. But looking at that bike today- it is going to be in for a lot of repairs in the very near future.

I don't do any regular maintenance but I do frequent maintenance.

During the course of every ride I make a mental note of anything that needs to be done on that bike. Chain noise, brake operation - whatever. Then I make sure that I get it fixed before I ride that particular bike again. Works for me.

It's not like a rider has to do their own work but at least they should be in tune enough with their bike to know when something is failing or getting stiff and recognize that it's time to take it in and get it looked at. It's a head shaker when I hear about or seel stuff like this where there was all the warning in the world that things were going bad and still the owner chose to ignore them until that fateful day when the part went "PING!"..... *shakes head in wonderment*

I've been known to push equipment to its limits and probably do the same with bike stuff. However, I always keep the front tire looking pretty fresh........

15 minutes after every ride keeps everything in top shape. The more you do these maintenance chores, the more efficient you get. Cuts trailside repairs way down, too. bk

Gonna have to put this on my favourites to enable you colonists to understand colloquial English. Just spent 5 minutes looking at it and I never realised you don't have Barmaids. You must be underpriviledged.

I am sort of with Retro Grouch. My beater bike that is used for commuting gets the worst treatment of any of the bikes I have had, but it has base-level components which means heavy and strong. But when the chain starts whirring, on goes the oil. The headset is checked often. The brakes are self-evident (and need attention now). The front and rear wheels are checked for lateral play and hub bearing wear weekly.

Knowing some bike maintenance helps identify problems as they arise.

Having read this, I may never use a pencil sharpener again.

If this "Global warming" keeps up all that will get done is tuning up the bikes!

I also do not follow a regular maintenance schedule. I do all my maintenance myself and replace or adjust parts as needed. I've never been stranded on the road due to lack of maintenance.

I spend more time with my four (4) computers as I spend biking. Computers are temperamental. There are always issues. I have learned to deal with many of these issues but not all. There are friends and paid consultants who help me with the rest of the issues.

Bike related maintenance is cheap compared to computer related issues if they require consulting. For instance: Best Buy charges $300 just to remove some Virus from an infected computer and they need up to 7 days to do it.

Long story short: I do what I can to keep my computers running and hand my bike over to the LBS.

Any good online guides to lubricating a bike that people have found?

I've been doing a bit of searching, but the ones I've found really only cover lubricating the chain, and I'd love to find a decent guide which also covers attending to cables, hubs and other moving parts.

I typically switch parts out so often that cleaning. lubrication, etc. gets done often. I guess it's the need to tinker with stuff. But on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I wonder how the so and so set of wheels will ride on the xyz frame. Or, I'll wonder if I can notice any difference if I use one Ultegra brifter and one Dura Ace brifter. So, I spend a fair amount of time just tinkering and always clean, adjust, and lube as I go.