Bicycle Maintenance Archives - Page 2 of 2

Here are tips and interesting recommendations so you can keep a bike and further enhance your safety and that of your vehicle when you ride on the road. Let’s look carefully each and every one of these tips. We present three different blocks.

Tips for keeping a bike

Periodic maintenance of bicycles.The periodicity’s up to you and will relate to the use that will give your bike. Did you use every day? How many kilometers do? For that you use? Is road, mountain, city? It is important that you can ask yourself all these questions that will help you decide how regularly apply these tips.
Before leaving home.Have you checked the tire pressure? These and other questions will warn you of the most important aspects that can not be neglected before heading out on your bike.
When you come home.Has Messed bicycle much? Do not forget to wash it and leave it ready for the next day.

Periodic maintenance of bicycles

We can not ignore that the bicycle is a means of transport and is an object that requires a certain care. In the same way that a car or motorbike must make them eg periodic washing, bicycles do not have to be different. As you test your car battery, you must check the status of bicycle chain. There go point by point the recommendations we offer so you can keep the bike: Continue reading “How do you keep a bike?”

There are a lot of little maxims, guidelines, and rules-of-thumb out there about taking care of your bike. Some of them are founded in mechanical truth and good to go by (maybe that could be another “Friday Five”…) while others are founded in perception and ought to be ignored or forgotten.

Here are five that fall into the latter category based on my years at the repair stand in 3 major bike shops and now my own operation. Enjoy:

1. New Chains need re-adjustment after a few rides due to “stretch”.

Chains do stretch. I’ve covered that before in a few places on the blog. (Here, and here) However, the stretch is slow – or slow-ish depending on the conditions you ride in and your maintenance habits. I have found that occasionally a chain will settle in a little and develop a slight amount of lateral flexibility it may not have had out of the box which may contribute to a change in shifting behavior. This settling may require some slight tweaks to the shift cable tension.

More likely is this scenario: often when you get a new chain installed at a shop – they probably also recommend new cables. This is a great maintenance move as cables are inexpensive and hold a great deal of influence over your shifting performance. However, new cables do stretch and cable housing and ferrules will compress and settle within the first few rides. This will influence your bike’s shifting behavior far more and is likely what you’re experiencing and what needs adjustment.

2. Rotating your tires is a smart way to make them last longer.

True, but not necessarily the best practice. Here’s the details: More of your body weight is usually focused over the rear tire. This coupled with the fact that the rear tire bears all of the motivation duties means that there is a tremendous amount more strain on the rear tire than the front causing it to wear more quickly. Many who have observed this have thought: “I’ll just let it wear about half way and then swap the front to the back and vise-versa to even things out.” This will help both tires last longer; but it is not a good idea. Continue reading “Five Myths About Bicycle Maintenance”