Maintenance Mountain Bike Weekend Course
How do you clean and maintain a bicycle?
I’m new to bike riding and I was wondering how you clean and maintain your bike. I have a 21-speed mountain bike that I ride casually on the weekends. I’ve only ridden on paved trails but I’m wanting to try off-road soon.
What cleaning products do you use?
What regular maintenance or checks do you perform?
Can you use tire shine on bike tires? I tried it and it makes those tires black and shiny, of course, but I’m concerned that it might dirty up other areas of the bike.
Forget the tire shine.
You can keep the frame clean just with soap and water. Hose the frame down first to knock off mud and debris. be careful not to aim the stream at the wheel hubs, bottom braket– the part where the pedals are attached, or into the gear cluster.
Before a ride, make sure all the cables, seat and handlebars are secure. Once a week, maybe every other week, lube the chain. Once a month, I like to clean the chain and derailures.
For a good lube get, Finish Line’s Dry Teflon Lube. Or get White Lightning, a wax based lube
You’re going to get a difference of opinion on lubes. May I be so bold as to say, those opinions are correct. It all depends on where you buy and what they have.
(Just making it easy)
I highly recommend getting a spare inner tube, a frame pump, and a patch kit. I would also get one of those all-in-one tool kits.
For cleaning the chain, cogset (aka gear cluster) and front chain rings, get a brush for that. It’s made by Park Tools and it looks like a big toothbrush. it’s got a serrated end for removing embedded mud or other debris from the gear cluster.
Keep a small package of paper clips with you. These you can use if you don’t know how to break a chain link and replace it with another link.
Buy a set of tire bands, they go under such names as Mr. Tuffy. These are strips that go inside the tire between the inner tube and tire and reduces the chance of a puncture. I went 2,800 miles without a flat.
Keep the rims clean with soap and water to get all the crud, debris and brake shoe stuff off.
Mountain Biking Maintenance and Repair : Function of Bolt Circle BCD on Mountain Bikes
