General Maintenance Questions

[makbike]

Could someone please give me some general guidelines/timelines for general maintenance issues? About all I do presently is lube the chain and check the pressure in my tires before each ride. I know there are other things that need to be done but don't know what these are or how often they should be done. I would appreciate any suggestions.

I know I should know this but exBF took care of all of this for the past 3 1/2 years. Now that I'm flying solo again I need to make sure my little blue bike is taken care of. I don't want to take it to a shop without knowing what really needs to be done - no need to spend money that does not need to be spent.

Thanks again!

[KnottedYet]

I don't know anything... but that I love the Park Tools "Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair" and Sheldon Brown's website.

Someone posted a link a while back to a bunch of great youtube videos from a bike shop, each one showing and explaining how to do a part of bike maintainence.

[Trek420]

I have lots of books, Zinn and the Art of Bicycle Maintanence, and tools but the only thing I do is clean and lube the bike.

Don't clean your bike without lube after :D
Don't lube the bike unless you've cleaned before :D

Good thread here

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=15355&highlight=chain+cleaning

[boy in a kilt]

You've got the necessary stuff going after each ride.

I ride in the rain a lot, so I take a piece of fine grit sand paper and take the goop off my pads about once every other week during the wet season.

About once a month or so, give the wheels a check to make sure they are true. If they are out of round, you'll know it. Easiest to do with a truing stand but using your brake pads works just as well. While you are at it, check your brake pads for wear.

If you ride in the rain a lot and don't have sealed bearings, check the bottom bracket and hubs every six months or so (less often if you don't ride in the rain).

About once a year or so, I'll pull out things that I don't normally touch like my seat post and my binder bolt, water bottle cage and rack bolts and give them a little grease so they don't get cold welded to the frame. If your whole frame is carbon fiber, you don't need to worry about this.