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Maintaining your
bike in good working order is as easy as 1-2-3.
Follow these easy steps to keep you bike well
maintained and avoid breakdowns.
1. Bike wipe & check - after a ride - about
every 50km
Front Shock – Wipe
stanchions and ensure dust seals are clean and
oil free
Rear Shock – Wipe and ensure dust seal is clean
Run chain through dry clean cloth. Wipe old lube
off chainrings. Re-lube chain.
A quick check to see that
everything is working, best to be done at the
end of the day so that any repairs, adjustments
can be done before the next day
-
Check wheels (skewers) are
tight
-
Check brakes work and are not
loose (levers and callipers)
-
Check handlebar is tight and
not loose
-
Check gears are working and
changing properly
-
Check and adjust tire pressure
2. Bike wash - when your bike looks dirty,
before a race or after a muddy ride
Washing a mountain
bike can be quick and easy if you have a plan
and the right tools. In 5-10 min you can give
you bike a wash that will make it look like new.
The full bike wash will take a bit longer and is
only necessary after a couple of weeks or when
you feel like bonding with your bike.
How to wash
your mountain bike
Chain cleaning
and chain cleaning tools
3. Bike Tools
- Get the right tools to do basic DIY
maintenance
Maintaining your
own bike is not nearly as complicated as it seems. A
good way to learn is to start slowly, gain confidence
and build up a set of
bike tools as you progress. If your
bike needs a service, rather spend the money buying a
couple of tools and then do it yourself.
Recommended
mountain bike tools
4. Bike Gears Setup
and Adjusting
Adjusting and
setting your mountain bike gears is really quite
simple. There are a few basic rules that need to
be followed in order to understand what should
be setup and what should be adjusted. The
difference is that the setup items are done only
once and never again unless the part is removed
or replaced.
Identifying gear shifting problems
Gear Setup and Adjusting
Chain Service
Roughly every 1000km, or when chain is worn.
Replace Chain.
Remove and grease BB and Crank. Check BB
bearings for wear.
Remove rear shock and grease all bushings when
replacing. Check swing arm as above.
Check Cassette – replace if necessary (normally
only every 4000 to 5000km)
Check Chainrings – replace if necessary
(normally every 3rd chain and then only middle
chain ring)
Remove fork. Remove headset bearings, clean and
re-grease. Re-assemble.
Check hubs, spokes and rims for wear and damage.
Fork and Shock Maintenance.
Every 80 hours of use.
Remove dust seals from fork. Check that oil is
still clean and that foam rings are clean and
lubed.
Clean inside of dust seals using old sticker
backing.
Rear Shock – Remove from bike.
Deflate all air.
Remove air can.
Check all recommended areas, as per manual.
Re-grease according to manual recommendations.
Refit.
Fork and Shock Service
Every 160 hours. According to manual. (haven’t
done this myself yet, but will soon!) |
