Mountain Bike Regular Maintenance Advice | Tips to Keep Your Bike Working

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 to avoid breakdowns.

1. Bike wipe & check – after a ride – about every 20 miles

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 your 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.

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 as you progress. If your bike needs a service, rather spend the money buying a couple of and then do it yourself.

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.

Chain Service

Roughly every 500 miles, 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 3000 miles)
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 your manual.