How often do you maintain your bikes?

[mustardfj40]

For those serious riders, how often do you maintain your bikes? For me, I can't find the time so I usually ride it to the ground

- The daily mountain bike: front disk brake is rubbing for the past 6 months and nothing is done yet.
- The back-up mountain bike: front fork leaks for the past years, I have all the parts to rebuild but nothing done yet, I ran out of spare mtb tubes, need to drop by performance bike shop today to get some tubes.
- My Road bike, got a flat on the last ride and also ran out of spare road tubes

And the mtb shoes cleats are loosen after some 8 years.

 

[nspctr1]

I probably don't ride as much as everyone else but try to get in 7-10 miles in one ride a week. My maintenance depends on my riding. If the trails are nasty then I will clean things up and lube, if the trails are just a little dusty then I lube and clean about every 3 months.

 

[tcb]

I like working on my bikes more than I like working on cars, but still, it's mainly on an "as-needed" basis.

I clean and lube the chain every couple of days of commuting or everytime I hit the trails. I wash them a couple time a month. Everything else is adjusted when it needs it. I always ride with allen wrenches just incase something needs to be tweaked.

 

[SLOonTheGo]

I tend to do a full cleaning once a month or so. Wipe it down with some super wash and then clean the chain, grease it up.

After really muddy rides, or before races on the mtb I do a full tear down, grease bb, headset, and chain. Readjust the deraillers, adjust the shock pressure, clean my rotors with rubbing alcohol and sand my pads down if they need it, then reseat the brakes. Long hill with a few squirts of water does the trick. Oh, and true the rims a bit if they seem out of wack. But that isn't all that often since I normally will opt to run when its muddy and I only race now and then.

The roadie just gets some chain lube and tire pressure checks once a week.

 

[ravewoofer]

It's been so wet this spring and summer, that I find I'm always cleaning, oiling and adjusting. I make it a routine after every ride to put the bike on the work stand and start the tune up. It's really the best way to keep on top of problems. Just this weekend I noticed a wobble in the crank set while tuning the derailleuiers. I didn't have the tools for the bottom bracket, so $90.00 later I had a new bottom bracket installed at the lbs.

 

[Ruadhrigh]

I beat the crap out of my MTB. Maintenance is minimal. But my road bike gets special attention.
-Bath every Sunday
-Clean and Lube chain every Sunday
-Everyother week remove tires from rims and check for thorns

 

[Fast Eddy]

Chain lube every ride, sometimes twice.

My Titus needs adjusting every ride, sometimes during the ride. It's had a new derailleur and new brakes. The "new" brakes are 7 or 8 year old hayes hydraulics. I had to bleed them once when I inherited them and one of them before this past weekend. It needs brake pads now too.

My '91 Stumpjumper has been great for $200 or so except for trying to keep the threaded headset tight. The most recent attempt has been holding for a few rides. It needs new cantilever brake pads now. It got a new tire last time I rode it and it needs one more.

My Phil Wood singlespeed has never had any maintenance in three (?) years. Sometimes I have to adjust the chain tension. It could use the bottom bracket and stem removed and lubed. It has ancient hayes hydraulic brakes that have never been bled. The tubeless wheelset is too dented up to run tubeless, but still works great with tubes. I could probably get the front to hold air if I was so motivated. It needs a back tire before the next ride.

My roadie is fixed gear, so once it was built, I've never done any work to it, nor cleaned it. It's got over 10000 miles. It does need the bar tape rewrapped. I'm on the 3rd rear tire due to skidding instead of using the front brake.

Fixing flats is a constant inconvenience. Between my kids and I we've got about 15 bikes. I think only one has both tires holding air at this moment. A couple more will hold air overnight, but not longer.

 

[John Smith]

If I go mtn biking I will clean and lube the bike once I get back from the ride. If I am just doing street or city riding I just lube the chain and may not clean the bike for months except a wipe down.

 

[cary]

Whenever they need it.

 

['74 UA FJ]

I ride mine to school almost everyday and I haven't pumped up the tires or oiled the chain since school started two months ago. It was a free bike though...

 

[2mbb]

I do all of my maintenance. Mostly it is chain cleaning and cleaning dirt off the mountain bike. I live in SF-Bay Area and it's not too dirty here. Dry/dusty in the summers. The ground has a lot of clay so once it starts raining, it's hard to ride on the trails until they dry out. I use a wax-based lubricant and it keeps things pretty clean, overall. Depending upon usage I'll break the bike down to the frame and clean everything really thoroughly, replace cables, etc. This happens on my mountain bike once every two years, or so , and on my road bikes, less often. About a month ago I replaced on the pivot bearings on my Santa Cruz Blur and replaced the seals on the Fox fork.

I'm not a professional mechanic but for the past few years I've been volunteering as a bicycle mechanic for the Aids Lifecycle ride--a week long ride from SF to LA that benefits aids research. I don't ride a bike but drive my FJ60 to rest stops and nightly camps and "fix" bikes all day long. It's mostly flat tires, derailuer adjustment and broken spokes. It's hard work, but still a lot of fun.

 

[fzjchase]

Every 7-9 days.

Weekly Maintenance:

- Complete Wash
- Complete Re-Lube.
- Adjust brakes as needed.
- Check the adjustment in the derailuer's

 

[OZCAL]

Welllll, when I raced road bikes, the whole thing was apart - down to the fixed cup in the bb - a few times a year.

Never cleaned chains when good regina chains were 10-20 bucks; just toss on a new one every month or so.

Now? It's mostly helping my son place monster stickers correctly on the tubes...

 

[ravewoofer]

Regina chains! Now, there's a name from the past! I used to road race from '78-'84 and used Regina. I don't hear of them at all now, but maybe that's 'cause I mountain bike. Seems like mountain bikers use Shimano or Sram.

 

[wesintl]

I like tinkering with bikes so I usually put a lot of time into maintenance. My road i'll wipe down every other ride or so and lube the chain before each ride.

Mtn bike, depends where you live. I would have to clean the mud off after every ride back east. Where it's dry out here sometimes I would do it every couple rides but my bike rides and shifts better when it's clean. Parts like chains, cogs, chainrigs wear less without the dust and dirt on it.

 

[Mr. Toad]

I was fortunate enough to race (road) a couple of seasons on a team with a budget and a real-life mechanic. Not just any mechanic, but one who hyperventilated at the sight of a dirty bike. Unfortunately for him, I rode through every puddle and every dust swirl I could find on every ride. I made sure to touch the chain with my fingers at least once a week, and then wipe off the grime on a part of my bar tape I usually didn't use. Same when my hands were dirtied by a tire change. Although I kept the bike in perfect mechanical tune, it never got wiped-off or dusted unless a towel fell on it by accident. The bike would spend rainy nights on top of my car.

And then poor Ricky would see the filthy thing before he loaded-up the van to travel to a race. Week after week, his face would go white and his skin get clammy. Then at the race, like magic, I'd go get my bike to warm up and it would be spotlessly clean, new bar tape, sometimes a new (or scrubbed like new) chain, and a fresh lube. He'd even scrub the tires. How he cleaned the areas around the bottom bracket I still don't know. lol -- He's probably on some forum wondering how someone could make a bike get so filthy in a week . . .

I need to track him down and send him a case of his favorite poison.

 

[Topoguide]

Whenever they need it.

Here here! I used to keep my bikes fanatically cleaned and tuned... several years later I have a family and all of their bikes and other gear to keep maintained. Now I am just semi-fanatical about keeping them tuned right (only as needed).

And by the way they're (the kids) are not old enough to maintain their own yet (start 'em young right?), except for my wife who "let's" me take care of hers. At least hers doesn't get all the gunk and mud caked on like mine!

 

[VCCruzr]

Before each ride, lube chain, check tire pressure, check shock pressure (mtb) - other components as needed, disc brake pads, derailluer and casette replaced annually & sometimes twice a year.