Bike Maintenance Tips, Tricks & Techniques

For all cyclists, ensuring your bike is in good working order is imperative. Whether you just pop down to the shops once a week or cycle miles every day, it’s important to make sure you’re safe and you know what to do if something on your bike goes wrong. There’s nothing worse than getting a puncture at the furthest point from home, but with the right knowledge and the right tools you’ll be back on the saddle in no time. If you’re cycling for sport or using it daily to commute to work, taking care of your bike is vital to your safety and your bike’s performance - and its longevity. Seeing as you’ll invest quite a bit of money into your bike, you’ll want to make sure you don’t…

Disc brake callipers: (aka disc brake units) These are bolted to mounts on your frame and fork. Pulling the brake lever at the handlebar clamps the disc rotor between thin, metalbacked brake pads. Powerful and resilient, they can seem daunting to service thanks to the hydraulic system but they´re actually very straightforward. Mechanical versions use cables and V-brake levers rather than an oil-filled hose. Rear derailleur: This moves the chain step by step across the cassette sprockets. Differentsized sprockets give you different gear ratios, so that you can pedal at a constant rate over a range of different speeds. The movement of the rear derailleur is controlled by a cable on the shifter on the right-hand side of the handlebar. Correct adjustment gives you slick shifting and ensures maximum life…

The evolving toolkit Some tools are universal, like screwdrivers. Others are highly specific and only do one task, or even just one task on one particular make and model of component. For example, you might buy a socket to change the oil on your car. When you sell the car, the socket might stay in your toolbox until you don’t notice it any more. Later, when you clear out your toolbox you realise you haven’t used it in 15 years – instead it can make a nice candlestick. You can always find a new task for old tools, so hang on to them. The tools on the first list are good for starters and should allow you to carry out all the simple repairs. Tools for the specialist jobs appear…

Cleaning products Always start with the least aggressive cleaning products, then gradually intensify. • A cleaning fluid, such as Finish Line Bike Wash or Hope’s ShitShifter, makes washing much quicker. Spray it on, give everything a good scrub with your brush kit, then rinse with warm water. • Degreaser. This is great for deep-cleaning your bike’s really filthy drivechain. Spray it on, leave it to soak for as long as the manufacturer recommends, then rinse with hot water. Do check the instructions, though, as some can be damaging to paintwork. Avoid getting degreaser anywhere near seals and bearings, too, as you don’t actually want these to be stripped of their lubrication until its time for a service. A dedicated chain-cleaning tool helps to keep the powerful chemicals contained. • Hand…

Your biscuit box is essential but, like a good compost heap, it must grow over time and cannot be bought wholesale! Start one now. A biscuit box is any container into which you drop odd nuts and bolts left over from other bike repairs. Then, when you shear off an essential bolt after the shops have closed, your box of bits can save your bacon. Useful items to keep in your biscuit box include M5 and M6 Allen key bolts in lengths from 10mm to 45mm, crank bolts, cable end caps and ferrules, threadless headset top caps with rude slogans on them, an assortment of odd washers and spacers, valve caps and valve lockrings, loose ball bearings and the scraps of chain that are left over every time you fit…

Delicate parts, which just need holding in place, come equipped with small bolts. The spanners that fit these bolts are short so that you don’t have enough leverage to overtighten the bolt. Parts that need to be clamped down firmly come with a big bolt that you can attach a nice hefty spanner to and lean on. This used to work well enough, but as riders we’re demanding lighter equipment all the time, so manufacturers are designing components with less room for error. For example, replacing steel bolts with aluminium ones will save weight, but aluminium bolts are far less forgiving of overtightening; once stressed, they can snap without warning. Overtightening bolts can also strip the thread that you’re bolting into. This is a common problem with aluminium parts. For…