A different type of ouch!

[tdr1nka]

Before I had kids I would take an hour out of every weekend to give my bike a general service and apart from cable brakeages and puctures my hybrid rat MTB ran like a dream for years, I'd take it to a big car wash nearby early in the morning and scrub the bike down with detergent and the scrubby wand thing then ride it home and clean and repack the all the bearings........

Now that I have children, my trusty Trek 850 runs with all the grace and smoothness of a Ukrainian Tractor and is only used for the school run. The KMX gets a tweak here and there and has been lovingly promised a complete overhaul come the spring. Now my daughter is 5 I'm going to start teaching her how to maintain a bike(*thinks* her generation need never know the joy that was cotter pins, humanity is advancing!).

Wet bikes are left in the hall on a run of old carpet tiles to dry. I used to have a 2' x 5' strip of pond liner which did the job just as well.

T x

 

[tdr1nka]

Dear Snorri,

Surely you can apply the maintainance principle to your car by saying it will run more efficiantly if you check the water, oil, tyre pressure, tracking and tyres on a regular basis? This takes about the same time as tweaking a velo and you get just as dirty.

Your cars manual will say these car checks should be regularly undertaken once a week and before long journeys. Having been a mechanic for a few years I can tell you these checks can make a difference to fuel consumption and the life of the vehicle.

An inefficiant bike is only a problem for the rider, and inefficiant car contributing to pollution is a problem for everyone.

Tx

 

[BentMikey]

That the trouble with buying cheep bikes, they don't last as long and end up costing more in the long run. That said the Dawes Shadow I bought second hand for £65 when I was a student, lasted me almost 10 years and rarely had it serviced...

You reckon? Buying an expensive bike and then replacing all the expensive parts on it after thousands of miles is probably even more expensive. Either that or it's just a reflection on my desire for tarting up the bike.

 

[twowheelsgood]

I'm often somewhat in wonder at many of the posts of this forum regarding the rapid wearing out of stuff. I'm an all year round cyclists doing perhaps 4-5000miles per year now, yet other than tyres, chains and the odd spoke, stuff just seems to last.

My everyday steed is a modest Marin hybrid, yet everything is still in working order after 9 years or so. Even the cables were original until I recently upgraded my mountain bike and it inherited the deraillieur and the much better LX v-brakes. The cassette, rings, bb, crankset and wheels (i.e. the expensive bits) must be on around 15k miles now... My bike regulary carries 100kg of me and 30kg of shopping too and the paths around here are often wet and sandy/gritty.

OK, so perhaps it doesn't shift as snappily as it once did, there is visible wear in the drive train and the right pedal bearing can be a bit vocal at times, but really are some of you just a bit too fussy or are you really wearing through stuff that quickly? Or am I doing something wrong? If cycling was purely out of utility rather than a hobby, I'd budget on maybe 4-5 tubes, 2 tyres, a set of brake blocks and 2 chains a year.

 

[mrben]

I've only just got back into cycling, but I'm trying to get into a decent routine. If I think things are getting a bit creaky, I give the chain and rearmech a quick squirt with GT85 before I leave in the morning. I'm going to try and give the chain a good clean and relube once every 2-3 weeks, depending on how wet the weather has been.

Sprayed my rear gear cable this morning - made a lot of difference

 

[gambatte]

Sprayed my rear gear cable this morning - made a lot of difference

If you ever replace, try 'flying snakes', straight thro from lever to mech. Sealed and no exposed inner

 

[mrben]

If you ever replace, try 'flying snakes', straight thro from lever to mech. Sealed and no exposed inner

Which is great, apart from the fact that you can't check for wearing

 

[Tynan]

I'm often somewhat in wonder at many of the posts of this forum regarding the rapid wearing out of stuff. I'm an all year round cyclists doing perhaps 4-5000miles per year now, yet other than tyres, chains and the odd spoke, stuff just seems to last.

My everyday steed is a modest Marin hybrid, yet everything is still in working order after 9 years or so. Even the cables were original until I recently upgraded my mountain bike and it inherited the deraillieur and the much better LX v-brakes. The cassette, rings, bb, crankset and wheels (i.e. the expensive bits) must be on around 15k miles now... My bike regulary carries 100kg of me and 30kg of shopping too and the paths around here are often wet and sandy/gritty.

OK, so perhaps it doesn't shift as snappily as it once did, there is visible wear in the drive train and the right pedal bearing can be a bit vocal at times, but really are some of you just a bit too fussy or are you really wearing through stuff that quickly? Or am I doing something wrong? If cycling was purely out of utility rather than a hobby, I'd budget on maybe 4-5 tubes, 2 tyres, a set of brake blocks and 2 chains a year.

ditto, I suspect some people like maintaining their bike, probably stay at home a lot

 

[frog]

Summerdays,

I too am in the need to replace everything feeling ... the chain, and wheels for definate, and the bike shop said the cassette too, and thats without them looking at the bike properly so could yet find more things.

At what point (on a bike that cost about £250 before I added all those other extra bits), does it become better value to buy a new bike?

Chain, cogs and rings I can understand but why do you need new wheels? Can't they just get re-trued or the bearings re-lubed?

 

[Tynan]

better upgraded wheels

now and then I've been told that a wheel is so badly buckled that it has to be replaced, whethr that was the shop being greedy I wouldn't know, they were proper unhooked brakes buckles, in fairness one of the wheels had had a car reverse over it

them potholes

 

[Cab]

I think that the cost of servicing depends very much on where you are; here in Cambridge we've got some pretty decent bike mechanics who'll fix up your bike for not a lot more than the price of the components. Barely makes it worth doing the job yourself, if you know where you can get a good deal.

 

[biking_fox]

The other reason I've found for replacing a wheel is that the rim is very very thin and or cracked.

I used to ride down two 30mph hills a day, both of which normally had a Red traffic light at the bottom. Hence a lot of braking. Winter grit wore the rims down within a couple of years. THis was admittedly a road bike with thinner rims than you'll find on a hybrid or mtb.

 

[summerdays]

Summerdays,



Chain, cogs and rings I can understand but why do you need new wheels? Can't they just get re-trued or the bearings re-lubed?

The wear line on the rim is fast disappearing.... I don't want failure..... maybe I brake too much... it doesn't help with the hills round here... I have a top speed of 26... mentally I can't go faster so I have to apply the brakes... The rims are 1.5 years old, I do upto 50 miles a week and I can't go anywhere in Bristol without going up and down hills....

 

[frog]

The wear line on the rim is fast disappearing.... I don't want failure.....

Yep! That'd get my attention too . It's one of the few things I check on the bike every week. When I bought a pair of new wheels for my first bike I couldn't believe the difference in the ride. The bike was much more responsive. A hundred notes well spent

 

[palinurus]

I had a Muddy fox Courier which I used as a commuter for 10 years. When I gave it away (I wish I hadn't now) it was still on the original wheels; hubs running fine. Only replaced the entire transmission once. Except the BB; two of those- new bearings anyway- wasn't a cartridge job. One of the shifters packed up and needed replacing. Three or four chains I reckon (didn't count). Saddle was replaced at some point (hole in the covering meant wet arse from spongy interior). One spoke. Tyres and cables as required. That was it.

The Marin that replaced it needed more than that doing in the first two years- same commute. Although I moved at some point so it got to live in the shed rather than in the hallway, probably makes some difference.