Regular Maintenance?

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Brommie77

New Member
Location
Crewe
I'm the first to admit that I am not the best at doing all the work that my bike needs, but I try my best, and at the least give it a squirt of oil or two. This morning on the way to the station I passed:

- a lady on a bike that looked as if it was last oiled about 20 years ago, and she was really struggling to pedal
- a lad on a bike whose back wheel was so bent it was rubbing the rear frame on alternate sides, as I went passed I noticed he also had no brake cable in the calipers
- a lad on a bike that was creaking and clanking because his chain was so rusty that I'm suprised it actually worked.

Why do people not realise that they need to at least oil a bike and in doing so it makes a real difference to the efficiency of the bike, not to mention the longlevity of the thing?

I really find it bizarre...
 

Cletus Van Damme

Previously known as Cheesney Hawks
Pretty simple really because they are lazy, stupid or both. I just looked at a used bike for sale and it was a real sh1tter, and the guy reckoned that it had been well maintained and always serviced etc. I am pretty new to cycling but do look after my bike, I have looked at many used cars before and seen some complete sh1t boxes, now I see that bikes can be pretty much the same. Fortunately the kind of bike that I was after was something that I could just afford new, whereas cars I can't so have to risk looking at sh1t, as and when I run one of my 2 cars into the ground with rust issues (one is 16 years old).
 

betty swollocks

large member
One of the cleaners at my gym cycles to work on a BSO held together with ferrous oxide.
While it was parked in the rack yesterday I lubed its chain.
At least that's one thing that won't be squeaking on her way home.
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
Apart from what Brommie77 said, I always seem to notice people riding /struggling along on bikes with the tyres so flat that they must be able to feel the road bumping along beneath them. Also the saddle so low that their knees are coming up under their arm pits, must be very uncomfortable.
 
Tyres... the one thing I check after every day's ride. The state of the roads nowadays, you can't really leave shards of glass to work their way through the rubber. I consider it the best 5 mins maintenance I give my bikes.

+1 on the saddle height. I've been guilty of this myself (not as bad as knees under the chin though!).
 
What I hate is when one of those buggers on a rusty squeeky bike, in the wrong gear and with the saddle too low overtakes me.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
What I hate is when one of those buggers on a rusty squeeky bike, in the wrong gear and with the saddle too low overtakes me.

Yeah, I get that too..

Thing is, a bike will just go on and on. It might not be fun to ride, but it will take a heck of a lot of abuse before it dies. And if they are riding it every day, they won't notice it getting gradually worse.

I got round to putting some air in my winter hack's Big Apples yesterday with the work track pump. At least it brought them up to more than 1 bar... (just into to swap it for the FCR, on tyres that won't take that sort of neglect.)
 

pshore

Well-Known Member
A friend of mine was getting punctures every few weeks and getting the LBS to fix the puncture - probably £5-£10 each time. I told them to buy Marathon Pluses and they did - no punctures since.
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
I use parking stands all over the area and the state of many of the other bikes on them makes me cringe. Rusty chains, cassettes, etc. are the most common areas of neglect.
 
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