Matinence

[ELX]

Hey
I just got a new bike well second hand but new to me. It's in sweet condition. But my last bike didn't get the well maintained and now it's starting to pay the price. I am really just wondering what regular matinence type things i should do to m bikes to keep them running well? I clean them a fair bit but i normally just hose them down a bit then clean them with brushes and sponges and soapy water and finaly hose them down again. Then i re-oil the chain and get rid of the excess oil. But other ethan that how often should i take the bb apart and re grease it or the hubs and headset and re-grese it and what else should i do to keep it running. It's a dually so is there anything for the rear shock i should do? I just read a thred of people braking all the bike parts so i'm nervouse now. People were saying the stripped alivio cranks is like 1 week of having them when all year i have been kicking around and dh racing on alivio cranks and shitty xc components on a hardtail with 80mm rst xc forks. And the only things i'v done to the bike were snap 2 hangerspo[p a few tubes and snap one old old set of xc forks. So i'm a bit worried now. Even though my new bike is kicking trick parts like Race Face NS cranks and Sun Singletrack Rims and stuff that are lot stronger than my pld bike i want to not break everthing on it . Anyway thanks guys

 

[Rik]

Ok, cleaning regularly is the most important part.
After that is lubrication.

I'd reccomend cleaning it fairly regularly like you said.
Next thing to do is keep your drivetrain running smooth. Pulling off the chain, cassette and chainrings, giving them a thorough degrease is a very good thing to do, maybe once a month, more or less depending how dirty it gets.
As for regreasing bottombracket, don't bother, you'll waste your time :lol: Same with the hubs, depending what bearing system they use.

Little things can help, like oiling the cables every now and then, oil the pivots in your derailleurs, keeping the bushes in the frame lubed will help. Don't bother pulling apart the rear suspension, you'll end up farking something up. Rebuilding the fork is fairly easy with a marzocchi, every 2nd month or so would be good intervals.

If you need to learn how to do all this, start buying magazines, a few have good servicing guides every month.

 

[ELX]

Yeah i am running deore disk hubes so do you know what bearing system that is? Like should i grese it? Also how would i go about oiling my linkages in my frame? The bike is a 2002 Norco Fluid so there is alot of linkages. ill my bb get fuked up if i dont re-grese it every now and then. I normally oil things like my levers/shifters/chain/mechs and sometimes the moving bit's of brakes. With the shock i will probably just get it done at a shop, as with the fork. But should i make sure i dont get water int the seal of the fork cause today it was making a strange suking sound like there was water in it or somthing but after a ride it worted it's self out. Anyway thanks rik.

 

[Rik]

Deore hubs? OK, these puppies will need to be pulled apart and serviced fairly regularly. They use an open ball system.
Bottom Bracket is a sealed cartridge unit, no need to touch it at all.
Don't worry about water in the fork, your seals should be tough enough to withstand alot more than just a wash. On that note though, be careful with the hose, you don't want to blast high pressure water at fork and bearing seals.

 

[ELX]

Yeah i dont blast the water at all just have it on the shower setting and lightly get the dry stuff like mud wet for cleaning and then get rid of the suds. But how would i go about cleaning and re-gresasing hubs? Like i could take them apart without too much trouble it's just gresing them in the right places thats the part i dont have trouble with and also for the linkage pivoyts should i poil them or grese them? Thanks again.

 

[ELX]

Well i just very very succelfully vchanges the rear shock travel from 4.1 to 5.1 Such a hard job But seriosly i'm not sure weather everything should be as tight as i can make it. Like should all the linkage bolts that go in the piviots be as tight as possible? Cause when i undid one of them to get the rear shoick out so i could change the travel it wasn't very tight. I made it almost as tight as i could when i did it back up but i was thinking it wasn't that tight in the first place so the pivot moved freelt? Whats up with this??

 

[ELX]

Gravedig But i just completly succesfully fe-lubes my cables, brakes feel like 10x as nice now. I set the brakes up perfectly. Re-Greased the Headset and Streerer.I'm just about Re-Grease my hubs and pull apart my drive train for de-greasing and then re-lubing. Sure it means i miss like 1 day of riding but i figure if it means it dd's like an extra 100 days of life to my bike why not do it. I used to never do anythng to my hardtail and now it's well and truley hacked. This dually was perfect untill i finished my second full day of shutting on it and riding it everyday for like 3 weeks but now it's started making some odd noises and the parts feel old and tired. Now everything feels new and good again. Such a good feeling knowing that the parts in the bie are no longer metal on metal hacking and making odd noises and are now nice and lubes and greased. Had to share that.

 

[brodes]

good to hear its all goin well

 

[Grip]

TJ... sounds like you've got the maintenance routine pretty sorted. Good stuff. And Riks advice was spot on.

With your headset, and any other open bearing systems, splurge on a tin of good quality MARINE grease for that bit of extra hold against water. It's worth the few extra dollars and will last you years.

As for the pivots in your rear end... find out what the bushes are actually made of (I'm SURE someone on Farkin will know off the top of their heads)

If you're lucky (but it's unlikely) they may be "sintered bronze" in which case you don't have to lube because the material itself is impregnated with oil and they are self-lubricating. Same "basic" story with plastic "vesconite" bushes (we make a fair number of these and they ARE the deal... no bloody doubt at all... keep that name in mind if you ever need to get bushes made)

Unfortunately, most bikes seem to have aluminium bushes... usually some "free machining" alloy, untempered and SOFT AS BUTTER!!!!!!. Which is OK except most pivots that go through those bushes are STEEL. This kind of set up really needs lots of lube and OFTEN and hosing your bike down WILL was it out.

If you're really concerned about it (and depending on the type of pivot points and the space available) fitting grease nipples can be a great idea to make it all easy and quick.

Cheers

 

[Xauterus]

Hi
I would definitely recommend the book Zinn mountain bike matainance book, its a well written book which covers all the stuff you need to do and what tools you need to do it.
Corey

 

[Daver]

actually, i beg to differ... often i find that a little bit of wd-40 on the chain after you wash the bike (with dishwashing fluid), and degrease it works brilliantly. Then you have a quick ride around the driveway and then you use a towel to get the wd-40 off... it sounds sketchy but i find my chains last forever and my cassettes never wear out...

then just check every bolt after you dry the bike, tighten them if there is any hint of movement and check your brake pads each time you pull the wheels out...

 

[Grip]

actually, i beg to differ... often i find that a little bit of wd-40 on the chain after you wash the bike (with dishwashing fluid), and degrease it works brilliantly. Then you have a quick ride around the driveway and then you use a towel to get the wd-40 off... it sounds sketchy but i find my chains last forever and my cassettes never wear out...

then just check every bolt after you dry the bike, tighten them if there is any hint of movement and check your brake pads each time you pull the wheels out...

Daver. I agree. WD40 (and all the others) are great lubes, but the problem is they are all kerosine based (have a smell) which makes them great as a lube for cutting/maching aluminium, but it does tend to fly off and wash out of stuff like chains pretty quick. Still, if you do it often....

 

[wombat]

Geez Jon! I was sitting there thinking "fuzzy knows about machining???" dammit man don't confuse me like that!

Isn't WD40 just a water dispersant though, not a lube persay?

 

[DEVLIN]

WD-40 is not a lube. It evaporates and basically leaves nothing behind. The chain needs to be degreased, rinsed and preferably left to dry overnight beforing relubing with a quality lube. Any WD-40 or degreaser left on the chain will dilute and break down the lube and make it less effective.

If possible clean your chain and sprockets after every ride then you will get an amazing life span out of your drivetrain. Get yourself a chain cleaner, as it makes it alot easier to do after every ride. Then relube just before your next ride. When lubing you don't need it all over the chain. Just half a drop on each roller is plenty. Most of the friction in a drive train is from the chain pivoting as it contacts and then leaves a sprocket or chainring. On the majority of bikes it will occur 8 times.

So basically you need to just lube the chain as I said. Any excess from this method will be plenty to lube the contact between the chain and the sprockets/cw. If you lube more than that all you end up with is a 'honey stick' that will attract every bit of dirt you ride past and hence create an abrasive environment.

It is good to jump in and have ago at the maintenance as it is the only way to learn. Becareful not to overtighten the bolts all the time. If you go around nipping up the bolts all the time you will end up with majorly overtightened bolts. If you can get yourself a torque wrench, they are not hugely expensive, and learn what each bolt on your bike should be done up to. This way you will never strip any threads or broken bolts.

And don't get any thing remotely slippery on your discs. I had a moron moment at the last nationals, where I sprayed my bike with canola so the mud wouldn't stick before a XC race. Dickhead me didn't take the wheels out or cover the caliper, hence I had less brakes than a track bike and a very interesting race.

I know some of it sounds retentive, but like you said a bit of looking after saves a huge cost down the track, and gives you heaps more riding enjoyment.

Have fun learning about your bike.