Bicycle Maintenance

Doing bike maintenance might seem a bit daunting at first. But once you get the hang of it, it's actually easy peasy. Just go through our simple bike-health checklist and you'll be ready for the road in no time.

Bike Check

You should check your bike every day. Give it a bounce or shake to make sure nothing is loose or rattles. Then check the most important parts more carefully as we describe below.

Tyres

Every time your ride your bike, it's important to check the tyres are pumped up hard. This will help prevent punctures, protect your wheel rims and make riding easier.

Tyres will usually have one of two valves: Presta or Schrader. Presta valves are skinnier and often seen on road bikes. Schrader valves are the same as car tyre valves and commonly seen on mountain bikes and bikes with wider tyres.

If you're using a hand pump, pump the tyres up as hard as you can. For foot pumps or track pumps, inflate to the recommended pressure written on the side of the tyre.

If your tyres have tread (grooves around the tyre), make sure it has not worn away as this will increase your chances of getting a puncture. If you have smooth racing tyres with no tread, make sure they are not worn through at any point.

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Reflectors and Lights

Reflectors help you to be visible, and your bike must be fitted with a red rear reflector and orange reflectors on your pedals. At night you must have front and back lights bright enough to be seen by other traffic.

Saddles

The only thing you really need to know about your bike seat is how to get it at the right height and angle. Too high and you might have trouble getting on and off, or reaching the handlebars. And having it too low will make riding uncomfortable and can cause knee pain.

Your saddle should be high enough that when you are seated on the bike with your foot on the pedal at its lowest point, your leg is almost fully straight, and you should be able to touch the ground with your tiptoes. To get it just right learn how to adjust you saddle height using an allen key or a spanner (unless your saddle is quick release, in which case you won't need either).

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Brakes

As you can imagine, it's pretty important that your brakes are in good working order. To test them stand over your bike, squeeze the front brake lever and try pushing the bike forward; then squeeze the back brake lever and try pulling the bike backwards. If your brakes are ship shape, the bike should not move at all.

Your brake pads should line up with the wheel rim, they should never touch the tyres. You should be able to put the brakes on without squeezing the levers too hard. But if you have to really hold them down, or the bike moves, you may need to adjust the cables or replace the brake pads. Depending on your bike, this can be a tricky business. So you might like to get a cycle-pro pal to show you how, have a look at the advice on the LCC website below, take it into a bike shop, or take a short maintenance course.

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Gears and Chain

Your gears should be easy to change and run smoothly. Adjusting gears and cables is simple when you know how, but there are many different models out there so ask a friend to show you or see the LCC weblink below.

Cleaning your chain before you take your bike out will make riding a whole lot easier, and reduce wear on some other parts too. Cleaning it properly will probably take about 15 minutes. It's a good idea to wear plastic gloves to keep your hands clean.

Then take the edge of the cloth, and use it to wipe the worst of the gunk from the chain and all the parts it threads through. After that, you can use a cleaning solvent and an old toothbrush to get it properly clean.

When you've finished, dry the chain with a rag, turn the bike upside down, turn wheel using the pedals and put a few drops of chain lubrication on the chain as it goes round. Wipe off the excess lube and you're all done!

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Wheels

Make sure that your brakes have not worn through the wheel rims. If there are any cracks get new wheels. The spokes on your bike should all be equally tensioned and there shouldn't be any missing. If your wheel's bent or 'out of true' and doesn't spin straight, it could get a little trickier so it might be useful to take the wheel into a bike shop or take a bike maintenance course.

If you have missing spokes, you should replace them before you ride as one missing spoke will make the others weaker.

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