So ideally, you could do this after you've washed your bike, or in this case we've
just finished our ride. We're going to check it over and make sure it's ready for
the next ride because I don't want to be rushing around in a mad panic half an hour
before I'm supposed to meet my friends.
Okay, so the first check I'm going to do is on the headset. It's such a horrible
feeling when you're rattling down a trail and you can feel than unnerving knocking
in the headset so just make sure make it routine that you check it.
What I'm going to do is just hold the front brake.
Put my fingers just around the headset here, and I'm pushing the front brake and
just try to feel for any movement in there. If you have movement there then you
know that the headset's loose. It's just a matter of undoing the two stem bolts here.
One on each side, and then tightening down the center cap of your headset.
You might feel a little bit of movement in the brake pads just as they move around in
the caliper.
Okay, so our second really important check is axles on your wheels.
Obviously rear and front. They can get knocked which might cause them to come
loose, and that would be the last thing you want is a wheel falling out.
So this one here is just a threaded axle. So I'm going to tighten it up there and be
sure you put it in a nice safe place where you're happy with it.
That also applies to our quick release where you can fold it away so it's nice
and tidy and it's not going to get knocked and come loose. Obviously,
it's a similar system that you got on a lot of forks, but also there's a pinch bob
system as well, which needs an alan key to tighten up.
Right, so the third maintenance check we're going to do is the suspension.
Obviously, some of you will be riding a hard tail. In this case,
we have the rear suspension to check as well. So, firstly I'll start with a fork.
Just going to cycle it through there. Make sure that the dampens work how I want it.
Also looking for no excess oil here on the stanchions that could mean that you've
blown the seals and they will need replacing and servicing.
Also, similar to the way we check the headset just put
your fingers to the top of the seal there and rock the fork back and forwards.
Exactly the same as you did with the headset, and what you're looking for is if
there is any clay in the stanchions. This could mean that the bushings have gone.
They will need replacing and you should get that done really soon.
Moving to the rear here now, checking firstly the DU bushings.
The DU bushing is the small bushing inside the shock, inside the shock mounting here
and here. They tend to wear out and they'll be a little bit of play in this
pivot mount there or possibly in this mount here. So, what you want to do
is just put your, put your fingers on either side of it and just lift,
lift the bike up slowly. If you can feel any play in there then the DU bushing
needs replacing.
It's really cheap and worth doing because it can damage the shock itself if they're
left loose for too long. Same as the front, we're just going to sort of cycle
the suspension through there. Make sure that your dampen is working nicely.
It feels nice and smooth. And also, similar to the front, checking that
there's no excess oil here on the shaft of the shock which means it might
be blown and therefore need servicing.
Okay, so moving on we are going to look at is your gears indexed incorrectly.
What I mean by this is running through the gears, from your hardest gear right up to
your easiest gear here. Want to make sure that they are moving nice and smoothly,
especially on the way down. As your gears are dropping down, if they're slow it
means there is some stitching in the cable, and perhaps it needs lubing or
replacing the cable, possibly the inner or outer or both.
If you can get a friend to lift your seat slightly you can run through the gears
stationary or simply just ride around the car park, up and down your gears
making sure that they all index nicely.
So now we're onto the chain for our maintenance checks. What we're looking for
is that we have no stiff links firstly. So, just going to cycle the chain through,
making sure that there isn't any stiff links. These would obviously cause you a
lot of problems with possibly gears slipping and they won't run smoothly
through your derailleur or the device that we have here.
So, they will need replacing before your next ride.
Another thing that's worth doing is keeping your chain nice and clean and well
lubed. If it's dirty it'll tend to wear out the cassettes more quickly and also
the chain rings, to keep it fresh and it will last you a bit longer.
So, it's worthwhile mentioning that you should keep an eye on your chain for wear.
There is a little tool that will check how worn your chain is.
If you change your chain regularly the chances are you will not have to buy a new
cassette and a new chainring if you stay on top of it. So keep a,
keep an eye on that.
So next we are moving on to tire pressure and tires. Fairly straight forward.
If your old fashioned the old thumb check just to see if you've got enough pressure
in that tire. Or if you're like me, I like to use a track pump that I trust the gauge
and then obviously there's pressure gauges that are specific for that job.
And while you are doing that it's also worth checking,
just looking over the tire. Perhaps you might have a slice in there or
damage to the side wall. They could let you down on a ride so just be aware, check
them over and know that your tires are in the best condition for your next ride.
Right, so once you've done your tire pressure you can move on to spoke tension.
You might have a little buckle that needs addressing from your last ride.
So, first of all, let's do spoke tension. They're just a simple
case of squeezing the spokes together and checking that they have a good tension and
what you're looking for is an even tension throughout the wheel.
If you've had an impact it'll cause sort of a little dent in the,
in the rim and these spokes will become loose. So as I've said,
even tension, and you might need to just go around them with your spoke key.
Don't go mad. Just put like a quarter of a turn on them and make sure that you get
an even tension throughout the wheel. It's worth mentioning that the back wheel
really tends to take the brunt of the action and most of the damage
will be caused back there and not so much in the front.
So how do you check for a worn bottom bracket? Well, the easiest way is to just
grab hold of the crank arms here and then just rock, try and rock the cranks from
side to side. If you feel any movement in there you know that your bearings
are damaged. Also, a second way of telling if your bottom bracket is worn, if you
spin the cranks backwards and you feel like sort of a grating and grinding
through the pedals you know that the bottom bracket is worn and the bearings
need replacing.
Okay, so now we're going to check that your breaks are working nicely and you've
got a nice solid feel in the lever. So you just want to apply the levers and make
sure that they feel nice and solid. If they do feel spongey or they're pulling
in towards the bar it probably means that they need bleeding, flushing through,
and fresh fluid. Check the levers are working there. Now we're going to move
down here to the pads. Firstly, just by eye, just have a look and make sure you've
got plenty of meat left on your pads, especially if you ride in bad weather.
Pads can wear out really quickly so it's worth keeping an eye on
so you don't damage your rotor.
Now on to the rotors, just going to spin the wheel, and make sure that that rotor
is centered in the caliper and flowing through the caliper without grazing the
disk. A rubbing disk is going to be a bit of a drag to lug around the trail so you
want those so that they spin nice and easily.
Okay, so our final maintenance check is
just a simple nut and bolt check. Get yourself a set of alan keys or torque keys
as some bikes have. What I would say my piece of advice is start up at the top
here with the controls and then slowly work from the top, front to back,
so you don't miss any. A good point, and I see this a lot, is people really murder
the bolts. It'll cause them to seize or they round the tops off and they cause a
lot of problems trying to get them undone. You have to replace the bolt.
It's just a bit of a nightmare. Get yourself a torque wrench
if you want to be really specific. A lot of the things have torque
indications on them of how tight they should be, but usually just firm,
but not really tight is a sort of a good middle ground to go for.
So there you go. That's our ten maintenance checks done. Really good habit
to get into especially if you can get into a routine of doing it after every ride.
You're going to be prepared for the next ride, and ready to go.
If you think that we've missed any please feel free to leave them in the comments
below. We'd love to hear what you think.
So for more videos from GMBN click up here for Neil's "How to pump like a pro," and
for Si Richardson's "How to get home when you've snapped your gear cable" video
click down here.
And obviously, don't forget to subscribe to us here at GMBN. Click on me.