- Tools, pump,
rags, lube.
All right, oh.
Music, that's what we need.
(upbeat music)
If you're living in the Northern hemisphere like myself,
then either your bike's in storage,
not been touched for a long time
or it's looking like this guy here
and it's in dire need of some attention
because we've been riding all winter long.
Shorter days and longer nights
leave us with a lot of time to sit on the couch
and twiddle our thumbs and watch movies.
But as they say, if you have time to lean,
you've got time to clean.
Your bike.
I'm gonna share a couple of mindful maintenance tips
so that your bike and ride smooth for the rest of winter
and it's not gonna turn into a big rusty pile of rudd.
First little tip.
I always like to wear black.
Because you're gonna get grease on everything.
So black on black on black.
Step two, start with a clean bike.
Because it's gonna keep your workspace a lot tidier
and you can really see what's going on
with the bike under all the mud.
I wash my bike or at least rinse it down after every ride
in the winter.
I don't want the mud to get caked on there stuck and frozen.
So if you wash it, when it's still a little bit moist,
it's gonna clean up really nicely.
When doing that though,
be really cautious of all the seal locations
and your bearings on the bike as well.
You don't wanna be pushing mud into those places.
So a nice low setting on the hose
will be really helpful there.
Once the bike's clean,
I just like to give it a little wipe down
with a nice clean cloth.
Get rid of all the mud
that's still lingering around.
And while you're there,
it's a good idea to wipe the seals on your fork
as well as the seals on your dropper posts.
And if you have an air shock, do that as well.
Before moving on to the rest of the bike,
I like to first address the chain.
Don't wanna forget to loop the chain.
To try to do it as soon as you've cleaned the bike.
And now's a good time to get really up close
and personal with your chain.
You've always wanted to count how many chain links
are in there.
So count them up clean every single individual one.
Because the water in the grime that stuck
in between those little rollers,
that's what's wearing the chain down very quickly
and more prematurely than the rest of your drive train.
This is pretty much the only time here I'll use wet lube
but you can use it anytime, anywhere.
It just requires a little bit more maintenance
on the drive train than dry lube.
Wet lube has a higher viscosity,
which means it's a little bit thicker than dry lube,
which is great because it's more water resistant
and it's not gonna rinse away in those big puddles.
After cleaning the chain and lubing it up,
I like to let the lube sit there
for just a little bit of time
so it can really penetrate all the rulers
and the moving parts.
But don't forget to wipe it clean.
Any little extra lube on there is just gonna pick up grime
and dirt and dust later on.
Moving on now that the bike looks nice
and clean to the naked eye here,
I like to use a little bit
of protective sealant spray on the frame.
That way the next time you go out and ride
the mud and the water,
it's gonna drip off a lot easier.
But do be careful.
You don't wanna just go spray it free willy nilly
all over the bike
because guaranteed you're gonna get it on the rotors
and the brake pads and all the places
you don't want the spray.
So what I do instead is I apply it
to a little bit of a clean rag
and then just wipe it onto the bike.
You pretty much get the same effect
and it looks nice.
We're finally ready to actually service the bike now.
So what I do is a little helpful reminder
for myself to make sure I'm not missing any bolts.
Is I do a little bit of an in pattern
on the bike when I'm just going through checking the bolts.
But do make sure to use a torque wrench
especially on the really fancy
and delicate parts like carbon handlebars, frames,
all those pieces that you don't wanna over torque
or else you're gonna break something.
And those parts, quite expensive.
Starting at the front we're gonna do the axles,
the brake adapter, moving up.
We're moving on to the stem, the handlebars.
All the pieces on that part of the bike.
Then we're going on towards the pivot bolts.
The seat post.
Pretty much everything.
If there's a little bolt on there to tighten,
best to make sure you tighten it.
Don't want something fallen off on your next ride.
Specific things I'm looking for
when I'm doing the bolt check
and checking out other parts on the bike,
I like to check the tread on the tire.
Make sure you've got lots of nice grippy tire tread
for this time of year.
Also a good time to just quickly check the spokes
on your wheels.
It's something that we don't look at often.
Barely anybody touches those parts
but now's a good time,
just do a quick little finger tighten,
make sure everything's nice and snug.
When topping up the sealant in the tires,
what I like to do is just use a little sealant bottle
with a really small hole on the end.
And then I will take out the valve core center
and insert the sealant there.
That method works really well for me.
I don't have to rip the tire off the bead and the rim.
I don't have to risk damaging
the rim tape because how frustrating that is.
You just gotta put a little bit of sealant in there
and before it you have to pull the whole tire off,
do the rim tape and then you mess it up again.
So don't be that guy or a girl.
Now that I've got the bike in the stand,
it's a good time to just shift through the gears.
Make sure everything's working really nice and smooth.
Hopefully if anything's off, it's not catastrophic
and we can just do a little barrel adjustment
on the lever.
If you do pull your brake pads out
and they're a little bit glazed over,
some really fine sandpaper
just to rough up that top layer
can be really nice and helpful.
Give you a little extra bite on the next ride.
And if there's not enough meat on the brake pad
to stick out further than the fin,
then you can pretty much guarantee you're
on the last life of those brake pads.
Probably time to swap them over.
One little thing on the bike that can go overlooked
all the time, is checking your air pressure.
It's pretty uncommon that you're gonna lose air
and your fork or your shock.
But as the bike's in the stand
it's nice and clean
I might as well check the fork air pressure
make sure it's where I want it to be.
As it's winter time and there's a lot of junk that gets up
into our bottom bracket in our headsets,
I'm gonna take this opportunity just to take it apart,
give it a quick little clean, regress it,
smack it back together.
This is definitely not something I do every time
I service my bike but I have time.
It's not gonna take very long
and I can guarantee you
It's gonna look really gnarly in there.
If you enjoy these bike maintenance tips and videos,
then please subscribe because
you don't wanna miss the next one.
And if you're looking for some more in-depth maintenance,
we did a video this past summer
and you can find that link below.
(upbeat music)