Over the last three years, we have given you literally
hundreds of maintenance tips but never before have
we put in one place all the things that you shouldn't do until now,
that is, because here are the top 10 maintenance mistakes. First mistake
regards lubricant, but not the way you're thinking. Many people either don't
put enough lube on or they put too much on, or they lubricate an already dirty
chain. So the first point is that you should clean your drive chain regularly,
particularly if you ride in poor conditions. Secondly, you need to make
sure that every link on the chain has a coating of lubricant when you put it on,
and then let sink in for a minute or so before wiping off any excess. Now,
this might sound counter-intuitive but stick with me. You see, the lubricant have
already sunk into the most important points of the chain, the rollers.
And then when you wipe off the excess, you wipe off the outside where the lubricant
would serve no purpose other than to attract dirt and grime, which is exactly
you don't want. Now, something many of us would have experienced already is the
feeling of putting a new inner tube only to realize that you haven't checked
the inside of tire for whatever caused the puncture in the first place and then
suffering another puncture just a couple of minutes later. So, if you don't want to
feel deflated, literally, then make sure you always check the inside of the tire
with your hand very carefully and then inspecting the outside of the tire for
that object. Over tightening bolts on your bike is potentially very easy to do,
particularly when you're using tools that provide a lot of leverage. But it's also
potentially very costly, as you might strip bolts or even break components and
then potentially it's very dangerous, and the worst case scenario is that the
components break when you're actually out riding. So you should always use a torque
meter when you're tightening bolts on your bike, and always torque them up to 10
percent below the maximum recommended torque as specified by the manufacturers,
for the sake of your mind and also your body, and your wallet as well, I suppose.
It's quite natural when you're getting into road cycling to pump your tires up to
be rock solid, say like 125 PSI or above, because that's super fast,
right? Well, unless your local roads are billiard boards smoothened,
in which case 120 PSI might well actually be the fastest. You'd be better off
putting about 90 to 100 PSI in your tires, although you may need to adjust it if
you are particularly light or particularly heavy. By that way,
you'll get a much more comfortable ride and a faster ride. The limit screws on
your front and rear derailleurs do a really important job by literally limiting
how far the derailleur can actually move. Now, if you have them set up incorrectly,
you'll find that the chain often comes off when shift with your front derailleur or
that it gets wedged between your cassette and your frame, or worst of all that it
gets wedged between the cassette and your spokes, which is potentially really
costly. Now, actually getting them set up correctly is a straightforward process.
We've got a video dealing with each one, your front derailleur and your rear
derailleur and the links to which are in the description below this video.
It is a job you should not put off and don't make that mistake.
We know good tools can be really expensive, but they're also an excellent
investment, because using old worn out Allen Keys can lead to rounding off bolts
which potentially will mean that you have to have an expensive repair as your
local bike shop drills out the bolt and then replaces it. So, buy a good quality
set of Allen Keys at least, and then add to your collection when you need it and
crucially when you can afford it. Loose headset is something that we see all time
on other people's bikes and, it's kind of weird, really, because it's such an easy
thing to fix. All you got to do is loosen the stem bolts and then
tighten the top cap very gently until the bike stops knocking
when you put the front brake on and rocket back and forth.
Then you make sure the stem is straight, tighten the stem bolts up again
using your tool wrench, and there you go, job done. Your bike will now feel and
sound a heck of a lot better. A couple of years ago, Dan made a video about how to
remove a seized seatpost and it wasn't an easy job and even with his guns,
a professional workshop, and heck of a lot of help. So, make sure it doesn't happen
to you. It's a really simple thing to prevent every three months or so.
Simply mark a height of your seatpost, remove it, clean it and then apply some
kind of product. If it's a metal post and a metal frame, it will need grease and if
either the frame or the post is carbon, then it'll need Fiber Grip. Then replace
it, and that's it, job done. You will not get a seized seatpost.
Now, this is something that I haven't fully got a
grip of. even now. I've been working on bikes for many years and have
had many painful pedal removals. I mean, it's an easy thing to do.
Your pedal is on extremely tightly for some reason, so all of your strength and
concentration is going into pressing down on the spanner or the Allen Key.
If that's the case, just make sure that your hand is not going to slip into the
chain rings because it is extremely painful. Instead, you want to angle
the crank so that when the bugger finally loosens, your hand is not going to hit
anything sharp. There we go then. Ten common maintenance mistakes you should
now avoid like the plague. If you want to see video though on our top 10 cycling
mistakes, then if you click just up there, you get through to that video. Or,
as I mentioned earlier, we have hundreds of tips about maintenance here on GCN, and
all of our maintenance Monday videos are in one handy place. Get through to it just
down there. Before you go to either though, do make sure you subscribe to GCN.
It's free to do. All you got to do is click on me.