clean your bike you moron

Dirty Bike

Sorry about that, but if you do not bother to keep your bike chain and drive train clean, you are begging for trouble. If you spend some serious cash for your bike, then why would you not take the time to learn how to care for it?

Depending on the once a year modified cleaning your bike store will do for your $25 checkup is foolish. First of all, the bike store is not going to do much for $25. If you never clean your bike, ya'd better fork over some dough and get a full drive train cleaning where the bike parts are removed and cleaned in a solution. But even this is NOT enough.

It only takes a few rides for gunk to build up on your chain and in and out of your derailleurs. Your chain has to be cleaned and lubed frequently if you are riding once or twice a week. Some folks clean and lube chain after each ride.

Go out right now and look at your bike. Is the chain all black and covered with what looks like black dirt? Are your back small wheels that wrap your chain covered in grim? Are your brake pads clean? And the list goes on and on.

I ran a bike clinic yesterday and one fellow showed up with a bike covered in black grim. Plus he was also using his bike pump incorrectly therefore he had not put air in his tires since last October. The pressure in his tires was round 50 PSI and he did not even know it.

Why spend gobs of money on a bike and then ignore it??

It is not like I am some mechanical genius but I have taken the time to learn how to maintain my bike. I can change a tire, I can clean my bike and I can lube my bike. If I do not know something I ask someone who knows bikes to help me. How hard is that!

Take care of your bike!

from my bike expert with over 35 yrs experience

We were all confused last night about when to change a chain and the gear set in back. So I posted to my guy and this is his take on chains and gear sets......


Back in the old days when chains and freewheels were $10 each I changed them together every year. Now with cassettes going for $80-200+ that would get expensive fast. The common advice is to change chains every 1500-3000 miles, It depends on how clean you keep the chain and the quality of the chain. They will stretch over time and can start to wear the cassette. I have a Park tool that measures the stretch but I just change the chains every year on the new bikes and every 2 years on the old bikes. With clean chains that haven't stretched too much a cassette should last 5000-10000 miles.

I've used the chain cleaners but I don't think they're necessary anymore with the new dry lubes. They do work well but they're messy and I worry about the degreaser getting into the bottom bracket and derailleur pulleys. If you have a chain with a master link it's just as easy to take the chain off and soak it in degreaser off the bike. The cleaners are also good for mountain bikes where the chains get covered in mud and dirt.