Evening guys,

Casting my mind back to years gone by and my old Swchinn Moab, it wasn’t a case of remembering to disassemble and regrease the various parts, the rust and water ingress would make a component so creaky and broken, i’d be forced to do it at least every 1-2 years, replacing bearings in many cases.

Roll on year 2007, and I put together my custom made Santa Cruz,

Hope pro 2 hubs front and back
Shimano hollowtech 2 bottom bracket
Sram PG990 cassette 11-34
Hope headset
Fox Float RP23
Pike Coil 426

Apart from the usual monthly clean and lube i’ve never serviced the bearings/forks/shocks/hubs. They all still work smooth as butter, and just as when built in 2007. Now either sealed bearings really are a work of genius, and component longevity had taken a massive leap, or i’ve just been lucky.

How often do you service the above parts? When it breaks replace, or completely strip down once a year, or not needed with sealed bearings? etc discuss 🙂

Never. I get the LBS to change them when they break.

This may not be the best course of action but life is too busy and too short.

They all still work smooth as butter, and just as when built in 2007.

Not touched in 6 years – do you actually ride it?

I am thinking of looking at the single pivot joint bit in my Scott as that hasn’t been touched since 2000 and the sideways movement in the rear triangle is beyond irritating and becoming funny

b r, ride 2-3 times a week in spring/summer season, and once a week in winter generally. Rarely wash it though, and when I do its a very light mist with the hose after using muckoff and a brush.

I have gone through many chains, and numerous Avid brake fails though! Happy with the Formula Oro Bianco’s now.

Service when they need it.

Go ride in the alps, in the wet, for a couple of days. Suddenly *everything* needs a service, as I found! 😉

Even my plush forks that have never had a hint of needing a service in 2 years (despite the manual saying every 20, 50 hours for this, 100 hours for that)… seriously needed a service after biblical mud and rain.

One short alpine trip – Needed service: forks, BB, headset, Reverb, hub and/or lower link bearings (yet to find out). Not to mention how much it went through pads plush a nice chunky hole in a brand new tyre.

But yeah, I won’t strip down and service a fork if it doesn’t feel like it needs it. Though maybe not wise. My hard tail fork which is 4 years old, never serviced and got to the point where it feels like it really needed it, so I serviced it and found the air shock has cracks in it. Had I serviced it earlier, maybe it would be okay. Then again, maybe not.

On my first full sus bike for over a year. So I’d usually budget bearings being swapped out once a year and a pro service for the forks once a year too.

Don’t know about the BB, because I upgraded the drivetrain including the BB 10 months into owning it. However, I took my road bike’s BB out thinking there was a creak in there and it was fine. Turned out it was crud in the cable outers causing a creak when the handlebars turned. That was the first time I’d had the BB out in the 3 years of owning the bike.

MTB’s BB looked fine coming out of a really crappy, rainy, cold, snowy, frosty winter (for the Southeast!).

lower service on my 36’s when my mate has the time

I find creaks are never the BB in my experience at least. Creaking sounds from that area have always ended up being elsewhere. Usually the shock bushings. What tells me they’re gone or at least need servicing (clean up and chuck in loads of grease basically) is play in them by grabbing both crank arms and rocking them sideways.

King headsets, I’ve regreased about two, maybe three times in 13yrs, one is still untouched but isn’t ridden as much. King bb twice a year??
King rear hub may be once a year to regrease the drivering and full service only about twice in 13yrs.
Prior to the king stuff, I just rode it til it died and replaced as it mainly wasn’t serviceable.