My workhorse hardtail got a proper soaking yesterday and it got me thinking about giving it a good strip down, clean, regrease and reassemble.

Brakes need a bleed, bb needs a clean up, headset needs servicing, fork lowers need a service.

Nothing is totally knackered, though, so I am ‘leaving it until the weather dries up’. Aka putting it off.

Anyone else?

Yup. Needs a new cassette, chain and ring. It is pretty crap conditions on my commute for the next month so I’m just putting up with the noise.

You’ve used the word “need” multiple times in your post completely unnecessarily in my view.

This forum is full of meccanoists who obsess about bike parts and bike maintenance. Just ride the damn thing and when it completely stops working then buy a new bike or parts or fix it then.

Life’s way too short for maintaining bikes.

IMHO..

Yep; sticky freehub and no time to work on it today. Damn Hallmark Holiday.

Nope

As soon as the Bike needs something or something needs to be fixed/repaired it gets done

Bike has to always be ready to go at moments notice!

[puts on smug face]

Been out in the garage today – shiny new BB in the Brompton and a new freehub body in the wife’s Kona SS.  Can’t complain, the original freehub that was in there has lasted since we bought the wheel new in ’92!

Yep, drivetrain needs replaced as it’s looking distinctly sharky! Hasn’t started skipping yet but it’s on its way. Whole bike could also do with being stripped back and regressed after a winter of riding in the peak, but my only work space is outside and it’s been too bloody cold to do it! Suspension has been serviced though as someone else did it 😁

three of mine do but I am waiting on parts

DAMN you turner over 6 months since the parts were in stick and promises of next week even since and then you get £200 for basically some bearings and plastic caps you ****

the santa cruz ones i have I just cannot face doing the bearings and was waiting to do them both at the same time but its getting near to the time the FS comes out so I need to fix one of them

The ss has a borked back  brake

Probably. Its been a while and the reverb came off months ago needing a service.

I do tend to ride my bikes until they break then figure out how to make them stronger. So BB’s and the like get upgraded to hope, which in the long term means less maintenance.

I don’t tend to bother with the weekly faff of cleaning bikes after every ride, I think I’ve been riding long enough to know when things are going wrong rather than having to go though the bike part by part. I do strip them at the start of the summer and replace anything that needs it, that way they go through the whole summer feeling nice before the mud gets to them

Using downtime due to injury (sciatica) to sort various bikes out today.

Getting brakes properly set up on the Spearfish. Also did a bit of frame taping on it.

Retaping and then getting my wife’s dynamo front wheel set up tubeless – the previous tape wasn’t holding air. Put the rotor on for her as well.

Bleeding the brakes on my wife’s hardtail.

Putting new dynamo lights on my commuter.

Meanwhile, she’s out riding!

My SS road bike needs it’s post-winter strip and rebuild. I use it for commuting in pretty much all weathers apart from snow / ice so it’s had a hard winter., even with the mudguards fitted. Usually do a complete strip down in about March/April time as the weather improves, take the mudguards off and it becomes a general do-it-all training and commuting bike.

CX needs new brake pads but none of the local shops have them in stock. That can wait a few days though, not going online to order them, it’s not that urgent. I’ll invariably end up cleaning the whole thing at the same time I fit the new pads though – it’ll be a case of “oh while the wheel is out, I’ll just clean the cassette – oh now I’ve done that, best do the chain as well – while that’s off I’ll scrub up the rear mech….”

MTB got an automatic clean last time I rode it in the snow which was ace.

This week I decided to get the Patriot ready for a ride.  Nothing particularly wrong with it, I thought.

Fitted new tyres, fixed the fork (still needs attention), fixed a worn shock bushing, dropper didn’t work so had to strip that – still needs new o rings, also bled a brake and shortened a hose that’s been too long for 11 years.

Nope, mine are all perfect. Perfect is the only accepted status for a bike.

currently waiting for the dog shit to dry off on my pedal and shoe at the moment.

My Bird Zero TR hadn’t been ridden for a few months. The one I spent most of last year accumulating parts for a self build. e13 dropper stuck and procrastinating before self servicing.  Friday enough was enough. Trimmed bars down to 740mm rotated them back for comfort and fitted new grips . Removed all dropper post gubbins and fitted fixed post from commute bike. Great ride in muddy woods Saturday and a relief to have a fixed post with nothing to worry about. Will put off servicing dropper for another month yet.

My bikes all need some TLC.  Grumbly BB’s and headsets worn chains, couple of suspension pivots.

But I spend all week fixing other peoples bikes and I really can’t be arsed to fix my own.  Might book them into the workshop… 🙂

There are things I’d like to do, and things I should do, but nothing needs doing.  For instance :

The spare set of 29er wheels could do with having the DS bearing replaced.  I have the bearing, but it’s not needed, just slightly less than perfect.

The brakes, hub and BB on the commuter could do with a service…there’s no abnormal performance, just it’s time.

I have a brand new CK headset for the Yeti, but there’s nothing wrong with the current one.

To my eye, the new wheel set on the Litespeed is dished about 1/2mm to for to the DS, I need to re-dish it.

…stuff like that.

Winter/commuter desperately needs a full strip down, clean and regrease, but what’s the point with the current weather? I just scrape the worst of the clag off the chain and ride it

Summer bike needs a check, fettle and new inner tubes; too cold to venture into the garage to prepare for a weather change that’s nowhere in sight

This winter has been thoroughly depressing…

Just washed* my bike after this thread made me think about it. Found a great big scrape in the carbon forks about 30mmx10mm, clearly this wouldn’t have happened if I’d not washed it so washing is a bad thing.

Lubed the chain in putoline, checked the rear hub endcaps hadn’t unscrewed, checked brake pads, and that’ll be it till spring now most likely. Rear brake may need a clean and bleed at sometime, the bite point isn’t completely consistent.

*libberaly soaked in poundland muck-off and jet washed, its still grubby.

Re-built an ancient bb7 (thanks @Del for the prompt). it’s now working perfectly.

Well, I used the impetus starting this thread gave me and did a lower leg fork service and a headset service into the bargain. The only ball ache was the seals that TF tuned had fitted (do they superglue them in or something?). After having to use a chisel wrapped in tape to remove them , they were ruined, so put some new ones in.

Bottom bracket and brakes to be done soon.

Not really have been tending to mind throughout winter

Did put in a new BB and pads. Also a new outer cable. It will be due headset bearings.

Bike is washed and dryed regularly.

All good here. Full suss did get laid up for winter this year.

Oh yes!

drivetrain is disgusting with a winters worth of wet lube all over it.

jockey wheel looks like a ninja throwing star.

dropper release would be easier with both hands and there’s a cover floating around in the frame somewhere.

Rear rim has at least 4 dings in it and the rear tyre won’t sit true and had lost a lot of edges.

Fork needs a service.

As usual I’ve let a load of small jobs snowball into a days work.

Im waiting for the weather to improve…

Then I’ll pull the Wife’s garden furniture out of the garage.

Then I can tidy it

And THEN I’ll have enough room to fix my bike.

Front brake cable on BB7 too long and waves about out front. Keep thinking I will fix that when I get home but never do.

Nope, I love working on mine (and other people’s) bikes.

planning a simple but possibly pointless task for later today which should have done at weekend ……Bel Air saddle has started creaking so I will go through cleaning the seat tube, seat post and clamp and rails in the probably misguided belief that the usual fixes will work on a product notorious for having a limited useful life 🙁

As a bike mechanic I really struggle to muster up the energy to service my own bikes but on the flip side of that anything short of perfection annoyes the shit out of me so I tend to keep on top of the fleet these days.

Yep, bike is due a full strip down and re-build. Usually do it once every 18 months or do. Nothing on it ‘isn’t working’ but it’s not work as well as it should. Fullbsttip down, clean everything, new cables, new chain, brake bleed and full replacement of mineral oil and always runs a lot better after. Just waiting for spring to make its mind up if it’s finalky spring!

I started writing a bike maintenance to-do list, but there were so many things that it depressed me & I deleted it (I really did).

Ignorance is bliss and all that.

This forum is full of meccanoists who obsess about bike parts and bike maintenance. Just ride the damn thing and when it completely stops working then buy a new bike or parts or fix it then.

Life’s way too short for maintaining bikes.

All of which is great until something fails catastrophically halfway across Cut Gate in a blizzard.

Discovered a broken spoke nipple on the rear wheel of my fatbike on Saturday morning. Since it’s currently my only off-road bike I spent a few hours taking off all the tape, replacing the nipple, truing the wheel and setting it up tubeless again. Yesterday I go for a ride. Five minutes into it, just spinning along the road and ping! another nipple fails !

It’s my own fault, I should have replaced them all. Actually, no, I should have insisted that slam69 build these with brass nipples in the first place. Aluminium is a pretty stupid material for a spoke nipple at the best of times and even more so on a bike that gets exposed to salt water from time to time.

So, now I’ve got to find the time to take it all apart and replace them all before my Wednesday night ride. Let this be a lesson to you folks. Never let yourself get in a position where you only have one bike 🙂

Yep, 2 out of my 3 mtb’s are due a bit of TLC that I’m putting off!

The 5 is due a full suspension service, forks and shock, but as I’m contemplating getting a new big bike (and have 2 demos lined up this month) I’m putting it off as the cost will eat into the new bike fund.  My Fuel EX needs a shock service, new pivot bearings throughout and a new pressfit BB so I did the sensible thing and bought a cheap hardtail frame to transfer everything else over to and it’s now sitting there all naked awaiting a trip to the LBS for a refresh.  It may sit there a while as I’m enjoying the hardtail a lot right now and am loathe to strip it back down to rebuild the EX so I may have to wait until I’ve bought enough new bits to run both!

I don’t obsess over maintaining bikes, I don’t spend a lot of time on it, but I want them to work properly.  When something wears out I fix it.

Generally keep my bikes ‘Ride Ready’ but the MTB is due a fresh cassette,rings,chain combo when spring arrives and the weather finally improves.

Commuter needs a clean and tune-up.

I quite enjoy a bit of bike fettling on a Sunday afternoon…

Yes and no.

Chainrings/cassette/chain on the commuter will need replacing soon as the chain shot straight past 0.75% wear to >1%, and there’s no chance a new chain would’ve worked with the old big ring and cassette. Putting that off until the weather gets a bit nicer/less salt on the roads.

But I replaced the brake cables etc. recently, and I did forks and reverbs in autumn/winter. One of the reverbs would’ve suffered a lot if I’d left it longer. Felt OK in use, but one bush was shot inside.

Life’s too short for suspension and droppers that don’t work. And for replacing forks cos you left them running with gritty salt water in the lowers instead of oil.

Need to now….

https://www.pinkbike.com/video/485247/#top