As you may or may not have read my previous thread, but i’m new to MTB and just wondering what sort of maintenance/cleaning I need to be doing to my bike and at what intervals, like how many miles average or what sorta riding i’m doing, etc…

Thanks, Brad.

When I first started off I cleaned everything religiously. Now I just brush off the dried mud and make sure the drive train is clean/lubed.

Really hard question to answer, if you bike is clean, you will be able to pick up any issue as or before they happen.

Areas to keep clean chain / gears and the stanchions / seals on your forks & rear shock if you have one.

Anything else isn’t going to worry too much about being dirty.

For servicing, depending on your forks, they either have a schedule like Fox, go on for ever with out being touched like old Marzocchi, or are disposable like most OEM Suntours with other brands being somewhere in the middle of this, for everthing else on the bike, like gears, wheels etc, if it feels wrong, loose etc, then it probably needs some work / service on it.

Sorry for my very novice knowledge but what is a stanchion? And should I be chain lubing regularly? What things should I use to clean my chain & gears, tooth brush, stiff washing up brush and water then re-lubing the chain or?

A maintenance book may be useful… Park big blue book or (my favorite) zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance. Goes from basic setup to full service for novice and up….

stanchions are the part of the fork that move into the leg some lube them some clean them some ignore them

Re bike really depends on you
I use full outer cables and clean and lube the chain if i remember

Check out this excellent manual which although aimed at newbies certainly gave me new insight…

“The Complete Do it Yourself Mountain Bike Maintenance Book” by Mel Allwood.

Howdy 😀

A decent weighty and recent book on mountain bike maintenance is probably one of the best £20’s you’ll spend on bike stuff as a beginner. Mine has nothing that isn’t on the equally excellent park tools website, but there is nothing like having a book beside you in the garage that you can get all dirty.

Depending on who’s lurking, this forum has excellent advice on specific bike maintenance/repair questions too. Plenty of proper bike mechanics and industry types on here (i am neither btw!) who come across as really sound people.

For starters in terms of keeping your bike running likem it did when you got it, lube your chain when you clean it: you might want to do this more often than you bother cleaning the rest of the bike. Basically if the bike got dirty or dusty I do mine afterwards. When you lube the chain dribble it on the inside of the chain (so on top of the ‘bottom’ length of chain), move the chain all the way round a few times by turning the pedals backwards (not too fast as you splat oil all over the place), leave for a few minutes and then wipe as much of it off as you can with kitchen roll (or blue workshop towel for more man-points) -Too much oil on the outside of the chain doesn’t make much of a difference to how smooth it runs but holds more dirt and mud on: you need your lube in the inside of the chain not the outside. When you clean it, use a different brush than you do for the rest of the bike. One of those chain cleaning bioxes with the brushes inside is really good but is a right faff to keep clean! You can use proper degreaser or just hot soapy water, rinse with cold hosepipe and let it drip dry. GT85 can help get rid of the water and avoid orange chain (not a good sign but not the end of the world) but most people don’t use it as proper chain oil; best to wipe this off and use a proper bike chain lube afterwards.

Avoid anything oil or spray-ish near your disc brakes, it’s very very easy to overspray, and even a tiny bit can contaminate the disc rotor or pads and ruin the pads and your brakes ability to work quietly or even work at all.. If in doubt, cover it all with a clean carrier bag and remove carefully afterwards.

If you have cup and cone hubs (shimano, formula, some specialized and bike own brands) you need to have a look in these and service them every so often. (park tools website or a good book for how to do this) If you have the one bike and ride it all year round in all weathers I would say once in late autumn and once in early spring. Same for your headset if this is ‘loose ball’ rather than cartridge.

What fork do you have? Marzocchi go on and on between services. Fox need much more frequent looking after. Jury is out whether fancy spray helps your fork run better: I used to dribble finish line cross-country lube (what I use on my chain) above the seals, squish the fork a few times and wipe off again. My wife won a couple of cans fork juice in races so I use that but not sure if it’s any better really.

My forks are SR Suntour XCT with 80mm travel. I’m just a beginner so not high-end fork specs, carbon forks etc are not on the list atm for me but perhaps one day.

Where can I find suitable chain lubing oil and what website is this maintenance book you speak of found, just a good search on Amazon I assume?

Also, what are cup and cone hubs?

Cup and cone hubs have the balls between said cups and cones. One of each on each side of the wheel. The alternative is cartridge bearings that are (normally) sealed units and not servicable apart from replacing. It is similar with most other pivoting parts of bikes although alot more are now cartridge for convenience mostly.

If memory serves me, your forks are unservicable. However you can still look after them by keeping them clean. Especially round the seals. Do NOT spray at them with water when cleaning. Water plays havoc with fork internals. just wiping with a clean rag is good enough.

Apart from what others have said about chains etc. cables are probably the next thing you’ll worry about. If they get sticky, I just pull them out and clean them with soapy water then a bit of WD/GT down the other followed by 3in1 then thread the cable back in. Its free maintenance apart from a touch of oil.

Most other things are either learnt as you go or for a shop to deal with.

Yeah someone else said Suntour just get replaced when they need to be, but then chances are, when I replace, I will upgrade anyway 😀