MTB Maintenance
- Thread starter Caoboy
- Start date
Bigjerm
SE Expedition Society
Youtube.... not going to lie. I learned a lot about adjusting brakes, derailers (sp?) and other parts on youtube. I got to look over my bike today. During my ride yesterday my rear brake was squeaking bad and vibrating under hard braking and the front fork is making some strange noises. Bikes just are not built for 250 lbs riders.
I found a guy on youtube, some santa monica bike shop. Seems pretty easy. That's one of the things I need to do, is adjust my deraillures and get the bike shifting like butter again. Not to mention lube the bike up, make sure everything is squeaky clean.
Another thing I want to do is break down the bike (gears and all) and thoroughly clean/lube the crank assembly and rear assembly if possible, or do I really need to even do that?
Another thing I want to do is break down the bike (gears and all) and thoroughly clean/lube the crank assembly and rear assembly if possible, or do I really need to even do that?
I'm kinda new to this overland stuff, but I've been a pretty active mountain biker to 10+ years now so might be able to give you some insight. As others mentions, Youtube can be good, but if you are more of a book/manual guy look into this:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Zinn-Art-Mountain-Bike-Maintenance/dp/193138259X"]http://www.amazon.com/Zinn-Art-Mountain-Bike-Maintenance/dp/193138259X[/ame]
As for your specific questions.
Do you need to break down the bike and clean/lube everything? Odds are you do not, but it depends on how many miles you have put on it and how much maintenance you do. Ideally you are lubing the chain before every ride, and maybe giving it a rinse here and there to get the worst of the gunk off. If your shifting if not as smooth as it use to be, it's most likely the cables. Either they have stretched a little, or they have gotten sticky and need to be replaced. Assuming your high and low stop points were set correctly on your derailleurs when you got the bike, those probably don't need to be messed with. If your cables have stretched, you can usually just give the barrel adjuster a quarter turn to take up the little bit of slack if you will. If you find it hard to shift, or you shifting has a sticky quality to it, then you may need to replace the cables.
But if you also want to tear everything down and put it back together to learn more about your bike, that can be a worth while experience. But before you start, get the book I mentioned. You will also need a couple specialty tools to tear the bike completely down to the frame. It's not rocket science, but it does take some know how.
If you have any more specific questions, I'd be willing to try and help you sort them out.
Mark.