Three Bicycling Maintenance Tasks for you to Consider Before Your Next Workout

 With inline skates, it's pretty straightforward.  If the wheels have steel bearings, and they won't spin for more than about 30 seconds when you move them quickly by hand, replace or refurbish the bearings.  

I had done that frequently and on my 100 mile weeks, I would do it every week.

I did not expect Cycling to be that frequent or complex.

Complex, yes.  Frequent, not really.

But I had done a major refurbishment of my bicycle back in March.  It is now June, and I have put on 1000 miles since then.  I'm getting close.

There are two ways to tell.  

First, when I push down on the power stroke, I'm getting sound.  Not a lot, but some.  If you get sound on the bike, it means some of your effort is not going into putting you forward and it is time to hunt that part down.  

Everything that spins should spin easily and almost silently.  Things that roll should not creak.

I suppose that the bike is getting old, I have 10,000 miles on the clock, it's been used and abused on trails since I got the thing.  In every sport I participate in, my own method is as an endurance athlete.  I'm not in it for speed, I am in it for distance.

Secondly, if you have the wheels up in the air, give them a very gentle 'flick'.  If they don't swing freely, they need servicing.  By this I mean that it should swing effortlessly like a weight on a string.  A Pendulum.  Mine does for the most part.

A bicycle wheel is rarely balanced perfectly so that it will just spin until balance and friction stops it.  Mine is no different.  My front wheel will spin and then come to a stop at a specific point where a reflector is at 8 o'clock on the dial. 

I am fine with that, and the imbalance is so slight that I would never feel it under power.

But the spinning is slowing down.  The rear wheel, the one with the chain drive will do the same thing until it begins to reverse, then the chain will take up the slack and try to turn the pedals.  Again, not a problem, I can run the pedals against the force and try to analyze the motion.

I had installed a new chain and gearset myself back in March and kept everything clean and lubricated.  The gearset is where the seven sprockets sit on the one side of the back wheel stacked in a pyramid shape.

Since the teeth on each sprocket, especially the gears that are used most, are not worn into a shape resembling a Shark's Tooth, I don't need to replace them.

In my specific case, the problem was that the brake pads were making contact with the brake disc very gently.  This would slow down my forward momentum and make the workout more difficult.

Replacing the brake pads on a bike are a simple affair, especially with mechanical disc brakes.  Remove the caliper with two Allen nuts, remove the cotter pin, and the retaining spring can be gently slid out.  I generally can sand the surface of the pads until clean two different times, and replace them within the caliper to get rid of the road grit and dirt from their surface.  Clean off the discs with alcohol and replace the caliper making sure that the disengaged brakes are not making contact with the discs.  

You can tell when you look down through the alignment gap, this is where I get the dog's flashlight and make sure it's clear.

Make sure you don't get grease from any source on the discs.  That would be why your brakes are making moaning or chattering sounds.

I did manage to cycle 27 miles today on the new pads and they stop me like they did when the bike was new, a couple years and 10,000 miles ago.

16,000 km I guess.

Brakes do need to be clean, so if you are caught out in a cloud burst or are fording a stream or puddles, it isn't a bad idea to give the discs a good cleaning before taking the bike back out yet again.  The brakes are important and will last longer with proper maintenance.

This all does not take long, about 15 minutes for both brakes if I am quick about it, double that if the dog wants to get involved.