5 Essential Bike Maintenance Tips

Here are our top 5 tips to keep your bike in great shape.

A perfectly functioning bike is great to ride, which means that you're more likely to enjoy riding so you'll ride more. To keep your bike in great shape there are a few things that we'd recommend doing regularly.

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[porschejim]

I absolutely loved the addition in the end of "Riding a bike you can afford"

[peterpolack]

Brilliant advice with "Can You Afford That Bike?" I have a saying; "If you can't afford to crash it on Sunday and replace it on Monday, then it's too expensive."

Too many cyclists own bikes they can't afford to maintain without pain.

[TrondHelgeRolland]

Thanks to you guys I now wash my bike(s) regularly, I've indexed the gears properly (I can't understand how I managed to go for rides without proper indexing), I've confidently changed parts and upgraded (the hybrid is now a cyclocross/winter bike). Looking forward to next year for the local sportive (165km of glorious Norwegian nature)!

[harrybaules]

I never imagined that we are supposed to wash our bikes. I've always thought we should avoid water as much as possible because of rust.

[ehhhh]

I’m going to be biking to work and I am taking a backpack with flat patches to lubricant for the bike and some first aid kit just in case I fall or something

[perwiratempur]

That last pointer is really good. Though the lure of top end components are still there! :)

[indobleh]

Good points made. I chose 105 groupset over Ultegra when I purchased my bike, couldn't justify the additional cost.

[spanishjapan]

Could you please make some day a video about buying your first road bike? That'd be really great since your channel makes a lot of people interested in cycling and we want to get into this world (with a bit of your help)!

[ginsudan]

Thank you. I don't have any of those products but thanks to this video I now know I should and even better I know where and how I should use them. Thank you Simon

[TheBreadSultan]

Replace the chain before time! Never mind the extra wear it put on other parts. If that thing snaps under extreme acceleration your going to have a really bad time, and wipe out, no matter how good you are at somehow avoiding the floor.
This very nearly killed me when it happened to me and slid me into the next lane.

[SantiagoEscovar]

Love your videos! I'm becoming an GCN addict :) Keep up the good work guys.

[WmCRobison]

Using a group set you can afford to maintain is a great tip.

[northyorksimonkim]

I have a 100 dollar costco bike that I've riding for about 10 years and I've never done maintenance, even crashed into a door and still riding it.

[oisiaa]

I like the tip on maintaining cheap components over buying expensive ones. 105 will work perfectly if properly maintained. I'd say you could put 105 under a pro rider in a grand tour and they wouldn't notice if they didn't read the logo. 

[Aznkidcher]

With all the trickle down technology, even the entry level groupsets (at least at the 10 speed level) are pretty damn good.  The current Veloce in my experience is just as good as the Centaur (and the fact that they are discontinuing Centaur and keeping the Veloce speaks to that) and the current Tiagra (4600) is just as good as the 6600 Ultegra, maybe better since my 4600 shifters don't eat cable quite like my 6600 shifters did.  The next iteration of the Tiagra may even be better than the 6700/7900 groupset and at a fraction of the cost! 

[ShadowzKiller]

In my opinion, unless you are serious racer, 105 is good enough. It's good quality and has solid performance. I don't think you would get much out of the higher end ones unless you are a hardcore rider.

[raulhurtado]

First of all, thank you for your excellent videos and advices. I have learned a lot. 
Second. I like a lot your taste of music on your videos. What is the name of this song?
And last, I would like to say that all of you are a motivation to be a better rider. 
Hope to meet you someday. 
Greetings from Sonora, Mexico.

[hamzafox]

thanks for your nice video and advices

[Homeschoolmeful]

My tires say 50-75 psi but you say never to go less than 80. Which should I follow?

[niteryder]

Spraying water all over your bike seems to do it more harm than good, just keep the moving parts clean. Frames can be covered in mud and it won't do anything.