Worst Bicycle Maintenance Mistakes You Must Avoid! | GCN Tech's Top 5

Maintenance mistakes - we've all made them! In this video, Jon gives you his five mistakes that you definitely need to avoid...

Rotating tyres - Worn out rear tyre? Swap it with the front mate. No! Plenty of cyclists out there put the rear tyre on the front and the front tyre on the rear when the rear is showing signs of wear.
False information, yes you can put a good condition front tyre on the rear wheel, but never put a worn rear tyre on the front wheel.

Overtightening bolts - It’s easily done on bike components, the biggest thread diameter you are likely to find is a threaded bottom bracket which isn't massive really. Overtighten one of those into your bike however and that will be a nightmare to remove, and possibly damage your frame. But more common areas where people overtighten bolts are stem bolts and seatpost clamps because it’s easy to think that they are not tight enough but overtightening your stem bolts, for instance, can be disastrous.

Poorly maintained drivetrain - Us lot at GCN love a clean bike, admittedly there have been occasions where there is a filthy bike on show. Now, maybe you don’t like cleaning your bike, plenty of people don’t. A badly cared for bike will ultimately let you down at some point, normally when you are in the middle of nowhere with no more inner tubes, no tools or mobile phone signal. So if there is only one thing you are going to clean on your bike, I can’t believe I am saying this, make sure it's your drivetrain.

Let us know if you've made any of these mistakes or if there's a common mistake that Jon's missed off his list. 👇

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[gcntech]

Let us know if you've made any of these mistakes or if there's a common mistake that Jon's missed off his list. 👇

[stevehambley]

All great suggestions John. Another I'd add is periodically removing the seatpost, cleaning and reinstalling. I've seen a lot of frozen posts.

[Azothelusmus]

My favorite piece of advice on tightening bolts: "Just when you want to turn it one more time, don't."

[julmeissonnier]

Right, the bar end story is no joke....  I still have a pretty big scar on my left quad from a failed attempt to do a track stand as a teenager and the bar end with no end plug slicing a nice chunk of meat just above my knee. I think I was inspired by Eddy Merckx drilling holes in his handlebars for the 1972 hour record... So never take your bar end off... and do not necessarily try at home what you see the pros doing ;) ...

[mcorbett]

Very helpful. It was watching an earlier video that made me realise how important cleaning the drive train is - and how easy. It’s now part of my regular routine and a shiny cassette and chain is so much nicer to see.

[smashy]

Good call on greasing bolts. Funny enough only a few weeks ago I had to drill out my cleat bolts. Its odd taking a power tool to a pair of shoes.

[ChrisCapoccia]

the best solution to bar ends that fall out are those ones with the hex screw in the end to expand. mine used to come out all the time until my bike shop recommended those to me.

[JediAndrey]

The clear bolts greasing and the bar end plug thing were great advice, thanks! Going down to the garage to fix apply them right away!

[samwichuselton]

Old wine corks make really cool bar plugs!

[timangelico]

I had a crash where my finger was in front of my aero bars and the rubber plug deformed enough to go into the tubing. The bars took a chunk out of my finger (which I later found still in the bars shrivelled up like a raisin) deep enough to see the tendon but luckily didn't damage it.

[stevegeek]

Nice vid. I would add highlight greasing pedals where they screw into the cranks. I nearly went crazy trying to replace some pedals one time after they seized in place. A blob of grease before fitting would have done the trick.

[guyd]

Thanks for the bar plug tip. I keep losing ones on my MTB (may have something to do with clipping trees). I have seen what happens when a bar meets a thigh in a crash. Nasty.

[tomshield]

I've switched to nylon screws to hold my under bottom bracket cable guides. Not much load on them that the screw needs to carry.

[.mm]

didnt clean the brake pad when it's sound rough, there's probably some metal chips on pad that can damage rim.

[janwillemkuilenburg]

I see a lot of riders cross chaining and also lots of dirty drive trains.
A recepy for wear.

[angstanon]

Yes, DO go into the nitty gritty of various greases and their applications! Unravel the mystery, Jon!

[EatMyPropwash]

Bring your bike to a trusty bike shop 2-3x a year and have them do a thorough check. I do a lot of my own preventative maintenance throughout the year, but, to get a professionals eye will certainly help catch problems before they get out of hand, and possibly cost you thousands. During Ironman events, Ironman knows people have to disassemble and reassemble bikes to fit them in travel bags. They offer a FREE service of checking over bikes or fixing them, depending the severity. Why would you NOT trust them!? It’s free! I do the day before every time I have a race... They caught an arm pad bolt in my base bar I forgot/missed to torque down at Ironman Texas this past year. Huge props to them!

....and for heavens sake, RUN A CHAIN CATCHER! It’s $30!

[norbertdrage]

Nice video, GCN Tech 👍 As a quick addition to your second point, another great reason to put grease on bolts is to avoid galling (look it up).

If you find yourself tightening and loosening the bolt on a semi-regular basis, the heat generated by the friction of metal thread-on-metal thread will cause the metals to start welding to one another, effectively ripping the thread off of one and bonding it to the other.

Definitely an expensive mistake if it happens on the wrong part, you’ll want to avoid it at all costs!

[john_ebenezer]

Brilliant information..I didn't know that bar ends were that deadly without the bar end caps..

[chesteryap]

Thanks Jon! always have bar ends but have not thought of it as a hazard if you don't have them