7 Ways You're Ruining Your Road Bike | Bicycle Maintenance Mistakes To Avoid

Look after your bike and it will look after you! Jon discusses 7 bicycle maintenance mistakes that are all to easy to make.

Which of these have you made?

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Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound:
As Bad as They Come - The New Fools
Chasing the Beat - The New Fools
Go Cat Go - Gabriel Lucas
Got Himself a Day Job - The New Fools
Out and About - Harper Rey
Smooth Things Out - The Grateful 7
Special Delivery - The New Fools
Tuxedo - Tigerblood Jewel

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[gcntech]

Which of these mistakes have you made?

[QueenShanine]

Lol I ride my bike year round. GCN just told me to go out and buy another one. Let me tell my husband my good news☺️

[sudduthjonathan]

I thought the whole point is to wear it out prematurely. How else are you going to justify upgrading parts and potentially buying a brand new bike? "Sorry honey, I have to..."

[bikeman]

"Use the wet lube in the wet and the dry lube in the dry" - if only our weather was that dependable.

[matthewbaynham]

My tip that I experienced myself is; if you get a frame builder to build you some new forks that look just amazing, then don't go too fast on a fast corner and cycle head on into a stone wall and destroy your brand new forks.

[r.w.]

The only part of your bike that needs to be clean is the drive train (chain, cassette and chainrings) because abrasive dirt and grit creates wear. Dirt anywhere else does less damage than washing your bike with water. Pressure washing your bike forces dirt in and lubricant out of the nooks and crannies of your headset, bottom bracket and hubs. Bikes are neither waterproof or water resistant. Most of the time, the cleanest bikes on the outside have the driest and rustiest parts on the inside. You are better off wiping the bike down once in a while to keep it reasonably clean and avoiding major washing until you are prepared to disassemble and clean the parts properly and then lubricate before reassembly.

[aeroscopic]

Never thought I’d see the day...
After years of “clean your bike!” We’re finally at the point of “... but not too much”

[Eclipsed]

The shot of Si epically washing his bike needs Ride of the Valkyrie music.

[Cakeborb]

It's important to ride your bike often. Bikes that live outside, even shitty ones that don't get taken care of, work better if they're ridden every day. It keeps the pawls moving, prevents rust from growing on non-moving cables, same for the bearings, prevents flat spots on the tires... ride your bike often.

[trekkeruss]

Number one far and away is leaving a bike outside.  I work at a co-op and we get hundreds of donated bikes every year because they were left outside to rot and rust.  
Number two is under-inflated tires. Every bike shop in fixes pinch flats daily. Under-inflation also prematurely wears tires and often leads to damaged wheel rims, an expensive repair.
Number three is keeping the drivetrain properly lubricated. So many bikes are either lacking lubrication and rusted over, or WAY over lubricated to the point where even putting the offending parts in an parts washer or ultrasonic cleaner won't remove the grime easily.
Number four is related to number three; not keeping the bike clean. Working on commuter and other daily rider bikes is where I see lots of destruction from dirt left to wear out drivetrains and brakes.
An often overlooked bit of maintenance is to remove the seatpost occasionally and clean and re-grease it if your bike requires it. There is just about nothing more frustrating and time consuming than trying to free a stuck seatpost. This applies to old bikes with quill stems too.

[tmurphydot]

Two Bikes! I rode an Olme Equipe 62mm from Dec 1997 - August 2019, over 27, 000 miles on the same bike. Sure, I had to replace the fork when I ran it into the garage door while it was on top of the car, I replaced the seat post when the original one developed a burr that kept it from being adjusted easily, and I did go through numerous seats trying to find THE most comfortable one. Of course the chain got replaced every 1000 miles or so. I did upgrade the wheels, once, well, twice if you count when I finally went tubeless. Of course the tires were replaced in accordance with safety procedures, about one a year. Oh, and I did upgrade the components from Campy Veloce to Campy Super Record as a retirement present to my self. But other than those few things, I rode the exact same bike for 22 years. So there!

[unairamos]

My bike must be lucky. My daughter has recently moved to Ireland and now her room has become “the bikes room”. So no more worrying about rain or sunshine... 😊

[flt]

Been there done that with the dry lube. It sucks. "Dry lube" is an oxymoron! You've just got to re-lubricate the chain frequently. I use 3-in-1 oil because it's cheap, and with my fancier bikes I wipe the chain and re-lube after almost every ride. All chain lubes get dirty, quickly, and you've just got to keep on top of it.

Also, this vid should give more detail about chain replacement. I always do it before .5% elongation. If you wait until it's at .5%, the new chain might not mesh with the smallest cogs for the first few hundred miles (after that the new chain begins to elongate and it will work fine until you want to replace it at .5%). I vote for cheap cassettes too, because you're inevitably going to miss the mark with chain replacement and ruin some cassettes.

[randolphpatterson]

Another easy thing to do is to take the time to check to see that the four main bearing sets on the bike are properly adjusted. Try wiggling each wheel side-to-side, while mounted in the frame, to check for hub looseness, and do the same with the cranks. There should be no sideplay. Move the chain off the chainrings & out of the way, and you can see if the crank rotates smoothly & doesn't have any sideplay. Check for excessive headset-bearing slack, by applying the front brake tightly, while rocking the bike as if to roll it back & forth on the ground. Suspending the frame so that the front wheel is off the ground will allow you to check for excessive headset tightness. To check for overtightened wheel hub bearings, you need to remove the wheels & spin the axles in your fingers. If the wheels are mounted onto the frame, it's next to impossible to detect overtightening, unless it's severe. You can also make the same checks on your pedal spindles. Hope these simple tips can help those who may not already know about them. I like this channel & feel a strong kinship with other viewers, so I'll add one bonus tip for not destroying your bike: Don't crash.

[liamdk]

Honestly Wet Lube works really well for dry conditions as well, been riding it on a XX1 Eagle drivetrain for 2 years with about 50-80km done per week (Chain cleaned with a dry rag after every ride). I would say if the terrain isn't that dusty, Wet lube actually makes a drivetrain more effective and less noisy more often than not! Just from my personal experiences riding in South Africa!

[.mm]

your average winter bike is my yearround dream bike

[chienbanane]

0:30 Not washing your bike
1:03 Washing too often
1:38 The wrong lube
2:43 Using the same bike all year round
3:16 Riding through holes
4:18 Ignoring wear and tear
4:57 Leaving it outside

[guysmith]

In the summer I will sometimes go for a longer ride on one of my roadbikes and end up at work. In the dark of winter I would never commute on a road bike, but I do commute daily on an indestructible flat bar sport with discs and 35mm schwalbe marathons that has hit countless potholes in the pitch dark, been ridden through torrential downpours, and slithered through the snow and ice with no damage at all the last four winters. It may weigh 30lbs but that is a small price to pay compared to destroying thousands of dollars worth of decent road bike.

[andrewgrant]

Potholes can damage your wheels and not oiling a chain is bad for it. Next week...when you cycle uphill it is harder work than the flat bits.

[peterbaskind]

I live in the American South. It’s hot here. Really hot. Like Michelle Pfeiffer in “Scarface” hot.

I’ll likely ride tomorrow as the sun is coming up. It will be maybe 80F/26C with near 100% humidity. That means sweat. Lots of it.

After a ride like that, it is imperative that I wipe down the bike. Salt is the enemy of anything metal. So 5 minutes with a damp rag, followed by a dry rag makes a huge difference.