Upgrading my bike maintenance

samoff
samoff Posts: 128
edited July 2008 in Road beginners
After 30 years of bottom-of-the-range road bikes, I take delivery of my £1000 Treker this weekend.
I've always kept my bikes in good nick, but I wonder if there are any additional maintenance routines I should get into now I have all these expensive components. There seems to be a different oil/grease for every component on your bike these days. Should I be buying specific chain oil etc or are these things for suckers?
"Check your sheds! Check your sheds! I think I've lost my mind" Half Man Half Biscuit

Comments

  • Nuggs
    Nuggs Posts: 1,804
    IMO you should be using a quality, bike-specific lube on the chain. I use either Pedro's Road Rage or Extra Dry.

    The other moving parts get a good squirt with GT85 (wipe off any excess as dirst sticks to the overspray).

    Other than that, degrease the drivechain when it starts looking gunky and keep the bike nice and clean!

    Enjoy! :D
  • neeb
    neeb Posts: 4,473
    Keep a close eye on chain wear and replace it when it is 0.75% worn - get one of the Park Tool chain checkers. That will prolong the life of expensive cassettes and chainrings. Use proper tools and consider getting a torque wrench, especially if you have carbon bits like seatpost or steerer. A torque wrench is also reassuring when tightening the bolts that hold gear and brake cables on expensive mechs and brakes so as not to strip the threads.
  • samoff
    samoff Posts: 128
    Excellent. That's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for. Thanks very much.
    "Check your sheds! Check your sheds! I think I've lost my mind" Half Man Half Biscuit
  • meanwhile
    meanwhile Posts: 392
    Buy Zinn's Roadbike Maintenance book.

    Never oil a chain while it's dirty - the dirt/oil mixture is an ideal powertrain destroying abrasive. Have the store fit an SRAM Powerlink so that you can remove the chain easily, dunk it in cleaner, then oil it. This usually needs doing every 200-500 miles depending on the lube and conditions - even more often, I'm afraid, if you ride through catastrophic conditions like gritted roads. Clean the gears too. "Purple Extreme" is a good lube for wet UK conditions, but it needs to be allowed to dry for 24 hours to get the most out of it.

    Top up high pressure tyres frequently, using a pump with a gauge.

    Watch out for the derailer going out of adjustment and either adjust it yourself or get it to a store pronto. A really nasty derailer malfunction can break the chain while you're riding and then use it as a weapon to destroy the frame. This happened to someone here only last week.

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