How to Take Good Care of your Bike in 2022

The start of the year is a time for focusing on how to better take care of everything that is dear to us: our health, our families, and our bikes! Whether you’ve been a mountain bike enthusiast since you were in your teens or you have a road bike you maintain regularly, here are some tips as to how you can optimise your bike. Any seasoned cyclist knows that shopping for road and mtb parts is a necessary and fastidious part of the process. Every movement of your two wheels incurs with it a memory within the components of your bike, and more time spent on maintenance means more time fixing any issues before they magnify in proportion. Back to Basics Ensure you cover the essentials. Check your tyre pressure even if you have a recent memory of pumping your tyres and believe they surely won’t need doing again. It is preferable to avoid cycling with low pressure in your tyres and this basic element is as essential as cleaning your bike. Clean More Frequently Another way to take good care of your bike is to carry out a maintenance check of your overall bike soon after you have returned from a bike ride. The longer you leave any dirt or worn-out components to fester, the more deterioration your bike health suffers from as your road and mtb parts need protection from corrosion. Cleaning more frequently and soon after cycling is the answer. Bike-Specific Cleaning Products It is best practice to use a de-greaser for your drivetrain and chain because these parts require specific liquid that cannot be used on your overall bike frame. Conversely, applying grease to your bolt threads is recommended because it will help you to ensure the bolt locks in place adequately without incurring the mistake of overtightening your bolts. Check Your Drivetrain A worn-out drivetrain is not a fact you want to be suddenly faced with. Use a chain checker to ascertain how worn-out the rollers in-between the chain have become whenever you are carrying out some DIY work on your bike. If you let a worn-out chain stretch, it will wear down your other components, so it is recommended to change your chain after about 0.75 wear, as indicated by your chain checker tool. There are certain deviations in how you care for a winter and summer bike (if you have different bikes for the seasons) and we cover the differences of winter and summer cycling in terms of your road and mtb parts on our blog. Contact us for more advice on any of our road, gravel or mtb components, and how to best maintain your bike.