Regular bike maintenance is one of the most important ways to increase the life of your bike, while also ensuring you get a smooth ride. This article will suggest ten top tips to keep your bike in tip top shape.
Always keep it clean
We recommend you to clean your bike regularly at the rate of once a week. This, in turn, can be changed depending on the length and the type of the road you travel. If you have just gone through a dirt road, clean your bike as soon as possible; since the longer you hold it, the harder the mud will stick, causing rust and making it very difficult to clean it after all. When cleaning your bike, you may have to pay attention to clean every corner of all parts, especially the internal engine as it directly affects the speed of the bicycle.
Keep it dry to avoid corrosion and rust
The worst thing that can happen to your bike is being not dry and cleaned after rain. Some important components will be corroded by rainwater, then causing rust. Though you can replace them right away, it will be an expensive cost and wasteful instead of just drying your bike when it’s wet. This simple action is extremely effective to maintain your bicycle.
Keep the standard tension in tires
Checking the tire tension before starting traveling is a necessity. The right air pressure helps to improve the performance of your bike. In addition, tire with right tension helps move quickly, increase friction to ensure safety, while extending the life of the tire.
Dealing with bike noises
When your bicycle start making some unusual noises, they must have problems from some of components. You should never ignore and continue riding without checking where the noise originated. It is extremely dangerous if the connection between the bicycle parts becomes loose, causing these noises. Check your bike frequently and find a way to fix the problem is how you are protecting yourself.
Checking brake system
We recommend you to check the brake before starting your cycling journey, since it is the most important components to help control the speed in dangerous situations. All you need to do is to check the brake friction, the contact surface between the brake and the wheel must be clean, the brakes are tight and have no signs of peeling.
Avoid leaving the bike outdoor
Read this: Keeping the bike parked outside. We should only leave bicycle outdoors in case of force majeure such as tight space, no parking garage… However, you should also prepare a large tarpaulin in order for your bike to shield the wind and dust.
Try to park your bike vertically
Most of people tend to park their bike against the wall, fence or tree stump since it can stop the bike from falling suddenly. In the other hand, some experts believe that tilting the bike to one side will cause an eccentricity that effects your cycling process.
Handling scratches of the bike
People always think that small scratches would not affect the whole bike. However, these small scratches are the risk for large rust and reduce the strength of the bike frame.
We suggest that you should fix them by repainting the scratches with a compatible paint color. Or you can also create your new idea for your bike decoration with other outstanding colors.
Taking a photo of your bike before disassembling it
Whenever the bike is disassembled for maintenance, almost people forgets this simple action. Taking the picture before doing it not only saves your time, but also ensures high accuracy, without loss or excess of components.
Choose a professional service
You should take your bike for maintenance every 6 months to ensure the smoothness of the bike and to
detect damage early to repair it promptly, avoiding getting them into serious damage. Then it will be costly, takes lots of time and cost of repair and replacement.