Bike Maintenance Made Easier Series

Notice I said easier and not easy. 

However, for the most part the hardest thing about properly maintaining your bicycle for long life is just being diligent about doing it. It gets exponentially harder when you neglect it - only demanding more time for cleaning, lubrication, and adjustments. I hope the following posts will give you the guide and motivation you need to be on your way to a smoother, cleaner, longer-lasting bicycle and a more enjoyable ride.

Have a question? Want me to cover another topic or think I left something out? Leave a comment!

• Pre-ride Checkover - Steps to a safer, smoother, more trouble free ride
• Post-ride Checkover - Quick steps to keep your bike happier, longer
• Bike Mistakes Part 2: Chain and Gears - How to care for your drivetrain for longer life
• Bike Mistakes Part 2.5: Chain Lubrication - The #1 thing you should be doing and the right ways to do it
• Basic Home Tools You Need - What tools should you have at home to save money and keep your bike out of the shop between tune-ups

Bike Term Dictionary

This is a Glossary of sorts I've compiled over the years that will be occasionally updated.  Think of it as your Bike Dictionary. Bookmark it and use it often. Don’t know what something means?  Look for it here.  Can’t find it?  Write us or leave a comment and we’ll create a new entry.  We hope this is a great service that we can all keep improving.  Enjoy!

Sorry, I’m not going to even try to keep this in alphabetical order…

Road Bike Terms-

Cadence: The revolutions per minute (rpm) of your cranks as propelled by your legs. Often used as a measure of efficiency (higher cadence is usually deemed more efficient) or as a guide for gear selection.  In road cycling for the last decade, 90 rpm is considered a benchmark cadence.

Fascinating Article on Tire Testing

Part of a series I'm calling Tires 101 with lots of great info to consider when looking for new tires. 

CHOICES, CHOICES...
Our choices in the tires we ride are possibly among the most subjective we make. There is often very little empirical data (except maybe price...) that is involved. More commonly our "data" is along the lines of "my buddy says they're the fastest tires he's ridden" or "she said she didn't get flat tires for a year". When  you really stop and think about it though - there is a lot of highly personal variables involved in those statements. Let's cut through the clutter.

I've long admired cyclingnews.com's James Huang's technical writing and referred to it often as the best in cycling journalism (although - VeloNews has really stepped it up lately).

One of his latest pieces highlights a tire testing facility in Finland that seems to finally be coming up with some good data on tires in real-world type scenarios and less-so in the controlled laboratory conditions of older tests.  The article has some fascinating facts and data; confirming some long-held thoughts and theories of my own and surprising me on a few areas that I had accepted as fact which it seems were not.

FIRST - THE CONFIRMATIONS:
     -Wider tires are faster due to less energy lost in casing deformation.  The study specifically cites 25 mm tires versus 23mm tires.

What Size Bike do I Need?

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

Answer: it's complicated...

 I received a question from a reader in the comments section this summer and I've finally written an article in response as I promised.  (Keep using comments, folks - I do read them and respond when I can - but I have a family and a full-time job; so this "hobby" of blogging sometimes takes a back seat).  Here's the question; my responses; and the article.  Enjoy!    

Greg G said...

Matt, I'm beginning to shop for a new bike, but there's so much to choose from, with barely perceptible differences really. Can someone get fitted for a new bike without knowing precisely what brand they're going to buy? Since no single shop carries all the possibilities, it makes this a much tougher process.  

Matt Magee said...

Greg- Excellent question. Something I should probably answer in more detail with a dedicated post. Thanks for the inspiration. Now, the short answer is: This is actually where you should start! However, we must clearly define that there is a difference between "fitting" and "sizing".

Why Cyclists Need GPS

...and this is not a sales pitch disguised as a new story.  Really thought provoking - this one.  I may have finally been pushed over the ledge toward getting one myself after reading this.

I ran across this story during my almost-weekly "try-to-catch-up-on-the-news" trip to bikeportland.org. Jonathan ran a story he'd received as a tip from a friend (I guess this story is going viral...) about a pro cyclist who'd been hit by a car. Basically, the route and telemetry data from the rider's Garmin Edge 500 GPS unit served as a sort of "cycling black-box" to prove where he was and where he had come from at the time the incident occurred in order to support his side of the story. 

Certified Master BG Fit Technician

Done. :-)

(Photo: Andy Pruitt, Boulder Center for Sports Medicine; Me, insignificant;
Mike Sinyard, Specialized Bicycles)

Internal Cable Routing

INTERNAL OR INFERNAL?
Internal cable routing has been around for a while now - some executions better than others...  And in today's reality of electronic shifting and increasingly more "organic" designs it is surely here to stay.  As great as it looks - and as much of a benefit as it may be for keeping grit out of your cable systems - internal routing presents some unique challenges and requires extra care.  We took some extra pictures of the new 2011 Roubaix Expert (one of the best executions of internal routing we've seen yet) to help illustrate our points.

How to fit a Cyclocross Bike

JUST A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM MY OTHER BIKE...

Well, yes and no.

As I have discussed (at length) before - there is a lot of good and bad info out there about bike fitting and selecting the right size frame.  One of the more common topics I run into this time of year is how to select the right size of Cyclocross bike.

A common guideline I have heard is that you ought to size-down from your road bike frame size to obtain the right 'cross frame.  As a universal guideline, this couldn't be more WRONG!  There are instances where this may apply, but I would say that they are rare now. It is a unique bike and just like you wouldn't adjust your road bike a "little different from your road bike"; treat your cyclocross bike like and individual and get it right.

Worn Tires and Flatting

Worn through to the casing

Part of a series I'm calling Tires 101 with lots of great info to consider when looking for new tires. 

BUT I DIDN'T RIDE THROUGH GLASS...
This post also appeared on the store blog - but I figured the audience here is a little more broad and it's a good topic; so I'm sharing it here as well.

This time of year we seem to more commonly be addressing common causes of flat tires and how to prevent them.  A frequently overlooked cause worth talking about is worn-out tires.

As your tires wear their flat protection is reduced because there is less rubber on them to resist sharp objects as you roll over them.

Additionally, tires do age: and not very well at that!  Cracking in the tread and side-wall of the tire is a good indicator of a worn and weakened tire that is ready to be replaced.

Do I Need a Bike Fitting?

HOW DO I KNOW?
Driving around town the other day I saw so many people who were so obviously uncomfortable on their bikes (and suffering a loss of efficiency because of their lack of comfort along with other factors).  So, since so much of my material is inspired by my experiences - I was inspired to write another post: A few quick pointers on how to know if you need someone to assess your bike fit.

Several of the signs are pretty obvious: persistent knee pain being the most common.  But there are a few quick and easy signs that something is wrong that aren't immediately apparent (or that some of you think you just have to live with).  Let's start at the front of the bike and work our way back.