Bike Maintenance Tips

[aquadump]

I just patched the same tube for the third time (damn, wood screw on this morning's commute!). I thought I would suggest my favorite method, since I was originally taught by "roadies" to throw defective tubes into the dumpster.
1. Save a tube from being thrown out.

2. Cut a piece of the tube off about the size of a quarter. This is your patch.

3. Find the puncture on the tube you want to patch. Listen or use dish soap to find the leak.

4. Use (any type) sand paper to lightly abrade the surface.

5. Put a liberal coat of rubber cement over the puncture.

6. Vulcanize the rubber cement for 2 to 5 seconds. (Light it on fire!)

7. As fast as you can coordinate, apply the patch.

8. Let cool for a minute.

[jacob]

I'll try that fire trick. I hate waiting 5 minutes for it to dry by itself.
Incidentally, in bulk, you pay $5 for 100 patches.
I installed Mr Tuffy liners on my road bike. I have had exactly one flat over almost 5000 miles.

[dpmorel]

interesting maintenance story... I was doing a road race last weekend and my crank shaft fell off. Annoyingly, I had taken the right size allen key out of my set months ago. I was pedalling/coasting one leg with my pedal and crank daggling off my shoe on the other, when I so happened to stumble upon a farmer watching the race. Lucky me, he had a spare allen key and gave it to me. Unluckily it was stripped and fell off 5 more times.
The morale of this story, if you're going on a longer ride learn to maintain your bike and carry your tools with you. I normally carry patch kit, spare tube + allen key set on me. Today I went out and bought a chain tool to hopefully handle all of the common situations. Breaking down far from home sucks, and I'm too much of a luddite to carry a cell phone on me and lamely call someone for a ride home.
What happened to the bike?? Annoyingly the crank shaft was stripped and since I had broken the frame of this now 20 year old bike 2 weeks earlier... I've decided its high time for a new bike.
Used or brand new, thats the dilemma for me now. I bought a VERY good 10 year old bike for $1000 and rode it hard for another 10 years... so history says used. I think I can even sell some of the parts now as "vintage" and get $300-$400 for them (anybody want a 7-speed HED disk wheel).

[Steve Austin]

I enjoy the no-phone policy myself. I do have a phone, but it's only to mitigate the unhappiness of others.
Great story, dpmorel; did you ride that bike for 20 years, or was this crank-stripped bike the one that you bought at 10 and rode for 10? I have a "temporarily retired" 15 yr old bike that I rode intermittently for 15. I intend to rebuild it, will post questions and ideas as I approach that project.

[jacob]

Stuff to bring.
Zeroth line of defense:

extra tube

tire boot (for blowouts)

patch set

tire levers

multitool (bike specific)
First line of defense:
8,9,10 mm wrenches (will handle brake and gears bolts)

Allen keys

15 mm pedal wrench or cone wrench

spoke wrench + 1-2 extra spokes (tape to top tube)

road rash kit or a big band aid.

enough water to walk to the nearest outpost of civilization
Second line of defense:

Brake and gear cables pre-cut to length.

Extra pedals (flat block, in case your cleats fail)

Chainbreaker

Shoes for walking
Third line of defense:

Big adjustable crescent wrench.

Spanners for bottom crank and headset.

Appropriate ball bearings.

Grease.

Lube.
At this point, you can fix almost all problems save a bent or broken frame.
Equally important is of course knowing how to use it. A patch kit is no good if one has never patched a tire before.

[rachels]

I always have left over glue/stinky sticky stuff tubes after going through the patches in a patch kit. Does anyone know if I can use it to stick homemade patches (pieces cut from doomed tubes)? Or is it designed to react in someway with the sticky crap on store-bought patches.
Side note: I work as a bicycle taxi. No one else in my shop ever bothers to patch a tube. I take used tubes from the shop trash, patch them, and sell them back to them for $2-5, depending on whether they also want to use all my tools.

[Steve Austin]

another first line of defense:

cash, particularly one dollar bills (a dollar bill, double bill-folded, can serve as a tube guard, to keep a tube from herniating through a tire puncture)

but cash is also useful for buying water, food, and (in extremis) transportation
EDITed for folding guidance

[jacob]

@rachels - I don't know about the patches, but ...
http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_inf ... s_id=11511
I suppose they make more money that way or maybe it's a liability issue. Getting even $2 to sell back a patched tire would be a really good hourly rate if you can work them in serial e.g. not watching the cement dry.

[dpmorel]

@jacob - great list. I think I'd move the chainbreaker higher, especially if you are in any sort of hills, and if you aren't great at maintaining/replacing your chain at the proper frequency.
@steve - the 20 year old bike is the same 10 and 10 bike, I bought it as a 10 year old bike, and then used it for 10 years. I bought it off of the owner of a bike shop, so it was maintained amazingly (though ridden hard).
Ultimately I just bought a new bike - 2009 Specialized Tarmic for about $2k. First carbon frame and honestly it doesn't feel that much better than the aluminum frame I just finished using.
This leads me to rant about buying expensive "staples" like laptops, cars, bikes, and so on. You never know how long they will last. When you buy something for $40k or $2k or whatever, you actually should be expect to be able to use them for some time. I *expect* to get 10+ years out of this bike (even if I put 150km+ per week on it). But annoyingly warranties can be as little as 90 days on a used car, or 1 year on a bike. Seeeeems crazy to me. I guess really the only warranty is to learn to service/maintain them yourself! Or to re-engineer the economy to sell products as a service (wasn't this a big idea a few years ago to save the world)...

[dpmorel]

@jacob, I think you may even have a cracked frame covered in your list. I remember reading a trick about using a spare tire tube and something like an elastic or plastic tie to support a cracked frame to get you "home"... maybe it was even on this site. I can't seem to find where I read it though... I did a lot of research about fixing broken frames when I did mine in a few weeks back.

[aquadump]

I figured the 100 patches / $5 comment was from a super-value find. Nice find! I never heard of Niagra site before. They have quite a selection.

[jacob]

@rePete - That's where I get 95% of my supplies from. They're a bit slow to ship though---maybe because I put in huge orders and they don't stock everything.

[KevinW]

@dpmorel You're right, there is no way to know how long things will last, but there are traits that tend to make things more durable and you can seek those out. Examples: simple design, uses commodity parts/fuel/lubricant, reusable fastenings, access to service instructions, many units sold, manufacturer reputation, etc.

[jacob]

@rePete - I use niagara for 95% of my parts (the only thing I've had to buy elsewhere has been a set of spacers). For [expensive] components and clothes, I use nashbar. Just wait for one of their coupons.