Cdubs

I dropped mine in for it's spring tune-up yesterday. Tune-up specials make it so cheap and easy to have a pro look over the bike before riding it hard.

rydabent

Thank you.

rydabent

Gotta pick something to whine about huh???

rydabent

Do you pull your derailer apart and lube the wheels before every ride, or repack your head set.

rydabent

Yes I am in the snow belt, and simply dont ride when it is cold. I hate any kind of long pants on my legs when I ride. Shorts and a T shirt is my kit.

cweb99

It was 70 degrees in So Cal yesterday. Did a. Nice beach ride

rsbob 

Check back with us in August-Sept

cweb99

touché

gonna hate the 100 degree weather gonna have to start my rides 5am lol

indyfabz

Getting any rain now where you are?

cweb99

Raining right now and a few days during the week

pppittpeter

Oh, absolutely! February's the month for us snow belt riders to prep our bikes for the summer fun. Gotta grease up all those bearings, make sure everything's well-lubed. I'm talking a full-on check of the entire bike – bolts, nuts, the works. Doing it now gives you the jump to order any parts you might need. No one wants to be stuck walking home in the summer heat, right?

big john

It's raining here right now. Might have to skip the Tuesday ride if it doesn't stop.

Here in the land of year-round riding and being retired I seldom have to miss a weekend club ride. I am terrible with bike maintenance and always let things go too far. Been pretty lucky as far as breaking down on a ride, though.

Had a rear wheel grenade 50 miles from home and called a taxi one time. Had an mtb frame break and had to walk a couple miles. And had a freehub split down the middle while climbing a steep grade near home. It would still roll but no drive and I was able to coast most of the way home.

Had pedals snap off 3 times, 2 resulted in low speed crashes. Had to get picked up for those. Everything else I was able to repair roadside or ride the broken part back. At least twice I have broken seat rails. This means standing up for the rest of the ride, maybe just gently touch down. Had 3 seatposts break. One was an American Classic with the one bolt set screw adjusting the tilt. It broke when I was alone in the hills above Santa Barbara. I found a big ball bearing on the side of the road and was able to jam it in there so I could ride into town.

There were a lot more but most of these failures, if not all, would not have been prevented by maintenance.

CAT7RDR

Sounds like you put on a lot of miles and the stress/fatigue on parts is an unwelcomed outcome?
My only preventable mechanical failure that derailed a ride was a saddle assembly falling off the seat post over a wood bridge into the San Gabriel River below.

big john

I do and it is. I have never had a saddle fall into a river, though. One time a friend and I waded across a thigh-deep river when a road was washed out. I though I might get knocked over and was quite scared. We put our shoes in our pockets and both made it but my friend lost his frame pump.

prj71

When I put my summer bikes away last fall they were all working just fine. I've never gone over them in the spring. Just grab and go.

I too have never had to walk home.

NumbersGuy

I take care of my bike on a regular basis. If there are parts in need of overhaul in late winter before you start riding in the spring/summer then those parts probably should have been taken care of late summer or fall last year when you were ignoring them...

indyfabz

+1. I did two rides last year. The bike I rode hadn’t been ridden in almost a year. Some air in the tires and a little of the world’s best chain lube and it was good to go.

genejockey 

Nowadays, many clocks and watches change themselves, and smoke detectors now come with internal batteries that have 10 year service lives.

rydabent

At the other end of the spectrum are the guys I see riding that dont seem to have tube or tool one with them. What happen if they flat???

hazetguy 

didn't you already do this bit? https://www.bikeforums.net/general-c...nderstand.html

genejockey 

1) Borrow a tube from a stranger who will then become one of "the guys I see riding that dont seem to have tube". We had a discussion of this very thing, the Blanche DuBois-like dependence upon the kindness of strangers, some time back.

2) Call Of Shame. I have a coworker who does this and then takes the bike to the LBS to have them fix the flat. I can't imagine being that subject to the whims of fate, not to mention the whims of Mrs. GeneJockey, who might object to my expecting her to make up for my insufficiencies, at least to a greater extent than she already does.

genejockey 

"A couple of things I don't understand"

French. Physical Chemistry. How radio works. Why my Greyhound complains bitterly about his food and then wolfs it down.

prj71

I ride quite a bit more than that but...

I usually pick away (maintenance) at things here and there over the season as need and spot check a few things. If "now" is the time to prepare to get my bike ready for the summer season, that means I spent a whole season riding it and ignoring it.

I probably last rode my Trek Domane in October 2023. I'll grab it here soon and just start riding it without doing anything other than checking the tire pressure and lubing the chain. If nothing was wrong with the bike in October, nothing is going to be wrong with it now.

indyfabz

I usually do to. I became gravely ill at the end of 2022. (I was found near dead in my house around 7:00 pm on New Year's Eve.) Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. I didn't walk for over 2 months and didn't get to ride a bike until the fall. Managed two rides totaling 44 miles. Going to be in the 60s next week. Hoping to get back in the saddle again after inflating the tires and lubing the chain.

kinnessa60

agreed. I guess I have to prepare my body for summer because I got some good kgs during winter so I guess it is a time to start again riding the bike. Moreover I read recently here that u can brun a good amount of calories riding like 10 miles or more and it s nothing in compare to how much u can loose fats. So check me out in summer guys!