Basic Mountain Bike Maintenance Benefits
Doing Simple Maintenance Yourself Saves
Your mountain bike should be race-ready at all times and therefore maintained as such. This means constant love and attention after each and every outing. The level of care required to be at this level through a shop would be extremely expensive, not to mention time and labor intensive. The dynamic rider needs to know how to perform basic level of maintenance on their machine to reduce the overall level of resources required to ride. As you become more involved in the sport, your equipment may upgrade accordingly. More advanced equipment requires more attention and will often have more intricate parts or design. To keep these assemblies performing at their best, they demand your time and love. Learn how basic mountain bike maintenance will help you be a better rider.
Benefits Of Being Able To Successfully Maintain Your Mountain Bike
Increased Safety
Safer riding is always a huge factor. The safer the better. We may take some calculated risks when biking, but mitigating the larger ones with due diligence is always a great thing. A well-maintained bike is much safer to ride than one that hasn’t seen a wrench in two or three seasons. Similarly, when parts do finally start to wear, you will see this long before it is an issue. If you have a small leak in a brake line that hasn’t been an issue, you know to replace it before it becomes a problem. This includes tires, chains, sprockets, gear sets and almost every other part on the machine. Basic mountain bike maintenance will lead to increased safety for you and others around you.
You Understand Your Bike Better
You know your bike the best as you are the one who rides it. The conditions it is subjected to and how it is treated are things you are able to witness as they happen. It is you who knows the machine, it’s quirks, behavior and how it feels better than anyone else. Knowing how each component and assembly interacts within the system as a whole is important. You gain this understanding through basic mountain bike maintenance because you know how to fix it. Being able to quickly diagnose an issue on the fly and what that means down the line of operation is important.
Know How To Repair On The Trail
When things go wrong away from your toolbox you need to know what to do. Knowing your bike well means you can understand how a simple repair can be improvised with what you have on you. This knowledge of how the basics work will lend itself to minimized frustration when you need to fix things and are 20 miles from the car or house. This knowledge is a requirement anyway if you are serious.
Extend The Life Of Your Components & Equipment
Basic cleaning and maintenance means that wear and tear on parts is minimized. Regular cleaning and oiling equates to less friction and less wear on parts as they operate. Less stress on bearings or chains results in reduced wear and degradation at a slower rates. You can keep metal in better condition when it is cleaned and free of dirt or debris that would otherwise lead to corrosion.
Saves Money
If you know how to perform the basics, you no longer need to pay someone else to. That means no more trips to and from the shop. You aren’t going to wait for a shop to complete repairs. The time you take away from this end equals more time out riding.
Start Learning!
As intelligent creatures we never stop learning throughout our lives. Be smart, start to learn basic maintenance and you can realize these benefits quickly. Simply knowing how your bike works will help you to become more in tune with it and a better rider overall. Don’t let shops fleece you for $80-150 tune ups that you can do at home in an hour or two. Decide to learn simple tube changes and tire mounting for when you eventually get a flat. Stay ahead of the game and make intelligent decisions when riding.
