Maintaining your mountain bike is obviously a very important thing to preserve your bike.
In fact, if you do not consistently maintain your bike, you will see lots of problems and even cause serious damage.
So How much mountain bike maintenance costs? most average mountain bikes should cost you at least between 50 to 200 dollars a year to maintain, of course, it varies greatly depending on how you ride your bike and how often you ride.
In this tutorial, I will show you what you need to maintain your mountain bike and how to do it.
But before that, I need to answer some important questions you need to know the answers to.
What you need to maintain your mountain bike
- Clean your mountain bike
- Check the brakes
- Check your wheels
- Check both tires
- Check the cables
- Check the pedals
- Check out the lights and headlights
- Add lubricant
- Check the chain
- Check the grips and handlebars
Important Questions You Need to Know before starting to maintain your mountain bike
Why it is important to maintain your mountain bike? It is very important to maintain your mountain bike because it gives your bike a long life and even improves the performance.
On the other hand, if you do not consistently maintain your mountain bike, you will see a lot of serious problems in your mountain bike like rust, tire punctures, or all kinds of parts that fall apart.
How Much Does It Cost to Maintain My Mountain Bike? So Maintaining Your Bike Can Cost From $ 10 to Even $ 200 It All Depends on the Type of Mountain Bike You Have and How Much Time You Use them
If you use your bike daily, you will need to maintain your them many times in a year, which will cost you more money than someone who rarely uses his mountain bike.
How Long Does It Take to Maintain Mountain Bike? Maintaining your mountain bike is a very short process that only takes between 35 minutes to 40 minutes, but during the first few times you maintain your bike it will probably take longer until you have experience in maintaining your bike. Then it will start to be easier and take less time.
How Often Should I Maintain My Mountain Bike? You Should Maintain Your Mountain Bike At Least Once a Month But with this, it is quite dependent on your riding style and the amount of time you use your bike.
For example, if you ride on your mountain bike daily, you will need to maintain your at least before each ride. But with that, if you rarely use your mountain bike, you won’t need to maintain your bike so much.
In general, it’s all dependent how important it is that your mountain bike will support you safely.
Always remember the more often you maintain your mountain bike the longer it will last you.
How to Maintain a Mountain Bike( in 9 steps)
Cleaning your mountain bike is by far the most important thing you need to do to maintain your bike, and this is the best way you can your mountain bike will last for a long time.
It is very important to clean your bike properly in order to prevent rust and also to keep them clean.
To clean your mountain bike, you will need water, a rag, and soap.
In general, you should clean just your wheels with soap and then rinse off the plastic parts.
Also, you should use the Rust Inhibitor to ensure that your mountain bike doesn’t rust. I personally use this Rust Inhibitor from Amazon.
I was surprised to see the cheap price of the rust Inhibitor on Amazon. Click here to view
And after you finish cleaning your mountain bike, you need to let it dry for a few minutes.
1. Check the brakes
Checking your mountain bike’s brakes is a very important thing because if you will be riding at a very high speed and you did not have brakes to stop, you would lose control of the bike very easily and could have a very serious accident.
Because of that, it’s very important to check that your mountain bike brakes work prior to every time you ride on your mountain bike.
To test your mountain bike brakes, you need to stand in front of your bike and hold the handlebars and press your brakes as you pull your mountain bike towards you.
If the front wheel does not move it means your brakes are working, but if the wheel and turns around it means your brakes are not working and you need to repair your brakes.
2. Check your wheels
You will need to make sure that your wheels are smooth and stable before each ride.
To make sure your wheels work well, you need to flip your mountain bike, hold your wheels and rotate them, making sure they rotate smoothly, so you will be comfortable when you are riding.
Also, you need to make sure that your wheels are stable and not swinging so that they do not fall apart in the middle of riding; if they’re swinging, you’ll need to tighten the screws that hold the wheels.
In addition, you will generally need to tighten the screws consistently to get the maximum performance from your wheels.
3. Check both tires.
Your mountain bike’s tires give you more stability than regular tires would when you ride, and also allow you to ride on all kinds of surfaces like sand, mud, rocks, and more.
Additionally, the tires give you a lot more comfort while riding and they significantly lower the vibrations you receive back from the ground.
Also, you will need to check that your mountain bike’s tires each have the proper amount of pressure.
During this process, you should look for any tears or cuts on your tires; if you find you have injury to your tire you need to replace it – even if you have just a small cut, because this can cause to your tire to tear apart while riding, which can be very dangerous.
Also, you need to inflate your tire, so it is tight to the ground and strong in the field.
If your tire is not inflated properly that can create a problem very easily and it would also be very uncomfortable to ride with an underinflated tire.
4. Check the cables.
In general, your mountain bike cable is made from curved metal wire that is inside the plastic casing, and its job is to connect the bearings and brakes to the handlebars to help shift speed gears easily.
To check your mountain bike cables, you will need to check that it does not have any cracks, dirt, or rust in the cables.
Also, you need to shift between gears and see that the cables transmit well and easily between the different gears in the bike.
If it is difficult for you to move between gears, I strongly recommend that you grease the cables so that the cables are smooth.
In addition,
you need to replace the cables every 2 to 5 years.
It all depends on how much time you ride on your bike and how many times you
maintain your mountain bike in a year.
5. Check the pedals.
You need to make sure your pedals are working properly.
Check your two pedals by rotating them. They should rotate easily and freely and have no signs of rust. Make sure that they do not make a strange noise.
If the pedals are not rotating smoothly you will need to rub oil on them.
6. Check out the lights and headlights.
If you are going to ride at night on your mountain bike, you will have to have good flashlights that illuminate the road properly.
In fact, the job of headlights is to illuminate your path and you so that other drivers can see you at night.
To make sure the headlights are working you need to turn the lights off and on several times, and if they are not working you will need to buy new headlights.
7. Add lubricant.
The job of oil lubricant is to help the parts work more efficiently – mainly the chain, but many other parts that are found on your bike, as well. This also extends the life of your mountain bike.
Also, I personally use the WD-40 lubricant regularly which works perfectly for my mountain bike. If you want to buy it, it is available now on Amazon at a very cheap price: click here to view on Amazon.
To use the lubricant on your mountain bike, you need to start to smear all the moving parts, and when you’re done you should let your mountain bike dry.
8. Check the chain
A chain is one of the most important things you need to maintain in your mountain bike because they are responsible for all the riding activity and it can be very dangerous as they tear up in the middle of riding.
In order to check the chain, you have to start to turn it around and check it. It turns around easily if the chain not too tight and worn. If it is tense and worn, you need to replace it.
But with this, mountain bike chains usually last for a long time and you only have to replace them about every 2 to 5 years; it all depends on the type of riding you do.
9. Grips and handlebars
Your handlebars and grips are very important things that you must pay attention to before any riding.
In fact, the handlebar’s job is to keep you steady and also help you choose the path you want to ride.
In order to check your handlebars, you need to move it from side to side and check that it is stable and does not make strange noises.
If you feel that your handlebars are a little loose, you need to tighten the screws with a screwdriver.
In order to check the grips, you need to hold them tight and check that the rubber is comfortable and has no tears.
Uncomfortable rubber can cause very serious blisters on the hand especially if you ride without gloves.
Summary
In this tutorial, I have shown you what you need to maintain on your mountain bike and how to do it.
Also, if you want to see some more examples of how to maintain a mountain bike, I highly recommend that you watch this video. Thanks for riding until next time