Mountain Bike Maintenance Keeps the Bike on the Trail

When it comes to the subject of mountain bike maintenance, there are quite a few things that you need to take into consideration. Although the specific mountain bike maintenance that you will have to conduct will vary, depending on the particular type of bike that you have, there are a few basics which you will have to remember regardless.

There are a few things that you should always remember to do in order to keep your mountain bike running smoothly, for instance maintaining your bike chain. Because your bike chain is constantly exposed to dirt and stress, it is one of the parts of your bike that gets the most wear.

You want to give it a checkup at the start of every season so that you can ensure it is clean and working smoothly. The tools you will need are a chain tool, shallow pan and small stiff brush. You will want to use some environmental friendly grime cleaner to remove all the gunk from the chain.

All you need to do to remove the chain from the bicycle, is to simply put the chain into the chain tool, crank until the pin is almost but not quite out (easy does it!) and then simply pull the two ends of the chain apart. The pin will be sticking out but that is OK as you will do the opposite to put the chain back together.

Other mountain bike maintenance chores include checking your tires and rims. Deep gashes in the tires are just asking for a blowout on your next trail ride. Make sure that your rims are true. If not you will simply need to take the wheel off the bike and put it in a truing stand. Using a spoke wrench you can bring the wheel back into it's proper alignment. If this is too difficult then you will want to take it in to the bike shop. This type of maintenance is important.

By making yourself informed and knowledgeable on general mountain bike maintenance, you will not only be ensuring your own safety and making mountain biking more convenient on yourself overall, but as well will be saving yourself a great deal of money. You definitely do not want to go mountain biking far in the wilderness and not know how to fix your bike if something happens to it, and so making sure that you know at least the basics before heading out is truly crucial.

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