Bicycle Maintenance: Keep Your Bike Looking Beautiful

Have you ever been to an antique shop and marveled at the old bikes that were for sale? Chances are, those bikes are faded and rusted. Or, perhaps they are in pristine condition, and are being sold for hundreds of dollars? If you are an aficionado of bikes, then you probably know that keeping them in excellent condition over the years can lead to them increasing in value. If you did not know this, then you should think about the basics of bicycle maintenance.

About Bicycle Maintenance

The first thing that you should do when it comes to bicycle maintenance is to check, at least monthly, that all of the screws are tightened on the bike. You do not want to be riding your bike and find it start to fall apart because some of the screws were not tight enough! The entire screw tightening procedure might have to be done more often if you rider your bike(s) frequently.

The next thing that you have to check, whether you ride your bike or not, is the amount of air in the tires. This form of bicycle maintenance is among the most common things that have to be checked. Perhaps you ride your bike frequently during hot weather. If so, the air in the tires starts to dissolve faster. Regardless, a bike that has not been used for a while will also lose air.

If you check the air in your bicycle tires regularly, but still find yourself losing air, then you might have to replace the tire. There is also a chance, if there is only a small hole in the tire, that you can repair the hole using a special serum. Regardless, make sure that you have a bicycle pump or air compressor for this aspect of bicycle maintenance.

Another thing that you will want to check, especially if you own a mountain bike, is the hand breaks. If the hand breaks go while you are riding your bike, you could become seriously injured. Now, if this is something that you do not know how to do yourself, you can always bring your bicycle to a bike repair shop.

If you ride your bike quite frequently through rugged terrain, chances are that you have broken a couple of spokes at least once. Spokes are the many metal thin connectors that run along the inner perimeter of the wheel. Sometimes, thing will get caught in the spokes, and thus end up breaking the chain that propels the wheels. Make sure that the spokes are kept in excellent condition to keep your bike lasting longer.

For more information on bicycle maintenance, go to your local bike repair store and ask how you can do some of the maintenance yourself. You can also ask friends who are avid cyclists how they maintain their bikes. Lastly, there are reputable sites on the internet that can help as well, so with the proper research, you will have the bike maintenance knowledge to keep your bike in excellent condition for a long time.