Hey /n/, I'm a novice cyclist who commutes by bike, and

>>985462
Get a chain stretch tool and change that bitch when it wears.

Clean and lube the chain every 150 miles or so, more often in wet/snowy/salty conditions. Check the chain for wear every 500 miles or so, and replace that as required. New chainrings and cassette every few chains

Service your hubs (if cup & cone) every 1000 miles or so

Check the brake pads for wear about once a month, bleed as required

New cable housing once a year, this is usually a good time to put on new bar tape

You'll probably want a repair stand if you do a decent amount of mileage, repair and maintenance intervals are more frequent for commuters than for prissy princess roadies who stay inside and play with their roller trainers when it's cloudy and grey out. Road salt especially doesn't give a shit about grease and lube, so stuff like sealed bearings are going to give out more often than you'll be led to believe

OP here, I've also I've noticed some screws and nuts rusting on my bike, should I remove those and replace ASAP?

>>985467
>>985469
Thanks. I'll see what I can learn about my bikes and apply your advice as I can. Road salt was definitely an issue this winter so I might need to do some work in that regard.

>>985462
>down tube
what kind of downtube did this?

>>985469
> service hubs every 1000 miles
> new cable housings every year
> new bar tape every year
> lube every 150 miles

wtf? I wouldn't follow the advice of this anon, except you want to spend time with your bike and learn to get to know your bike better. The intervals anon suggested are just too short imo

What is your commute like? Weather and route?

- You don't need new cable housings every year, that is complete bs. If function is deteriorating, oil the cables. If it still won't work, replace. Housing can work for years. It depends on how much and under which circumstances they are used and how you store your bike.

- Replacing bar tape every year on a commuter is also not necessary. It's a commuter not a beauty contestant. Replace when necessary (you decide when)

- Cup & Cone hubs run for thousands of miles if the bearings are properly adjusted and lubricated. You don't need to open them every 1000 miles. You could check every 1000 miles whether the bearings are too tight / loose by taking out the wheel and feeling how the bearings run (you will instantly feel if the bearing are too loose / tight)

- Don't lube your chain when it is new. Just clean it. You cannot buy lube that is better than the stuff your chain comes with. Every lube you put on your chain dilutes the orignal lube and washes dirt inside the chain.
You can wait until your chain becomes noisier, then add lube but only sparingly.

- Rusty screws and nuts are only a cosmetic problem. You can, however, use grease to protect the thread (or Loctite where safety is important) so you can get the screws out again.

>>985471
Some parts of the bike are going to be susceptible to rust. Particularly the axle lock nuts and spacers. I just apply a thin coating of grease to keep the water from making them rust.

Fender bolts also have a habit of rusting if for some crazy reason the company chose not to use stainless ones. I'd only replace a bolt if the head was rusty enough that a hex tool doesn't fit properly. Just clean and add a little grease.

>>985473
Fuckin downtubes not even knowing how to spell downtube, when will they fucking learn?

>>985526
>I'd only replace a bolt if the head was rusty enough that a hex tool doesn't fit properly.
This is too late. If you let it reach that state you're gonna have a hell of a time replacing it.

Captcha now wants me to identify statues.

>>985516
>don't service your bike because everyone's bike still has the factory lube and I never go outside as you can see from my pristine cable housing and the whiskers are still on my tires

>>985585
There is no need to replace cable housings or bar tape unless they're worn.

Chains have the best lube when they come out of factory. If you only ride in dry clean tarmac roads there really shouldn't be need to lube your chain unless it starts making noise.

On wet/snowy conditions the situation is different and your chain needs lubing more often. Even then it's important to remove any excess lube from the chain so that it doesn't gather dirt.

Keeping your bike clean will significantly extend the life of your components. Will also make your bike look much better.

>his tires had whiskers when they were new
Pleb tier tires

>>985585
No, I just wanted to make a point against what anon posted as maintenance advice.

If OP wants to, he can follow anons advice. If not, he can choose to follow mine or find a mix of both or whatnot.

If the advice was to replace stuff on your bike that doesn't need replacing because *muh principle* without regard to the component's actual state, I would offer different advice.

>>985607
Your advice is bad though. You should never drip lube into cable housing except as an emergency measure like if you're on tour or something and it starts to seize. It's just going to get gummed up and make the problem worse. Replace the damm housing, cable housing is cheap.

>that doesn't need replacing
>*muh principle*

Well now we're just getting into splitting hairs over "principle". A 4 season bike is going to see faster wear. Obviously, 1000 summer miles and 1000 winter miles are different, perhaps I should have pointed that out but you'd think it goes without saying. If your wheels are going through salty road slush every day all winter with twice a day wild temperature swings between indoors and outdoors, the grease is going to be fucked and a 1000 mile hub service is smart maintenance. Hell of a lot easier than a rebuild.

And, in my opinion, if you're at a point where you're ripping out your tape to put in new cable housing, it's just going to look like ass when you put it back on there. Why not "splurge" on $15 bar tape? I have to look at that tape and put my hands on it every day, and I'd rather have it look presentable to me, and to my coworkers who have to look at my bike all day in the hallway. Some of it is also about self respect and bicycle advocacy. Walking in and out of an office building with a homeless man bike with grease-gunked cables and ratty falling apart bar tape is not giving "bike to work" a good name. It just spreads the message that cycling is for dirtbags who don't have their shit together.

Sure you could just let everything go to shit and until the hub seizes and your shifters stop working it's going to be "ok" and, while we're at it, no one really NEEDS bar tape, but come on.

>>985621
> context makes a difference
That's why I asked OP about his commute, which you didn't.

> greas gunked cables
> let everything go to shit
> no self respect
Oh boy, there is no middle gound for you is there? Just go and lube your chain.

>>986029
>That's why I asked OP about his commute, which you didn't.
Well, I kind of figured by "commutes by bike" we were talking about a person who has a home on one end, and a job on the other, and in at least one of those two places it's possible to do maintenance. That's why I answered the way I did. I can see how one might have assumed he was a nomadic herdsman in Xinjiang and that stuff like cable housing and bar tape cost more than a year's income, in which case dripping yak butter into the cable housing after morning tea might be a better solution. And also, having shiny things might be seen as an ostentatious display of wealth, so best to have everything caked in black grease.

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>>986047

OP here

>>985516
well I guess I should say what I have for bikes. Maybe that will help.

>exercise/"fun" bike

'76 Fuji Special Tourer I got from a thrift shop last september. Had it looked at by a local bike shop before riding it, so been 10 months since it had any real maintenance done, aside from a front derailleur I had to replace. Aside from that derailleur and the front tire it appears to all be stock. I only ride it for fun, so I've put maybe 100-200 miles on it.

>commuter bike, ride to work/around town

2015 Giant Cypress, got it for Christmas last year. Came brand new, I've put probably around 300 miles on it between work and running errands. Rode it through ice and salt this winter, and probably could have done a better job maintaining it through that, but it doesn't seem to have any issues. Everything beyond some topeak rear panniers (with mount) is stock.

I've not really checked either machine, in part because I don't know what to look for, hence why I started this thread. Hope this helps clarify my situation.

>>986730
oh yeah, and for commute, well I'm not working as of 3 weeks ago, but before it was 2.5 miles there and back across asphalt roads, in varying condition. Some freshly paved, some broken up (didn't hit any potholes), some icy, some clean. Rode through rain a few times, rode through ice and salted roads a few times as well. Most of my riding was through temperate days in the spring and sunny summer days.

>>986079
Hay there!

>>985469
what do you mean by 'bleed as required'?

I checked my pads the other day and noticed flecks of metal in them (whenever I brake it makes a terrible scraping noise). How do I prevent this sort of thing? At what point should I completely replace my pads?

>>989899
Meaning when they're spongy and not giving good modulation, you bleed them.

Noise has nothing to do with the fluid levels, sounds like contamination although some pads are just naturally noisier. Could also be poor setup causing uneven contact on the rotor.

>>989899
>flecks of metal
They're supposed to and that's what does the braking. The resin is only a binding agent to keep the soft metal debris in place. An all resin pad would have terrible serivce life and poor braking properties. Sintered metal pads don't have any resin at all but are crushed and baked into a stable form.

Screeching is almost always some form of grease/oil/wax/soap contamination. Don't spray detergent anywhere near the brakes when cleaning, and make sure none of the splash lands there either. You can try spraying liberal amounts of disc brake cleaner over the rotors and the pads to start with. Let it drip off, dry out and go for a short ride. If it's not gone after the ride or comes back after a few more we can start investigating a contamination source.