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Where
should I lube my bike and how often?
A drop of oil or grease
in the right place ensures that your bike's various mechanisms
move as they should. And keep on doing so 2-to-3 times longer
than unkempt components.
A guide to lubricating the bike:
a.
Brakes - Front and Back
Lubricate all moving parts. Wipe any oil spillage off the wheel
rims with degreaser or hot soapy water
Lubed cables make
for smooth-working brakes. Running a lightly lubed rag over
all exposed cable every few months helps ward off corrosion.
Lube is especially crucial at those high-friction zones where
the cables exit the levers and housings.
At least once a year,
remove the cables from their housing. If there is any sign of
wearing or fraying, replace the cables. Otherwise, grease the
sections of the cables that are enclosed in housing, then refit.
Remove V-brakes or
cantilevers (found on most mountain bikes and hybrids) once
or twice a year to regrease the frame's brake bosses.
b. Gears
Lubricate the pivot points and all moving parts of your front
and rear mechs approximately once a month (for a bike in regular
use) or after cleaning.
As with the brakes, gear performance depends upon lubed cables.
Pay particular attention to where the cable enters and exits
the cable guides such as under the bottom bracket. Running a
lightly lubed rag over the exposed cable helps ward off corrosion.
If your bike has
slotted cable guides (most modern bikes do), you can lube the
whole length of the gear inner without having to undo the cable.
Here's how. Shift
the gear to the largest cog and chainring. Then without turning
the cranks, change gear as you would if you were shifting to
the smallest cog and chainring. This introduces enough slack
to make it easy to unship the cable housing from its slotted
guide. You can then slide the housing out of the way and treat
the now revealed inner cable to a replenishing shot of lube.
(If you have a Shimano Rapid Rise rear gear such as a Nexave,
the cable is at its highest tension on the smallest gear so
here, you would shift the chain to the smallest rear cog, then
shift the lever as you would if you were changing to the biggest
cog - again without pedaling forward so the chain stays put
and the cable goes slack enough to pull it out of its housing.)
c. Hubs Front
and Rear
Don't oil hubs (unless it's a Sturmey Archer-style internal
gear hub). Oil might wash out the grease - your bearings' life
blood. Instead, strip the hub once or twice a year. Clean everything
and reassemble with fresh grease. New ball bearings are not
expensive, so replace them if they show the slightest sign of
wear.
d. Bottom Bracket
Traditional ball-and-cone-style bottom brackets should get by
with an annual overhaul - 11 new quarter-inch ball bearings
and fresh grease on each side.
Most
better bikes (around £250-up) now come fitted with a sealed
cartridge bottom bracket. Sealed bottom brackets require no
maintenance and usually last for years. When the sealed bottom
bracket does eventually wear out (you'll feel the play) replace
the whole unit.
Whether it's sealed
or ball-and-cone, you can 'kill' a bottom bracket with overzealous
use of the jet spray hose or the can of WD40, so once your bottom
bracket is fitted, leave well alone.
Lubricating
the Chain
Keeping the chain oiled
will triple it's useful life. Running a worn-out chain will halve
the life of anything it touches - the cogs, chainrings and jockey
wheels.
What to do: Inspect the chain every week and look for a
nice silky finish as on the chain below. If the chain has lost
it's silky look and takes on a highly polished chrome look, you
have left it too long. If it turns to brown (rust) you have definitely
left it too long.
As a rule of thumb,
if you are a year-round cyclist, lubricate your chain at least
once a week in the rainy season(s), and once a month when it's
dry. Plus make a habit of lubing the chain every time you get
home from a rainy ride.
X-Lite or Scottoiler
FS365 water-dispersing bike spray is especially handy here.
Chain lube frequency
depends on whether you use a dry lube or a wet lube. Dry lube
is much cleaner but washes off more easily. Wet lube hangs on
longer. Many of us reserve our dry lube for the summer and switch
to a wet lube such as Finish
Line Cross Country in winter.
The best way to lube
the chain is to slip into top gear (big chainring/small rear cog).
Then, while slowly backpedalling, drip or spray the lube till
every chain link is oiled. Run through all the gears to distribute
the lube over the sprockets, and to help it penetrate the chain's
rollers.
Whenever you lubricate
any part of the bike, allow the lube to penetrate, then wipe off
the excess with a dry cloth. Beware that too much lube is almost
as bad as too little. Excess oil attracts dirt, and that kind
of defeats the purpose of keeping the bike clean and lubed.
Seatpost and
stem
An unlubricated seatpin
can seize inside the frame. When this happens, it might not budge
should you ever want to alter your saddle height or replace the
seatpin. To avoid this disaster, the wise cyclist occasionally
(once a year will do) removes and greases the length of seatpin
that's hidden inside the frame.
Same with the handlebar
stem if it's the quill type. Grease the stalk which is inserted
inside the fork once a year.
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Quill
stem
The stalk that's inserted inside the fork steerer should
be greased.
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Aheadstem
This type of stem has been superseding the traditional quill
stem since the early 1990s. Clamped over the fork steerer,
rather than inserted into it, no grease is required.
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